VS-540 Not Printing Test Print

[SteveHem]

Hi Chaps, Ive recently bought a VS540 from a print shop which has upgraded to a VG.

As they had a service plan on the machine they had £3K worth of work carried out on it including new head, wipers, dampers etc (i have the invoice).

The engineer ran all the tests and then drained the machined ready for sale.

Ive added new Roland inks but inserted empty MT and WT cartridges which is what the forma owners advised until im ready for white?

Ive run various cleans but when i try to run a test print the head moves over the media but then goes straight back without printing anything?

I want to get the machine back on a service plan of my own but Roland need to see a test print before they accept this.

Any ideas? Obviously a complete novice at this...

Thanks Steve

 

[SteveHem]

Also the machine is making a constant noise

 

[IsItFasst]

How long has the machine sat since it last did a print? I would see if you can pull ink through the lines with a syringe to help prime the system. Are you able to see ink in the lines above the head if you take the cover off?

 

[SteveHem]

It has sat empty for 6 weeks. Just checked the tubes above the head and they are all empty.

Spoke to Roland tech today and need to send them a vid and some pics tomorrow.

thanks

 

[SteveHem]

It has sat empty for 6 weeks. Just checked the tubes above the head and they are all empty.

Spoke to Roland tech today and need to send them a vid and some pics tomorrow.

thanks

 

[SteveHem]

Roland advised me to do afew ink renewal functions but still nothing coming through?

I could get a Roland engineer to come out and the base cost is £350 plus vat!

Driving me mad.

 

[Broome Signs]

HI Just reading your thread

If you haven’t got your printer up and running try this



Take the plastic cover off the print head assembly to revel the dampers and print heads



Number all the ribbons going into the print heads and number the print heads also



Remove the dampers from the print head Carefully, if you crack the nipple on top of the heads you will need to order new head caps

(may be worth ordering some spare ones anyway together with new hi capacity dampers)



Now remove all print heads



Place some kitchen towel in a tray and put all the print heads on the towel

Add flush to the tray, just cover the metal rim of the print head, hopefully a capillary action will occur and draw the solution up into the head

And help soften up all the dried ink.

(Leave in the solution overnight )



Put new ink cartridges in the machine and using a syringe pull the ink into the dampers on each line

(Purchas the biggest syringe you can)



Once all the ink lines are full you can put everything back together

DO not get any ink or flush into slots for the ribbon from the print board



Perform ink fill from the menu

Perform a powerful clean

Medium clean

Standard clean

Then try printing a test print



Good luck



All parts are available from https://www.digiprint-supplies.com/en

 

[netsol]

if i were letting a machine sit for 6 weeks, i would fill the lines and heads with flush and clamp off the drain lines with hemostats

at this point, i would order a liter of flush, using the syringe add flush to the captops till you get bored.
then clamp off the drain lines and add fluid till the captops are ready to overflow
return the head to it's rest position over the captops. let it sit at least a couple hours

BROOME SIGNS i would try this rather than removing the heads (at best too much alignment, at worst, broken manifold nipples

i am concerned that original post said the machine was DRAINED, not FLUSHED

damage that can't be reversed may have already been done

 

[SteveHem]

Thanks Broome Signs and Netsol. This is definitely a worry. Strange that the Roland engineer did it this way. I can see remnants of ink inside the lines here and there probably from my attempts of getting ink through, surely going it to dry out. I do have the machine on at the back so its trying to circulate every few hrs, hope this isnt making the problem worse.

Im not sure im confident enough to start taking bits apart although i really need to as i cant afford the engineers costs. Perhaps i could find a YT video of something similar.

 

[netsol]

lets assume the tech did some variation of the right thing.

i see 4options

(1) follow broome signs procedure (only if you are confident you have,the skills to follow through & reassemble
(2) pull inks through with s vacuum pump from suto parts store or amazon

Mutoh ® VJ-1617H Periodic Maintenance Kit – DG-43934

Mutoh ® VJ-1617H Periodic Maintenance Kit – DG-43934 is the original maintenance station for Mutoh ® VJ-1617H printer.

www.lfprinterparts.com

(3) order the liter of eco olvemt flush, fill empty cartridges (assuming they are refillable)
(4) bite the bullet and find a tech or a mentor who has done this before

do we know, exactly, how many days elapsed between roland service & your attempting to load ink?

