Air in ink tubes, failing print heads

Hello!

I have a technical support question that I'm hoping you can help with and/or point me in the right direction with regards to which part I need to order. I was having a repeated Cyan printhead failure (after 2-3 feet of material) a while back and noticed air in the line, so I tried priming the tubes with no success. I've recently purchased a new ink system from you, and installed correctly using another new cyan printhead, and again, it's failed after a few feet.

I've gone through 4-5 cyan printheads at this point, and just can't afford to waste any more $$. Do you know what might be causing this issue? Could it be the carriage assembly? What would go into replacing that if so? 

Thanks in advance for your time and support.

Best,

Casey

Hi Casey,

Since you replaced the ink tube system, have you put a new cyan print head in or is this one that already has air in it from the previous tube system?

You could run the PRINT HEAD RECOVERY on the failing print head about 10 times to try to purge any air in the head.  The symptoms do not fit with a defective carriage.

Let me know if I can be of any further help.

Yep, it was a brand new printhead... I actually went through 3 others on the old ink system, all having the same issue, before I noticed a little air in the cyan line. I tried priming the tubes twice with setup printheads with no success, so I purchased the new system. 

So, here I am again, with the same issue, on the cyan printhead again, but with a new system. 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks again!

Hello again,

Air in the ink tubes is definitely a problem.  Since you have replaced the tube system, we can rule that out as an issue. 

When the print head stops printing does is fade out or just give an indication that the print head is bad and stop printing?

It fades over about a half inch or so, which leads me to believe that it's just using the ink inside the printhead and not actually pulling it through the tube. I've also switched out the cyan ink cartridge (prior to even replacing the tube system) in case it was faulty, but no luck there either.

Could this somehow be an electronic issue?

Thanks again for your help,

Casey

Just to be clear, you put a new print head in after the ink tubes were purged?

No

The print head has air in it from the old ink tube system.  After the new tube system was installed, the print head with air in it was reinstalled and air backed up into the tube system and eventually got into the new print heads perpetuating the problem.  The air needs to be removed from the tube system and a new head needs to be installed.  You can use an air removal tool we provide.  AIR REMOVAL TOOL

Bob