SP-300 - New printhead?

[spb]

Just bought a used Roland SP-300 and got the attached for a test print after doing a power clean. You think it's time for a new printhead? Any suggestions on where to buy a DX4 printhead? Thanks.

 

[Solventinkjet]

That's a pretty good amount of deflection in the black. I don't usually see heads recover from that very often. You can try doing some head soaks and as a last resort you could flush the head manually but that can also damage the head internally. It's worth a shot if you're prepared to get a new one.

 

[Zoogee World]

As mentioned above, that is a good amount of deflection. I would recommend doing a 48 hour head soak and see if you get any improvement. If not, I believe you can probably get away with just replacing the C/K Head and keep the current M/Y head. A good spot to get a new head would be sign-in-china.com, that is where I get mine. It's very hard to find OEM parts for the SP-300 or SP-300V nowadays as it's an obsolete machine in Roland's eyes. I believe they're great work horses and we actually recently bough a parts one to keep our other 2 running as long as we can(We have the SP-300V).

 

[truckgraphics]

I'm going to disagree. Other than soaking the head to see if it cleans up, I wouldn't even think of a head replacement with that degree of wear - assuming your prints still look good.
Blacks always degrade first and that doesn't look too bad. Just adjust your print profile to compensate and you should be good to go.
Beats spending $3K on a head and you probably can get a near perfect print out of that one with a bit of profile adjustment.

 

[Zoogee World]

The problem with deflection, is it usually causes spray over. That's why I suggest doing the 48 hour head soak prior to anything else, because it could possibly be recovered. Could also try pulling ink from the line after the cap top, that might help a little if the head soak doesn't do much.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I'm going to disagree. Other than soaking the head to see if it cleans up, I wouldn't even think of a head replacement with that degree of wear - assuming your prints still look good.
Blacks always degrade first and that doesn't look too bad. Just adjust your print profile to compensate and you should be good to go.
Beats spending $3K on a head and you probably can get a near perfect print out of that one with a bit of profile adjustment.

I agree that there is a possibility the quality is still good enough he might be able to get by. I have some customers who won't accept the smallest defect in a print and others who will print with 50% of nozzles missing. Everyone has a point where they won't sell it anymore.

These heads are closer to $500-$600 though. I think you're thinking the DX5/DX7 heads.

 

[spb]

I replaced the C/K printhead and it's working perfectly. It was about $500, not $3K. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[Zoogee World]

Glad to hear you were able to fix the issue.