Designjet T730 Service manual

[D Hook]

Looking at a used T730. Owner says it needs a new print head and a "new waste ink cartridge" which I can't seem to source. I think he's referring to some part of the Service Station. Can't seem to locate a service manual either. He was quoted $600-800 to replace those two items. Everything else seems to be working on it, according to the seller. The price is so low I find it hard to resist but only if it isn't going to become a money pit. They didn't seem to sell for all that much when new. But he's gone from $1,000 a few weeks ago to free now so he's looking to get it out of his office I guess. But free isn't always free; I don't mind the new printhead but if the rest of the machine is/was a POS I guess I'd rather not pick it up.

Not familiar with this model and the all-in-one printhead seems to be an expensive piece to replace on a regular basis. I've read about the black pigmented ink being the culprit in failures. Seems to either leak or clog, one or the other, which could be what's led to the "new waste ink cartridge" comment. Maybe just needs a good clean out of the Service Station.

So I guess I'm looking for some feedback on the reliability and experiences you might have had with this model and any sources for the service manual you might want to share. Trying to see if I can bring this thing back to life and make it a reliable machine but only if it was reliable from the factory!

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

You're right, there is no waste ink cartridge. There are ink absorbers in the service station, but they're not consumables, you have to order the whole service station.

Before you drag this thing back to your office, you should have a purpose for it. If it just sits around for a month the printhead will harden up, and you'll be right back where this person it right now.

I tell my customers with ink based plotters that they need to run MINIMUM one Arch D full page print every week. And not just black. =^..^=

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I feel the T730 is cheaply made, like they took a Officejet and just stretched it to 36 inches. HP clearly learned from the 500/800 and others that they were making printers too good. People were using them for 20 years before buying a new one. I think the newer ones have a lot more planned obsolescence built into them.

I have a customer with one I just saw the other day. They've been running the original printhead since they got it, which was 3+ years ago. But they also print on it daily. And yeah, the service station on these is something of a joke and becomes a mess that will contaminate and destroy the printhead if not replaced in time. It's relatively inexpensive to replace, $132 plus shipping from HP. F9A30-67052 is the part number.

Blackcat is right; if you don't have a use for it, wait before replacing the printhead. It suffers more from a lack of use than over use.

Kiran

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I did find this on ebay that supposed to replace all the sponges on the service station:

Sponge of Service Station F9A30-67052 For HP Designjet T730 T830 T120 T520 T525 787893582102 | eBay

Yes, I've had the same experience with under-used HP printers. Left unused can really cause problems. I usually just leave mine on all the time and then print a demo print at least once a week. Paper is cheap compared to printheads and ink supplies.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I did find this on ebay that supposed to replace all the sponges on the service station:

Sponge of Service Station F9A30-67052 For HP Designjet T730 T830 T120 T520 T525 787893582102 | eBay

Yes, I've had the same experience with under-used HP printers. Left unused can really cause problems. I usually just leave mine on all the time and then print a demo print at least once a week. Paper is cheap compared to printheads and ink supplies.

Perfect. =^..^=

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

Got it home and letting it warm up to room temp before plugging it in. Just looking inside I can see a lot of black ink residue on the carriage tracking and on the chrome guide bar. It's well lubricated though. Surprised by the size of the belt, too. Maybe a 1/4" wide? Looks slightly worn so probably will replace that, along with the service station. Won't know for sure until I can remove the right hand cover.

Seller said everything else worked great on the printer, just the printhead causing problems.

This thing is so light (around 100lbs off the stand). I have an old old Officejet 9100 series All-In-One printer that is heavier than this. But it is made mostly of metal, not much plastic on it. It's built like a tank and still works great, even being 20-25 years old! Can still get ink and printheads for it.

I think you're correct Kiran...it does look like an officejet printer that's been stretched.

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I did some internal demo prints and it seems to print just fine. Printed out some internal reports as well.

It did give an error after printing the rendering demo; 0942-0188 which is identified as a problem with the carriage motor. The bed of the printer is pretty mucked up with dried ink and it may be causing the carriage to be dragging, maybe causing the motor to throw an error due to higher-than-expected resistance. Movement of the carriage is very loud and chunky-sounding, like it's bumping along instead of gliding.

