Question UCJV330 Lines in Magenta

[Goatshaver]

I was printing a 4 color black the other day and noticed some faint lines in the prints. Printed on Uni-direction took care of it, but I'm wondering if these are coming from these nozzle deflections?
I was printing a heavy red label and you can see the lines, they are faint but I can see them. Also a nozzle check. (I've only had one or two very mild head rubs against vinyl in the last year but for some reason both magentas are getting janky looking)

Is this where I should do the Nozzle Recovery option? Find it hard to believe the magenta would degrade this much just a little over a year of use.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Nozzle recovery is more for when a nozzle is completely missing. It's probably from the deflections. Have you tried a head soak yet? Also, check the bottom of the head and make sure there isn't any gunk stuck to the head surface. It won't hurt to run a print compensation (print feed) alignment as well.

 

[Goatshaver]

Nozzle recovery is more for when a nozzle is completely missing. It's probably from the deflections. Have you tried a head soak yet? Also, check the bottom of the head and make sure there isn't any gunk stuck to the head surface. It won't hurt to run a print compensation (print feed) alignment as well.

Yeah I always do a feed check first. I did a couple of soaks. I did one for 3mins then I lost the black channel in my H1 so I did another soak for 5min and the black came back and the magenta looked a little better.
I'm pretty careful about about keeping that area clear to prevent any strikes. All the other channels are perfect, no deflections at all but both heads the magenta is wonky near the front of the head and the back.

Should I soak for longer possibly?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

People seem to be skipping manual wipedowns on these printers a lot. Just dealt with this issue 2 days ago. If there's gunk on the head, take a Texwipe and wet it down with either flush (7) or maintenance fluid (15 or 16) and gently wipe down the nozzle plate. Don't use a lot of pressure and use a clean part of the wipe every pass to prevent smooshing the ink back into the head. Once the head looks all nice and clean, run either a light or normal cleaning cycle to re-prime any nozzles that may have gotten air in them in the process.

Also, run media calibration, the gaps are consistent with pass-gaps. This can be caused by using calibration for different thicknesses. Thankfully the 330 makes calibration easy since it has the little check patterns and sensor to self-calibrate.

 

[Goatshaver]

People seem to be skipping manual wipedowns on these printers a lot. Just dealt with this issue 2 days ago. If there's gunk on the head, take a Texwipe and wet it down with either flush (7) or maintenance fluid (15 or 16) and gently wipe down the nozzle plate. Don't use a lot of pressure and use a clean part of the wipe every pass to prevent smooshing the ink back into the head. Once the head looks all nice and clean, run either a light or normal cleaning cycle to re-prime any nozzles that may have gotten air in them in the process.

Also, run media calibration, the gaps are consistent with pass-gaps. This can be caused by using calibration for different thicknesses. Thankfully the 330 makes calibration easy since it has the little check patterns and sensor to self-calibrate.

Interesting. I'd be worried about damaging the head doing that, but isn't that essentially what the wiper roll does in these?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Yeah I always do a feed check first. I did a couple of soaks. I did one for 3mins then I lost the black channel in my H1 so I did another soak for 5min and the black came back and the magenta looked a little better.
I'm pretty careful about about keeping that area clear to prevent any strikes. All the other channels are perfect, no deflections at all but both heads the magenta is wonky near the front of the head and the back.

Should I soak for longer possibly?

A longer soak might help but I'd do what smoke mentions as well. If there's still gunk on there even after a head soak, the only way to get it off is with a little more pressure than the wiper roll does. The wiper roll really only wipes excess ink off so it doesn't gunk up in the first place but doesn't really do anything to clear nozzles.

 

[Goatshaver]

People seem to be skipping manual wipedowns on these printers a lot. Just dealt with this issue 2 days ago. If there's gunk on the head, take a Texwipe and wet it down with either flush (7) or maintenance fluid (15 or 16) and gently wipe down the nozzle plate. Don't use a lot of pressure and use a clean part of the wipe every pass to prevent smooshing the ink back into the head. Once the head looks all nice and clean, run either a light or normal cleaning cycle to re-prime any nozzles that may have gotten air in them in the process.

Also, run media calibration, the gaps are consistent with pass-gaps. This can be caused by using calibration for different thicknesses. Thankfully the 330 makes calibration easy since it has the little check patterns and sensor to self-calibrate.

Are Texwipes different than Bemcot wipes I'm guessing. Which type of Texwipe do you recommend?

 

[Goatshaver]

A longer soak might help but I'd do what smoke mentions as well. If there's still gunk on there even after a head soak, the only way to get it off is with a little more pressure than the wiper roll does. The wiper roll really only wipes excess ink off so it doesn't gunk up in the first place but doesn't really do anything to clear nozzles.

I did notice after the second soak some of the nozzles looked better. Probably due to me printing a lot of holographic material on it I'm assuming. Weird it's only happening to the magenta on both heads.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I did notice after the second soak some of the nozzles looked better. Probably due to me printing a lot of holographic material on it I'm assuming. Weird it's only happening to the magenta on both heads.

With holographic, it's possible some UV light is reflecting back and partially curing ink as it comes out of the nozzle. It's not very common on this model but I would definitely print in low head height mode just to rule it out.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Texwipes, polyester wipes, lint free wipes, whatever, all work. Just check for fuzz being left behind and don't use anything abrasive.