Roland sp-540 that quits printing black

[tgpros]

We have a sp-540 that has been very reliable until recently. It has stopped printing black until you suck some more ink through on the pump side to reprime. We have had the following problems with the black: A couple months back out vendor accidentally supplied us with a exo sol max 2 instead of regular Eco sol max. The printer took the cartridge without complaint but did not print. To get it to reprint we had to flush and flush the lines with a regular black cart afterwards.


Then hen after that we got a black ink cart (different vendor) which insisted it was empty when it had over half it's ink still in the cart. After several tries to print and it kept saying it was empty even though it kept printing....we threw this cart away.


Now now after the printer sits it will not print black until we do the syringe reprime. After that it will print happily on the black for awhile but eventually will stop again. We cannot leave it on overnight because of this.


Thoughts? Remedies?


no other colors do it. Only black.

 

[player]

Sounds like a damper issue to me.

 

[Dakotagrafx]

I betting on bad cap top - not sealing

 

[tgpros]

I thought captops were same as dampers? Difference?

 

[tgpros]

Since it is a shared head though with 2 colors if it is a captop wouldn't both colors be affected and not just the black???

 

[player]

I thought captops were same as dampers? Difference?

Caps seal the heads from the bottom. Dampers sit on top of the heads and have a small reservoir of ink plus a screen filter. Sounds to me like the seal on the damper is not good.

Your machine is level?

 

[tgpros]

That sounds about right. It runs until the reservoir is depleted. It is sitting as level as our building will allow. Which is to say probably 90-95%

is that something that I should replace or is their a chance the filter needs to be cleaned?

i have a service manual but if someone has a great video link on how to do this it would be much appreciated.

 

[player]

You have to be very careful not to crack or break the plastic tube coming off the head. It is very easy to break. Also you can't spill any ink on the circuit board.

If you are not experienced perhaps it would be a good time to call your Roland tech in for a service call?

 

[alevye]

SP-540 Quits printing black

Hello. One question: when you do the syringe reprime or pull ink from the cap using a syringe, did you see air in the syringe or hear some air in the Print Head - Cap area? If so, you can have problem with 3 things: Cap, Damper or Head Manifold

First test I would do is to interchange the dampers in the same head (the right with left one and viceversa) then pull again with the Syringe and do a normal cleaning. If the problem moves to the other channel, you have a problem with the damper possible. If the problem stays in the same channel, then could be a leak in your manifold (the pin that connects to the damper is a little bit broken and there is an air leak). This happens a lot if you play a lot with the dampers.

Check this first and let me know. I think the problem would be the damper because it probably got clogged with the other ink

Regards

 

[player]

First test I would do is to interchange the dampers in the same head (the right with left one and viceversa) then pull again with the Syringe and do a normal cleaning. If the problem moves to the other channel, you have a problem with the damper possible. If the problem stays in the same channel, then could be a leak in your manifold (the pin that connects to the damper is a little bit broken and there is an air leak). This happens a lot if you play a lot with the dampers.
Regards

The sp540v has only 4 colours on 2 heads so I definitely would not put the black damper on the yellow head. I recommend not doing any of this damper swapping.

Get a new Roland damper.