[cornpopps]

I usually wet cap my head on Friday at end of day with no issues. Came in Monday and my white ink lines looked gray. A couple cleans, no change so a power clean. Seems it made it worse.
Changed all 4 dampers which were black by this time and pulled ink into the new dampers. Put it all back together and power clean to load the head back with ink. Same issue.

Looks like during the power clean, the ink is getting sucked back into the lines from the capping station. Some sort of reverse vacuum has been created somehow? Anyone ever had a similar issue?

 

[NeoFlexExpert]

Hi,

Not sure which printer your are referring to? Did you try to flush head,
to check if delaminated - cleaning solution going into one nib but flowing
out of more than one nozzle chain?

 

[cornpopps]

It's a M&R i-dot but 4880 based. The head is about a week old but I tried pulling ink from the line before it hits the damper until it was white. Did a couple of normal cleanings and it seemed to work. Going to keep an eye on.

Hi,

Not sure which printer your are referring to? Did you try to flush head,
to check if delaminated - cleaning solution going into one nib but flowing
out of more than one nozzle chain?

 

[NeoFlexExpert]

Hmm good you got it going. Only thing I can think of is vacuum in cartridges - vent(s) blocked but that does produce what you are seeing?

If it happens again please let me know, I would be interesting to find
what causes this for all 4880 users.

Cheers

 

[Fmclark86]

I seem to be having this same issue (a long with some others, but I won't get into that, since I started a new thread on them) But anyway, I was wondering if you recently used new cartridges? I bought my Neoflex back in February and it came with All American cartridges and worked perfectly. He gave me some extra cartridges that are sealed and I believe are from GarmentPrinterInk. I filled them with ink and pulled all air out. I noticed the blue ink seems to leak inside where the cartridge goes as there is excess ink on the cartridge when I pull it out to daily shake. But yesterday I started seeing this same issue as my white ink was coming out grey at first. Did several cleanings and as I printed, the white ink, still grey but becoming fainter and fainter and now seem to be barely anything printing when printing white. Took head off, waterfalled, tested dampers, pulled white ink through dampers and noticed either black or blue ink. Pulled ink until it was completely white ink only. Put everything back together and still barely anything coming out. It's like ghost grey printing. Was planning on replacing dampers, flushing lines, and switching cartridges with AA.

Anybody got any input? Is this what I should do, or is it some other problem?

 

[cornpopps]

I did just get new refillable carts as well. That may be something to look into. I purchased these refillables off of ebay and they have that little chamber in front with a small filter. I left my printer docked over the weekend, came back to 1 gray line but my levers were up and wet capped my head.

 

[NeoFlexExpert]

Hi,

I need a little more info to help diagnose issue. You might want to check the nibs/pins that are in the ink
bay - part that pokes into the cartridge. Check for ink buildup, especially the whites - a bad seal will
let air in.

When ink colours mix this is usually a sign of head delamination - inks from adjacent nozzles can leak
to each other. Head flushes are good to do but only minimal pressure to inject cleaning solution. Do
not try and force to clean a blocked head. If you see any solution/ink coming out of another nib
then you have delamination - new head required.

 

[NeoFlexExpert]

After much checking about, it could be damper clogged. On the 4880 if a damper is clogged ink can be
pulled from another adjacent damper - I have not seen this but apparently it can happen? Not sure
of the mechanics of this so I will investigate further. For example, if you have a white that looks grey
check the white damper it might be clogged and ink being pulled from colour next to it - in this example
black.

Will keep working on this...........

 

[Fmclark86]

Sorry I'm late getting back on this, but wanted to share what I did to fix it. I actually ended up doing everything I stated above. Flushed lines and head and replaced the damper that had black ink in it. Replaced ink and everything worked beautifully again. I'm pretty sure just replacing the damper would have fixed this issue. Started doing it again today, so I'm going back in to replace a damper. I'm going to do it this time without flushing everything and see if that's all it is. I'll post back.

 

[Fmclark86]

Ok, it wasn't the damper at all. Thanks to NeoflexExpert's post above, I figured it out before I even went through the trouble of taking the head apart and replacing dampers. The problem was on one of my white ink cartridges. The little plastic piece that holds it in broke off which was not allowing a good seal on the ink bay nib/pin and allowing air in and causing the black ink to back fill. The printer was still reading that the cartridge was there, but it was not sitting all the way in the nib/pin. I replaced the cartridge with an older one I had. Did a few cleanings and back printing beautifully again. Thanks again NeoflexExpert! You continue to save my sanity!!

 

[NeoFlexExpert]

Glad you got it working. It's always amazing how the ink will find a way to NOT go where it's supposed to LOL.

Keep up the fight

 

[Stitch-Up]

That's a great discovery Fmclark86

Thanks for sharing your success.