Forcing noozle remapping on a clogged Canon iPF 6400

[PhR]

Hi,

With a few other photographers, we share a Canon iPF 6400. It started to produce banding on glossy paper a few weeks ago. We noticed that the noozle check was showing some blurred lines on some of the glossy colors. Being the most knowledgable, I did the A cleaning and the B one several times according to the doc, without noticing any change.

I read in several places (here in particular) that this Canon was remapping clogged noozles to new ones when they are clogged so that it was virtualy never clogging until you reach a point where the printer asks for replacing the print head.

So, before buying a new head, I have some questions :

- what else can I try to unclogg ?

- what can be the reason of non-detection of the clogged head ? (I conjecture it is because it is partialy clogged, but ...)

- is there a way to force the printer to use possibly spare noozles ?

Thanks

Philippe

[dannybirchwood]

Hi Philippe

Sorry to hear your having trouble.

One thing you could try, printing a solid block of the blocked nozzle colour which will push ink volume to those nozzles and maybe break the clog down.

I used to do these on my Epson's worked pretty well in the past. I will have a think in the mean time.

Let me know how you get on

 

[PhR]

That's a good idea. I remember I did that years ago on an Epson 2400. I'll try using a glossy paper.
Thanks.

Philippe

[Pete Berry]

There's a basic difference between Epson's electro-mechanical piezo nozzles and Canon's electro-thermal bubble-jet nozzles, whose modus exodus is generally that of burnout (electrical shorting), and is not reversible. Having gone through four iPF heads in the past 7 years, none of the nozzle failures have been reversible on cleanings. A Canon tech once told me that if a single cleaning doesn't reverse it, more are just wasted ink and a new head is needed.

Canon's heads have a huge nozzle redudancy and auto-remapping of failed ones. Seems you have reach the point that this can no longer compensate, and a new head is needed. The problem of trying to force printing in spite of printhead error messages is that of drawing too much current through the too many shorted nozzles, with rising head temps - further failures, and a blown controller board possibly resulting.

Canon have been generous in out-of-warranty head replacements in some cases. How old is the printer, and how many sq. ft. or meters have you printed?

Pete