Manual Printhead Maintenance (when there is no AMS)

Introduction

Manual Maintenance of printheads involves purging the printheads and then using a suction device to remove a small amount of ink and any debris that is in the nozzles. The Maintenance Station is located below the carriage. The station is covered by a sliding drawer that has open slots that allow waste ink to collect in the waste tray. When you perform manual printhead maintenance, any excess ink and associated debris are removed from the nozzles.

IMPORTANT

The nozzle plate on the printhead has a non-wetting coating - contact with this surface may affect the performance of the printhead. Do not wipe the nozzle plate with anything other than the suction-head (or the supplied swabs when following the swab procedure) as this can damage the nozzles and impair performance.

About this task

Perform Printhead Maintenance at the start of the day (after the printer has warmed up) or when necessary (misfiring nozzles, banding in image, etc).

NOTE

Tip: To help locate nozzles that need recovering remove the nozzle check print from the vacuum table and place it on the floor under the carriage in the maintenance area. Make sure it is in the correct orientation so the colors are aligned. The print represents a projection of the jetting performance of each printhead. This makes it easier to trace a nozzle or group of nozzle outs back to the area on the actual printhead nozzle plate that requires swabbing.

Printhead Maintenance

CAUTION

The underside of the UV lamps may be hot, avoid touching them.

IMPORTANT

Do NOT press up too hard on the printhead while you swipe it with the suction-head as this can dislodge the printhead and require a service call to re-seat it.

Maintenance Station Switches:

There are three switches inside of the maintenance station . They can be operated in any order. For example, you can press the middle switch to raise the carriage to remove debris from the underside of the carriage even when a purge isn't required.

Switch 1 to purge ink (the preferred way is to use the UI as in step 3 below)
Switch 2 to raise carriage
Switch 3 to activate suction pump

Maintenance Station Switches

Procedure

Verify that the ink temperature is at least 40° Centigrade (104° Fahrenheit) before you begin printhead maintenance.
Slide the drawer out from under the carriage to reveal the maintenance station.
Select the Maintenance tab and then the Manual maintenance icon in the top right corner to open the Manual Maintenance Assistant screen where you can select the ink channels that will be purged.
Select the specific ink channels to purge by clicking on "Purge". In the example below all ink channels are selected.
Press Purge button (1) to begin a standard ink purge of the selected channels. The carriage will lower to its purge height.
To achieve a Long purge, press the Purge button for more than 5 seconds. Long purges may be necessary if an acceptable result is not achieved with a standard purge.
Press the middle button (2) to raise the carriage to its maximum height and watch the ink as it falls from the heads. Wait until most of the ink stops dripping (but don't wait too long or the ink and any debris in it will get sucked back into the printhead.
IMPORTANT
Be careful not to snag the coiled suction-head hose when removing the suction-head from the holder.

Press the Suction button (3) to turn on the suction pump. Pick up the suction-head from the tray at the left end of the maintenance station. Wipe the suction-head with a new, clean lint-free wipe after cleaning each color.
Clean Suction-Head
IMPORTANT
In the next step, start with the left printhead and work to the right as this limits the possibility that drops of ink will fall onto the coiled hose. Also, do not push up too hard on the printhead as you may dislodge it and this will require a service call to fix.

Slide the suction-head slowly along the entire length of each printhead at a speed of approximately 8mm per second (8 seconds per printhead). The suction-head slides on stainless steel strips on the printhead. It may be necessary to repeat this step in the following cases:
a) Visual inspection of the printhead shows signs of ink remaining on the nozzle plate;

b) Suction-head was not kept level during travel across the nozzle plate;

c) Suction-head was pulled too quickly or unevenly across the nozzle plate.

IMPORTANT
Move the suction-head slowly so that you don't "plow" excess ink to the front and sides of the printhead and suction-head. If you move too fast, ink is pushed onto the upper edge of the printhead opening in the pan, where it is difficult to see and causes problems.

Swipe Printhead
Wipe the suction-head on a clean piece of new lint-free wipe before proceeding to the next printhead.
IMPORTANT
During maintenance, be careful not to touch the nozzles or the nozzle plate as this can damage the printhead.
Use a dry swab to pick up any excess ink from around the edge of the printhead opening in the pan (see the white line with arrows in the image below). Take special care to remove any excess ink, flush or alcohol on the metal plate between the pan and the printhead (see the area covered by the two ellipses in the picture below). A single swab can be used for each color channel or use it until the swab becomes saturated with ink.
Slide the maintenance station drawer back to its closed position. The carriage will move back to its previous print-ready height.
IMPORTANT
Close the drawer gently to avoid disturbing the ink in the printheads. A hard bump can temporarily create nozzles out.
Print a Nozzle Check to evaluate print quality.
NOTE
If the Nozzle Check print shows that a printhead still has a few nozzles out you can slide the suction-head over that printhead again. Then print another Nozzle Check if there are still nozzles out.