VP-540 Print Head

[klingsdesigns]

So I am assuming my black head is bad. I have done some overnight head soaks and cant seem to get all nozzles back. If it is bad how do I go about replacing. Where is the best place to buy a new head and any videos or links to directions of changing head.

 

[SlikGRFX]

That doesn't look too bad to me. The usual advice is to never touch the head, but I have managed to improve things by gently cleaning the head with a swab. Heres my technique.

Take a foam swab and fully soak it in cleaning solution. Move the head to the manual cleaning position and place a tray or rag underneath to catch any drop of cleaning solution. Gently hold the swab against the head (where the black nozzles are) for a few minutes. Vary the pressure on the swab to help the cleaning process, but don't rub the swab across the head. Some gentle patting of the head with another fresh swab soaked in solution won't hurt. Run a powerful clean and try another test print.

It's worth a try if you are already considering replacing the head.

Printing on higher quality or with more passes will improve the prints. You can also add some CMY to the black in versaworks to reduce the banding.

 

[libertygraphicsofny]

Same thoughts as SlikGRFX, First off your head test print looks much better than mine, LOL And mine has been like that for like a year. But yes I clean my heads the same way SlikGRFX said and works perfect. I have fixed a lot of things on my VP but the heads is the very last resort. they are pretty durable and can last a lot longer than expected with a little maintenance.

 

[Bigdawg]

We've had our VP540 for over 10 years and have only had to replace 2 heads in that time (both black - one of the times was likely operator error - we won't talk about that!). Your test print looks reasonable enough that it shouldn't be affecting print quality. I clean the head much like SlikGRFX does - but my maintenance guy said DON'T run the powerful clean unless absolutely necessary. A medium clean should work - powerful clean uses a buttload (yes, that's a technical term) of ink that is unnecessary to waste. I'd also like to second his suggestion to add some other colors to your black. We work in RGB, not CMYK so all my blacks are spec'd at R0-G0-B0, but when using CMYK we use the photoshop rich black 75C-68M-65Y-90K. Do a print with a swatch of 100% black only and then one with the rich black mix and you will see why!

 

[PenSigns]

So I am assuming my black head is bad. I have done some overnight head soaks and cant seem to get all nozzles back. If it is bad how do I go about replacing. Where is the best place to buy a new head and any videos or links to directions of changing head.

I agree, that test print doesn't look too bad to me, certainly not to produce that kind of banding. Have you tried cleaning the encoder strip? We've been through a couple of banding nightmares with our 540, solved by cleaning the strip. The last time it was a minuscule bit of dust/ink/debris.

 

[TimToad]

I agree with everybody else, that it may be another issue.

Our VP-540 is 10 years old and prints like it came out of the box thanks to regular cleaning and frequent visual inspections and replacement when necessary of the wipers, encoder strip(s), etc.

The encoder strip is like the old punch cards in COBOL or FORTRAN. The slightest smudge of ink, dirt, etc. on it will affect how it tells the heads to fire.

We ALWAYS build our blacks from a combination of all four ink colors, even if we end up converting the file to RGB for printing.

 

[klingsdesigns]

The black in the picture of the banding was a jpeg not vector.

 

[klingsdesigns]

So I did the manual cleaning and held the swab on it and dabbed it a little bit. Then used another clean ones soaked in cleaner and tried again. Held for about 2 mintues. Did couple medium cleanings, did the manual cleaning with dabbing and holding swab onto the head again. Cleaned the head up a little bit but still has deflections and a couple missing in the test print. Going to do a head soak over night and see if that helps.

 

[klingsdesigns]

I am going to try and replace all my captops also to see if that helps. Where is the best place to purchase them?
Solventinkjet.com or CS Sign any good? I want to replace with OEM.

I also cleaned the encoder strip after removing the front face of it and still didnt help. Wasnt really dirty. Used 50/50 iso alcohol.

 

[klingsdesigns]

So I changed out all the captops today. Probably do a head soak over the weekend. Got some of my deflection cleaned up. Still getting over spray on the sides. Humidity is around 40% in here. Not sure if thats the issue?

 

[klingsdesigns]

So i just printed the caldera test print technical v2.1 Everything printed really well except the greyscale picture had banding. I talked to my designer/wife and that print i have attached with the banding was also greyscale. Any ideas? Just because i have deflections on the black i will have problems printing greyscale?

 

[SignEx]

On the overspray, If you have head height set to high you will sometimes get overspray around some areas, We have one and by mistake have left head to to high and there is noticeable different in quality of print, Just thought I might mention this,

 

[klingsdesigns]

I always run it on low. But I did check it to make sure. I just can’t believe that the little deflection my black head is showing creates that much overspray and banding. What are people’s shops at for humidity.