Just needs a good cleaning and a new service station.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

Start with cleaning:

Clean the carriage rail with alcohol and lightly lubricate with Canon EU-1 oil (FY9-6028, Bearphyte SG).

Clean the suction bed with alcohol.

To clean bottom of carriage: Fold two letter size pages x3 to get 8 layers, 35mm x 217mm. Manually release the carriage and remove printhead. Insert cleaning paper between carriage and paper path. Drip alcohol onto the paper & move the carriage laterally to clean. Repeat x3. Re-install printhead & home the carriage to the service station. Power ON > perform head cleaning x2.

If you're still getting carriage motor errors check the encoder strip for ink. Cleaning is sometimes possible.
=^..^=

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I have some oil that came in an HP maintenance kit that was specifically for rail lube on other HP printers. Will that work okay? If not, I'll try to source the other you mentioned.

Thanks!

[blackcat4866]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

I have some oil that came in an HP maintenance kit that was specifically for rail lube on other HP printers. Will that work okay? If not, I'll try to source the other you mentioned.

Thanks!

That's fine. =^..^=

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

From what you described about moving the carriage, it sounds like the rear bushing is either broken/missing/in the wrong place, causing the carriage to tilt forward too much. Just a guess.

Also it's recommended to use grease, not oil, on the carriage and carriage rail. The grease is available as part of a kit from HP. CQ890-60244 It comes in a syringe so you can inject it into the carriage (see the manual.) It appears to be just lithium grease. I think they went that route instead of oil to make it more maintenance free. I'm sure oil would work too but it doesn't last as long. And I'm really not sure what happens when you mix oil with the existing grease.

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

Replaced the service station because it was pretty contaminated with black ink all over it, caked on mostly. Plus the part was inexpensive. (Thanks for the source tip Kiram!) Probably will buy the sponge kit from Ebay and try to refurb the old one to have as a spare. They seem pretty simple compared to others. Next will be new printhead because this one seems to be dumping black ink all over the new service station when going through the printhead cleaning process. Dumps so much ink it loads up that little brush that's used to keep the line sensor clean and then leaves blobs of ink over the lense, so much that the printer can't read the paper edges and give an error. Checked the OOPS and it's working fine. Take off the line sensor and wipe the lense and everything loads as it should. Other colors are banding bad and cleaning the printhead manually didn't help (soaked in warm water, windex for a couple hours). Used a syringe tool to pull ink through the tubes to be sure there's no blockage and there doesn't appear to be So need to source a new printhead next. Unless anyone has other ideas for manually cleaning these all-in-one printheads.

I'm guessing the previous owner began having trouble with the printhead (original to the machine so 3-4 years old) and kept using the "clean printhead" command and over saturated the service station and led to caking and ruining the rest of the printhead. When I got it, it was dragging blobs of black ink all over the paper. Very little output from the other colors.

You're right Kiram, these don't seem to be built as robust as the older legacy printers I usually work on. Everything about it seems....fragile. The touch screen is nice though. Getting through the support menus and test menus isn't too bad. Updated the firmware. Haven't gotten through all the tests yet though. We'll see how it goes. As usual, always glad to hear insight from others on this particular model.

Thanks!

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

BTW, does anyone know if expired ink supplies (printhead, cartridges) work in this model printer? I found a printhead that less expensive but expired but not sure the printer will accept expired supplies.

Thanks!

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

Expired supplies are fine. Just means the warranty has expired.

Kiran

[D Hook]

Re: Designjet T730 Service manual

Just confirmed the ink will work. Put in an expired (2019) yellow cartridge and it took it just fine.

Need to order a new printhead now. Found one on ebay that is about 1/2 price of retail but is just past expiration date. Coming from Japan. Don't know if there are regional restrictions like some ink supplies on older machines. The others he's sold haven't had any complaints about so we'll see. I sent the seller that question just to be sure but haven't heard back yet.

Thanks Kiram!