Epson SP 11880, two devices two problems: Magentas blocked; Greys partly blocked

[ibm]

Hey all,
I'm new to this forum but have been reading in it for quite some time. I have a fine art print office in Germany, printing mostly for art exhbitions and private clients.

We have two Epson SP 11880 printers and there's a problem with each one of them:

1. [Device1]

The device is 6 years old. We've printed [EDIT] 2.4 km with it and in best premium quality on good paper with original Epson-Ultrachrome-ink. Some bending problems inbetween and since then we only print in "high quality" print-mode which works out fine in most cases but the "normal quality" mode used to work out fine before.
Now we have the problem that the nozzles of "light grey" and "light light grey" are partly blocked and show only about a half of the nozzle-check lines in the test-print. Repeated hedcleaning, both single- and power-cleaning wouldn't bring them back. Then, when we print b/w-images the first 3-4 runs the printed color is only Cyan, turning better afterwards. Anyway the prints are wasted like this.
We bought a new head-cleaning-unit which we are going to install soon.

2. [Device2]

The device is 5 years old but we bought it just now. The former owner didn't print much. 280 meters... So we think that the device stood still for quite a long time now, maybe a year..
when we had our first look on it the very FIRST nozzle-check print looked fine in most colors, some missing in VividMagenta and yellow and inbetween in the other colors but mostly fine. We did a usual head-cleaning. The nozzle-check print looked perfect in every color but VividMagenta and LightMagenta were missing completely. We head-cleaned for several times, both single and power-cleaning but both Magentas wouldn't come back. We printed a plain Magenta-image but the device only prints a light cyan/green-ish color. Magenta obviously can't get through at all.


questions are:
- how to clean up the LK and LLK nozzles? we read about the possibility of a super-dooper nozzle-cleaning which costs about 100ml of ink. Do you know if this makes sense in such a situation? 100ml, 100,-€ you know..
- how to brake up the L- and V- Magenta-holdup?
- do you think it's a good idea to renew the dampers? could they cause the problem?
- is the renewal of the cleaning unit also an option for the new 11880-2?
- any tipps in general about hardware-issues on EpsonSP11880


We have some experience on the epson11880 since we have been working with the Device1 as our primary machine for 6 years now. But we haven't gone literally "into" the device on the hardware-level very much yet since there hasn't been any need to do so. It seems to be in need now.

I'm looking forward to your help. I will also try to help in 11880-issues here if I can in the future.

Cheers,
ibm

[Ernst Dinkla]

Do a search for this thread: Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks / Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out

It will cover everything on the subject, the 11880 head is not that different.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Wayne Fox]

From your description, I would suspect that printer 1 head is dead.  Over that long of a time with a lot of printing, the head eventually can give out.  Also if you’ve used windex to try and clean the head you may have damaged the internal electronics ... I’ve seen this symptom several times.

The second print sounds like a damper problem.  An entire missing channel is usually caused by a defective damper. 

[ibm]

Hartelijk bedankt, Ernst. That topic is huge (wow) and can really help a lot I think.

Thanks for your estimation, Wayne.
We haven't been using any foreign cleanser on the print head ever, never touched it.
I heard of the possibility though to try to clean the head using a Isopropyl-Alcohol-moistened towel and run the head over it several times.. this still sounds too adventurous regarding at which state of problem-solving I am at the moment (not that far).

Unfortunately I haven't found any step-by-step manual on how to replace the dampers.. I'll order them tomorrow but think it will take about two weeks until they arrive. We also think that this is the most probable cause of the defect.

By the way: LightMagenta came BACK today after several further (normal) headcleaning-runs and is showing perfect test-patterns now, so there is still hope that we can solve the problem on the usual way.
In the place where the VividMagenta-lines should be in the test pattern there are now 2 small lines of cyan showing. It was the same with LightMagenta shortly before it came back. VividMagenta still isn't showing at all though.

[Wayne Fox]

By the way: LightMagenta came BACK today after several further (normal) headcleaning-runs and is showing perfect test-patterns now, so there is still hope that we can solve the problem on the usual way.

It is pretty easy for things to dry out and the dampers get stuck if a printer sits for a long time. Often trying to clean a few times then let sit overnight can moisten it up enough to free it up. I'd try this for a few days.

I think there are some online resources with the 11800 service manual.  It will have the steps to replace the dampers.