Roland sp300 printing fault with Vertical lines

[chrisbuxton]

Hi.. im a newbie and desperate for some experienced help..

I recently bought s/hand sp-300 from dealer just serviced with 2 new print heads.. installed and working great.
New business so hardly used at the minute (no more than 3 sq m printed) so as it has been converted to use activosol i have had to keep switching on and performing head cleaning every few days to stop heads drying out.

I now have a print fault where it has vertical lines in 3 places down the print in the same place everytime. When i say in the same place i mean in the same place relevent to the heated base plate. you can move the media around and move the image on the media but the lines stay at the same position to the heated base plate.

I tried using different images, media, computer, software. Resetting sp-300 to factory and re-configuring again.. nothing works the lines are still there.
The lines seem to show the lack of blue or black and about 2mm wide varying in colour depending on colours in the image.

Also doing a print test i now get black lines in the blue grid as shown in image.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[J Hill Designs]

try cleaning the encoder strip

 

[chrisbuxton]

Thanks for the fast reply..

Excuse my ignorance but where do i find the encoder strip.. is there anywhere i can get a service manual to do basic cleaning and testing..

User manual is pretty useless

 

[chrisbuxton]

Just found this.....

The encoder strip is a thin piece of plastic film right behind the wire that pulls the head back and forth. Use a soft lint free cloth and be careful not to scratch the strip.

Will try it tomorrow and see if it works although if the machine had been serviced properly it shouldnt need cleaning.. tut!

Thanks for advice will update tomorrow

 

[J Hill Designs]

well, sometimes crud just gets up there...

 

[chrisbuxton]

Results

I removed the encoder strip to find that the film was worn away at the areas where the printheads do the test prints and cleaning processes.

So i made new guide holes for the clamps to turn it upside down using a fine soldering iron, cleaned it up re-calabrated the machine and now its printing perfectly. Cost £0

Thanks a million for the advice!!

 

[veloxgraphics]

The black in the blue is likely due to a bad damper on the blue line. It's siphoning black ink back into the blue side of the head. The blue/black head on the SP machines are a PITA imo... since it looks like it's only on one end of the head i'd venture to guess that you arent getting a good, full seal around the blue/black head against the capping station.

Change dampers, change the cap-tops or have the Roland rep that sold you the unit adjust the capping station so it's capping level to the head.

 

[chrisbuxton]

Thanks netfryer for your reply.

It is printing Black instead of blue both ends of the head on a test print.

Does that change your opinion of the fault?

 

[veloxgraphics]

Just looking at the photo of your test print... it's siphoned black ink into the blue nozzles closest to you as you stand in front of the printer. It makes 2 passes to do the test print, so it repeats like that in the middle of the overall test.

I had the same thing happen a few times. Replace captop, replace black and blue dampers. Run a cleaning cycle. Then print some solid blocks of 100% cyan until the prints are coming out ONLY with a bright cyan.