 

[SteveHem]

lets assume the tech did some variation of the right thing.

i see 4options

(1) follow broome signs procedure (only if you are confident you have,the skills to follow through & reassemble
(2) pull inks through with s vacuum pump from suto parts store or amazon

Mutoh ® VJ-1617H Periodic Maintenance Kit – DG-43934

Mutoh ® VJ-1617H Periodic Maintenance Kit – DG-43934 is the original maintenance station for Mutoh ® VJ-1617H printer.

www.lfprinterparts.com

(3) order the liter of eco olvemt flush, fill empty cartridges (assuming they are refillable)
(4) bite the bullet and find a tech or a mentor who has done this before

do we know, exactly, how many days elapsed between roland service & your attempting to load ink?

Thanks Netsol. I took these pics today showing the head and captop is indeed new. I get no ink on my finger touching the black head surround.

What's confusing though is this shows the system was drained and then the new parts fitted so no test print was done. The work was carried out on 20th Sept 2022 by the way.

Netsol do you have a link to the pump/syringe i would require to try and pull the ink through, i think ill try this first.

 

[SteveHem]

Had a closer look at the pipes. Looks like gravity is taking the ink some way but not very far.

Flush and then manual pump?

 

[Zoogee World]

As mentioned by others, I would attach a syringe to one of the lines after the cap top and clamp off the other, then pull ink through. Once you have the lines filled, try a test print again.

 

[netsol]

the best syringe comes from solventinkjet.com
it is tapered, so you don't have to mess with adapters. just push in until it seals

the pump is great, because it can pull until you have ink coming out, whereas, the ink can pull back between "pulls" from the syringe

https://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Protected-Adapters-One-Man-Bleeding/dp/B08GZTNNGR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=L7RZ8OUVVZ5K&keywords=handheld+vacuum+pump&qid=1670441090&sprefix=handheld+vacuum+pump%2Caps%2C374&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyT05CQUFCREdSTFY2JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTcwNzY3MUlFRllVVk8zN0tGUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTg1OTAxMkxLWDNJWVdYNjJKUyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

if they didn't run any ink through the new head, that speaks well for the new head surviving storage, but the tech didn't do any alignments.
this is what i was questioning

 

[SteveHem]

Amazing!

Just ordered a pump from Amazon UK.

"I would attach a syringe to one of the lines after the cap top and clamp off the other"??

Might be a silly question but do i pull the pipe off here and connect the pump?

 

[Zoogee World]

Amazing!

Just ordered a pump from Amazon UK.

"I would attach a syringe to one of the lines after the cap top and clamp off the other"??

Might be a silly question but do i pull the pipe off here and connect the pump?

View attachment 162913

I don't really think there are silly questions. To answer your question, it wouldn't be those lines you'd connect to but rather the ones after the cap top, which is the part the head sits on. You'll need to remove that cover around the cap top to reach them, as well as reach the pump.

 

[SteveHem]

I don't really think there are silly questions. To answer your question, it wouldn't be those lines you'd connect to but rather the ones after the cap top, which is the part the head sits on. You'll need to remove that cover around the cap top to reach them, as well as reach the pump.

I see, so would (hopefully) the syringe will pull all ink colours all the way to the head through just one of these lines? and i carry on until these 2 lines have ink in?

Also is that the pump the lines go into on the pic?

Thanks guys

 

[netsol]

so would (hopefully) the syringe will pull all ink colours all the way to the head through just one of these lines? and i carry on until these 2 lines have ink in?

Yes, in a perfect world. but, if you have luck like mine, you may have to CAREFULLY turn the small nut on each damper with something like a small ignition wrench (something like 7mm. remove the line, without losing the small oring. allow the syringe to pull ink. reconnect the hose to the top of the damper and CAREFULLY TIGHTEN. move on to the next line.

when we changed the heads in my sc545-ex about 4-1/2 yrs ago. one of my employees was convinced we had bad air lines, bad orings, bad captop, the new heads were no good... could not get ink to pull through for the life of us. long story short, after pulling ink through we have been printing for 4-1/2 years and never had to change the lines, orings or anything else. when pulling ink through these machines are very stubborn.

wait for the handheld pump. i think you will be amazed

 

[SteveHem]

The pump worked great!

Almost to good as all colours came flying through and started pissing through the pump onto the floor, wife was well impressed haha

Test print looks good to me, what do you guys think?

 

[TonyaGilmore]

Yes, I have experienced a similar problem and have used print solutions to resolve them. Remove the plastic cover from the print head assembly to access the dampers and print heads. Carefully remove the mufflers from the print head. Cover the print head's metal rim to soften up all of the dried ink. Install fresh ink cartridges in the device and inject ink using a syringe into the dampers on each line. Fill the ink using the menu. You can reassemble everything once all of the ink lines have been filled. After a thorough cleaning, try printing a test page.