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New Printhead?

danjuan

New Member
Hi guys

I'm posting here coz i'm a complete tool and knackered my printhead.

I've got a Roland VS-640i, basically i tried changing my dampers as the white ink was not coming through. So I attempted to change the damper, I thought I might as well do all 4 seeing as i'm doing it anyway, and ink went everywhere, all the guides and videos in the world did not prepare me for it, it kept dripping and dripping and i got myself in such a state I couldn't remember where i put everything and the towels just got soaked and ended up going through to what was underneath.

My head was half filled up with ink, i had it on the cables where i was panicking and I tried to keep the cables out the way, on the top of the board a little dripped and the ink got on to the head board as well.

So after cleaning everything up as best I could, the print nozzle test was poor as expected, the more tests i printed the worse it got, to a point that I get nothing anymore.

I had a tech come round and he suspects it's not a printhead (well at first) as I was getting a nozzle pattern, but as i'm not getting anything now he does suspect a printhead.

He's syringed the capping station while the head was on it and he can pull ink through ok, so he doesnt think it's blocked, more the actual board on the head that's damaged.

The thing is nothing is guaranteed, he says it the boards, but it well could be the carriage board or even the main board.

Can anyone help with any tests I can perform to see?

I don't want to fork out on a printhead if it's a board and vice versa, the printer is only a year old.
 

Dizimoto

New Member
I knackered a head (dx4) on my Mimaki. Messing about cleaning I got solvent on the Ribbon Cable which ran down to the head board. Nozzle print started to fade more and more until nothing.... sounds like you might have done the same
 

Ragnabrok

New Member
i find the boards to be pretty binary, they work or they don't. Having the head firing at least something is a good sign. The VS and XR series printers ink lines are hard to fill up after they've been emptied... remember when it was installed? its like 45 minutes of pumps clacking away.

Choke clean in the service menu is a good way to fill the lines, especially the white/metallic lines with the recirc loop in them. It's also a good ink line seal indicator, if after you open the valve when prompted, you don't hear/see ink cascading into the waste bottle, something is wrong.
 

danjuan

New Member
Thanks guys to replying.

@dizimoto, what you described sound like exactly what I've done, I just can't work out why a little ink could completely destroy a board.

@ragnabrok, the tech did multiple cleans and a choke clean and can confirm is is coming through, he confirms this by manually sucking air from the capping station.

looks as though it need a new head, don't suppose anyone's got a spare £2500 they don't mind giving me lol
 
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