Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

[Lance15]

Haven't dealt with blowouts yet.

Got a call for a black ink blowout. Cleaned the ink up and got it back to ready. It printed an awaiting job and I noticed that some black was missing. Once the job completed, it showed that printhead #5 (first black printhead) needed to be replaced. I told the customer to replace it and they eventually did. I get an E-Mail yesterday saying the same thing happened. Am I looking at the tubes at this point?

[Jessetech]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

yes, where was most of the spill at?....might be carriage with tubes....hows the service station

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

Most of the ink was near the printhead cleaning sled. Wasn't to awful bad.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

There's quite a bit of plumbing near the service station. I think I'd probably remove some covers, and swab up the ink swamp. Then leave the cover off and watch where it's coming from. Bring along a lot of alcohol and towels.

The major leaker I addressed was caused by the cartridge seals. I replaced the ink tank assy. Most of the ink came off of the tile, but the grout is probably still magenta. There was a regular stream of ink running down the leg.

Like chasing an oil leak in an engine. =^..^=

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

If you have an ink leak anywhere, it's time to replace the tube assembly.

Kiran

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

Thanks for the thoughts. Was thinking the same thing. Tubes.

The spill in my case wasn't real bad. Went down the first time with two rags (rags in a box type) and could clean it up. There was still some residual on rollers that will eventually wear off. Not going to start tearing drive assembly parts apart to clean a little ink up that will go away.

[theengel]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

If ink came out of the inktube ass, then something had to go in and fill it's spot... air. The air, likely, also got into the printhead. So plan on replacing the ink tube ass & both black printheads all at once.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

Also, depending on the amount of ink leaked, remember the black ink cartridge will report having more ink in it than is actually in there. If it feels close to being empty I would just toss it and put in a new one.

Kiran

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

Okay. Thank you all. Tubes are coming in today.

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

So, I got the tubes replaced and primed. The current printheads seem to be okay. Couldn't fully test today. When I went to load a roll, the paper stopped like something was in the way.

Low and behold, I could barely make out a scrap of paper that looks to be lodged right behind what looks to be a paper sensor flag? So pissed!

Will need to go back to figure out how I'm going to get that out as I ran out of time today.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

I've often been able to get paper like that out by using a piece of cardboard, like from the back of a legal pad, or even a file folder, and feeding it though as if it were paper.. it's stiff enough to push something stuck through so you can grab it.

Kiran

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

I've often been able to get paper like that out by using a piece of cardboard, like from the back of a legal pad, or even a file folder, and feeding it though as if it were paper.. it's stiff enough to push something stuck through so you can grab it.

Kiran

I've had success with that also.

I had ordered a printhead for an iPF and it had arrived. About an hour before I arrived, the leak in the roof had turned into a torrent.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the area for 10' around the plotter was immaculately clean. The plotter itself looked like it had been dragged out of a drainage ditch after a flash flood. There was about the volume of three pulpy suspended ceiling tiles in the paper path, about the consistency of mashed potatoes.

I started by removing handfuls of pulp. I should warn you that the hard skin of the ceiling tile is like grabbing razor blades. When I got everything that I could reach, and it still would not take paper, I found a 30" wide corrugated box, and bent a gradual arc into the cardboard. With the paper lever open, I could force the cardboard through the paper path. After three passes, I collected another 1/2 gallon of pulp. At that point it actually loaded paper.

In the end it was a total waste of time. And I don't know if the customer ever paid for the two hours I spent to that point. =^..^=

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

That's what I always try first too. A "carefully, hand-crafted, precision" file folder ripped and folded into a tool.

It was just to late (1:45pm) in the day beings in Annapolis fighting my way up our Baltimore beltway at around 2 o'clock or so and I still had another stop to make.

[Lance15]

Re: Designjet 4000ps black blowout......thoughts/advice

More scraps in there than I thought. I did get most of them out except for the scrap stuck in the slit where that (I think) paper sensor flag is when you first put the paper in the machine. It's working, so............

I also cleaned the drive rollers better using the service utilities to turn the drive rollers.

Practically all the printheads need replacing. The customer had ONE yellow, magenta and cyan on hand, so I replaced printhead 1 (yellow), 3 (magenta) and 7 (cyan). The secondary printheads of those colors need replacing also. Customer will handle ordering and replacing them.

Other than that, I think this is done! Most time I think I've spent on a plotter.

Thank you everyone!