VS300i Magenta and Cyan Ink Contamination

[shane94]

We bought our Roland VS300i about 10 years ago brand new. This printer has always been plugged in so it does its own automatic cycles. We started to have issues about 6 months ago with what we thought was random magenta drop out. If you ran a clean cycle at the start of the day it always worked thru the prints without issue. That was up until last week. In the 10 years we have owned this printer, all we have done is change the capping top like 6 times and that was it besides weekly maintenance. To me it looked like ink starvation so figured it was the dampers, so we installed a new set of 4 OEM Roland ones. Ran a light choke clean then 2 power cleans and it was printing beautiful. Printer set over the weekend and I came in and the red ink was having issues again. I have since figured out that the cyan is contaminating the magenta. The lines to me look clean all the way to the head so assume its happening at the head itself. You can print a solid block of magenta, it clears and if you want 2-3 minutes and print again you get the cyan again first then the magenta again is pure. I am absolutely not a tech with these things, this printer has been gold up to this point so not a lot of experience with it vs the other printers we have. I have another capping top coming tomorrow and will swap it again, it is about 6-8 months old. Not sure what the life is suppose to be on those things, on our UV printers they only last like 3 months but that ink is much harsher then the Eco Solvent we run in the Roland. Any other thoughts on where else to tackle this at? I have googled until it hurts Attached is a image of the magenta block print.

Update: Capping station did not correct. Same issue persist.

 

[damonCA21]

Replace the captop. Check the ink lines to the pump are all clear including any connectors.. Run a couple of powerful cleans and see how it is then. It sounds like the printer just needs a good service

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

Please send nozzle test print and what ink set is in the printer?

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

We bought our Roland VS300i about 10 years ago brand new. This printer has always been plugged in so it does its own automatic cycles. We started to have issues about 6 months ago with what we thought was random magenta drop out. If you ran a clean cycle at the start of the day it always worked thru the prints without issue. That was up until last week. In the 10 years we have owned this printer, all we have done is change the capping top like 6 times and that was it besides weekly maintenance. To me it looked like ink starvation so figured it was the dampers, so we installed a new set of 4 OEM Roland ones. Ran a light choke clean then 2 power cleans and it was printing beautiful. Printer set over the weekend and I came in and the red ink was having issues again. I have since figured out that the cyan is contaminating the magenta. The lines to me look clean all the way to the head so assume its happening at the head itself. You can print a solid block of magenta, it clears and if you want 2-3 minutes and print again you get the cyan again first then the magenta again is pure. I am absolutely not a tech with these things, this printer has been gold up to this point so not a lot of experience with it vs the other printers we have. I have another capping top coming tomorrow and will swap it again, it is about 6-8 months old. Not sure what the life is suppose to be on those things, on our UV printers they only last like 3 months but that ink is much harsher then the Eco Solvent we run in the Roland. Any other thoughts on where else to tackle this at? I have googled until it hurts Attached is a image of the magenta block print.

Update: Capping station did not correct. Same issue persist.


View attachment 177767

Please send nozzle test print and what ink set is in the printer?
Most likely a bad head, they don’t last forever.

 

[Zoogee World]

Sounds like it could be a cracked manifold. It is possible to replace, but can be tricky, especially if your not mechanically inclined. Otherwise, most likely looking at needing a new head, how old is the current one? If it's 10 years old, it's way outlived it's normal lifespan and you got lucky, we've had ours about the same amount of time and have replaced the head twice already.

 

[shane94]

Sounds like it could be a cracked manifold. It is possible to replace, but can be tricky, especially if your not mechanically inclined. Otherwise, most likely looking at needing a new head, how old is the current one? If it's 10 years old, it's way outlived it's normal lifespan and you got lucky, we've had ours about the same amount of time and have replaced the head twice already.

we have never replaced a head (did all 4 dampers last week), this machine has been gold. Only other thing we ever changed was the cap top. Other then that was all factory. Its been a great machine for sure.

 

[shane94]

Please send nozzle test print and what ink set is in the printer?
Most likely a bad head, they don’t last forever.

I know the blue is missing a lot of pipes but oddly enough its not giving much issue. Very light banding but we use polycarbonate over the graphics we print so you cannot see any of it. The magenta is what is causing the issue. The magenta to the right of the cyan (3rd section) is the one that is getting the contamination. We are using Eco Solvent Max 2 ink. We have only ran Roland inks in the machine.

 

[Zoogee World]

I know the blue is missing a lot of pipes but oddly enough its not giving much issue. Very light banding but we use polycarbonate over the graphics we print so you cannot see any of it. The magenta is what is causing the issue. The magenta to the right of the cyan (3rd section) is the one that is getting the contamination. We are using Eco Solvent Max 2 ink. We have only ran Roland inks in the machine.

If that's the case, then you need a new head, consider yourself very lucky you were able to get 10 years, that usually doesn't happen, most of the time, you're pretty good getting 5 years, and I do know it can be dependent on how often you use it as well.

 

[shane94]

If that's the case, then you need a new head, consider yourself very lucky you were able to get 10 years, that usually doesn't happen, most of the time, you're pretty good getting 5 years, and I do know it can be dependent on how often you use it as well.

That is what we figured but wanted to verify before we dropped 2k on a new one Thank you for taking the time to reply.