Roland BN-20 – Accidentally put Canon pigment magenta into refillable eco-solvent cartridge – looking for advice on where to start

[Myster Enigma]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping for some advice from people who have experience with the Roland BN-20 and ink-system issues.

I have a Roland BN-20 and I use refillable cartridges with eco-solvent ink. This is the first time I've ever made this particular mistake.

I accidentally filled my magenta refillable cartridge with Canon magenta pigment ink. I realised what I'd done fairly quickly and emptied the cartridge as thoroughly as I could. I then refilled the cartridge with the correct magenta eco-solvent ink.

Unfortunately, I don't have any spare/refillable cartridges available at the moment, so I can't simply swap in a known-good magenta cartridge to eliminate the cartridge as a possible cause.

What happened afterwards​

Initially, the printer seemed okay, but the nozzle check subsequently developed significant dropout.

The current nozzle check is roughly:

• Cyan: all nozzles appear good.
• Yellow: one of the two yellow nozzle patterns is completely missing.
• Magenta: one of the two magenta patterns is completely missing.
• Magenta: the other pattern has a large number of missing lines, although some nozzles are still firing.
• Black: a few missing lines, but otherwise appears reasonably good.

I have run several medium and powerful cleaning cycles.

Interestingly, after running a medium clean, some of the magenta nozzles did come back on the affected magenta pattern. So it isn't completely dead — there is still some ink firing from that section.

I also performed a manual clean earlier.

At the moment, I can get an acceptable print if I change the print settings to:

• Speed: Standard
• Preset: Max Impact
• Individual ink levels:
  • Cyan: -5
  • Black: -5
  • Yellow: +5
  • Magenta: +5

This produces an acceptable print, although obviously it is considerably slower than my normal settings.

My normal settings were Draft 2 / Pre Press General.

My concern​

I'm worried that there may now be some of the Canon pigment ink, or a mixture of pigment and eco-solvent ink, still somewhere in the magenta ink system — potentially the refillable cartridge, ink line, damper and/or printhead.

I don't know whether the yellow dropout is related or whether that is a separate issue.

I'm also aware that repeatedly running powerful cleans probably isn't a good idea, especially if I'm not actually addressing the underlying contamination.

I currently don't have spare cartridges to test with, although I can obtain replacements if that is the best place to start.

Where should I start?​

Given the above, what would you experienced BN-20 users recommend?

Would you:

1. Replace the magenta refillable cartridge with a completely new one first?
2. Try to purge/flush the magenta ink line?
3. Replace/check the damper?
4. Perform a more thorough manual cleaning of the cap/wiper/head area?
5. Use cleaning/flush solution through the ink system?
6. Investigate the yellow channel separately?
7. Or take a completely different approach?

Most importantly, is it likely that the printhead can still be saved if pigment ink has made its way into the magenta ink path?

I don't want to make the situation worse by blindly running more powerful cleans or flushing something incorrectly.

I've attached a photo of the current nozzle check for reference as well as a before photo. Strangely enough the 2nd photo shows that the magenta nozzle got better on it's own without me running a head clean. The nozzles are still missing a full magenta and full yellow
.
I'd really appreciate advice on where you would start diagnosing this, particularly from anyone who has dealt with accidental incompatible ink contamination on a BN-20 before.

Thanks!

 

[hybriddesign]

Hi, hopefully others can chime in but you're likely:
-cleaning or replacing that reusable cart, if cleaning you're cleaning using some sort of solvent cleaning solution and trying to get all remnants of ink out of there. It might be better to get a new ink bag to go in the cartridge versus trying to clean it.
-flush the ink line with solvent ink cleaner / flushing liquid
-new damper for sure
-flush the head's magenta channel with solvent cleaner and a syringe. I don't know the head layout on a BN-20 though so I'm not sure how hard that is to do but basically flush through whatever nipple the magenta damper is sitting on.

It sounds like you have ink sitting around so you might do a quick mix of pigment and solvent and see if there is any reaction. We once mixed dye sub ink and solvent ink and it coagulated almost immediately and we had to replace the head as there was no way we were flushing it out.

Tai

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

Yes, I would immediately pull the ink line at the head joint and flushed it out with cleaning solution. As far as the head goes, I would first hook up to the manifold and pull from the head to get anything out of it before pushing anything through it.
In fact for pulling you can put the head in a shallow dish with some cleaning solution and pull backwards.
then yes push through with cleaning solution. You can actually see all the 180 nozzles and tell if the head is going to work, if the sprayer sprayed down. If the head has deflected nozzles, the spray coming out of the head it will be going all over the place.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Thank you both for your detailed responses. I will have to try these methods out. In terms of timing as I am away for the weekend, how much time do you think I have to do this. For example if I left it longer than a week will it be too late to act? I will definitely do as you guys suggest but as I have to order a new damper which will take a few days and cleaning solution I won't be able to do much until they arrive.

Thank you

 

[netsol]

it should have been done immediately, in a perfect world

rather than wait additional days for delivery you might consider flushing the whole thing with 91% isopropyl
waiting days makes it unlikely this will be a success

 

[Foremander]

I wouldn't wait for the weekend to be over, go to the shop right away and clean it out with lots of cleaning solution

 

[garyroy]

One of the risks of using 3rd party inks.
I'd put a flush cartridge in right away and pull it slow and gentle though the line and head if possible. Then put an original magenta ink in see what you get.

 

[netsol]

so, it would be better if he was using original magenta ink & accidently put a different chemistry in?
the hell you say!

and right away was friday

 

[premiercolour]

How's the situation now? Ill see if I could put in my help.