Print head issues - Stylus Pro 7600

Hey Everyone,
I've spent quite a bit of time and money trying to get my Stylus Pro 7600 going. I'm SO close, but the nozzle check is totally blank. I've run multiple power cleanings.

What we know:
My ink is brand new and good to go. The lines are clear, and I can charge/fill the lines nicely all the way past the dampers to the ink manifold (which connects to the head).
Ink manifold for reference. Cleaning solution pushes nice and steady through each port:


The issue appears to be with the print head itself, which is worrisome. I currently have the head itself suspended in a distilled water/isopropyl alcohol/propylene glycol solution. The electronics of the head are of course, not sitting in the solution.
The print head suspended in the solution:


Can the print HEAD itself get clogged? Are there other techniques to unclogging it besides what I'm doing above? Is what I'm doing above bad? Why are replacement print heads still so expensive for these ?

Thanks in advance everyone. Any/all advice welcome. I'm ITCHING to get printing again.

Could you explain briefly the history of this printer - was it put out of order earlier - or did you buy it in this condition - did you have it printing some time ago - did the dropout of the head happen suddenly or with a growing number of missing nozzles ? Don't you think it could be an electrical problem - driver board - a fuse etc ?

Ink stained Fingers said:

Could you explain briefly the history of this printer - was it put out of order earlier - or did you buy it in this condition - did you have it printing some time ago - did the dropout of the head happen suddenly or with a growing number of missing nozzles ? Don't you think it could be an electrical problem - driver board - a fuse etc ?

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Hi, Ink Stained. Thanks for chiming in!

A history would most certainly be helpful. The printer was essentially given to me by a trusted friend who had 2 of them. The printer had been sitting around for a couple years and had old/dried up ink, clogged lines, etc. Prior to sitting around, the printer was operational.

We knew that the ink system would need a solid run through to remove all the bad ink. I took apart the entire ink system, from cartridges to the printer head and cleaned out everything with my cleaning solution. I flushed cartridges, removed all the lines, flushed them, flushed all the ink-line connectors (which tighten the lines down on both the cartridge ports and dampers), I flushed the dampers, flushed the ink manifold, and soaked the head.

A couple weeks ago I was ready to test it so I bought some fresh ink, filled my cartridges, and charged the ink system. The lines filled up beautifully to my surprise and I was so certain that we'd be up and running. But power cleaning/nozzle check after power cleaning/nozzle check left me with blank page after blank page.

I went back into the print carriage a few days ago to reassess. When I pulled the damper assembly off the manifold/head assembly the dampers drained (because they had been filled properly). I removed the ink manifold from the head and used a syringe to run more cleaning fluid through it to check for clogs. The cleaning solution poured through beautifully. So alas, I've concluded that my print head has an issue. As I showed, I'm soaking the head once again for perhaps 24 hours then will re-charge lines and retry a nozzle check.


As for electrical issues, to be honest I'm completely unsure and am quite naive when it comes to how electrical systems work. I would hope that the printer display would notify of any electrical problems because it is so finnicky about all other things (such as paper position). If there's a way to check these things, please let me know.

I'm beginning to lose hope but I have tools to make custom frames now and would love so much to be able to print and frame my work.

Thanks so much for your time and suggestions.

Chris,
Salt Lake City

O.k., thanks - the printer was out of order for an extended period of time, but I think you did about everything you can do to let the inks pass any clogs and obstacles in the tubing whereever. And since you used a syringe already to flush the ink path/nozzles at least a few nozzles should come back to life when you run a nozzle check. But since this is apparently not the case I still think there is an electrical problem - not all of them are identified by the logic board to cause an error warning , It could be that the driver voltage for the piezo elements is missing, a fuse is gone - the problem is that about none of such errors are described in the service manual - no electrical test points, no waveforms , no signals - none

Ink stained Fingers said:

O.k., thanks - the printer was out of order for an extended period of time, but I think you did about everything you can do to let the inks pass any clogs and obstacles in the tubing whereever. And since you used a syringe already to flush the ink path/nozzles at least a few nozzles should come back to life when you run a nozzle check. But since this is apparently not the case I still think there is an electrical problem - not all of them are identified by the logic board to cause an error warning , It could be that the driver voltage for the piezo elements is missing, a fuse is gone - the problem is that about none of such errors are described in the service manual - no electrical test points, no waveforms , no signals - none

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What do you reckon are the chances that if I acquire a good head, i can get printing?

I'm running as well a Pro 7600, somewhat regularly, and I did not get into problems as far as you are currently in.
It is difficult at this point to decide whether it is a faulty printhead or the problem is somewhere else, so going for a new printhead may be risky and expensive. I don't know whether there is another large format printing forum in your country, if you just could find a rather worn down printhead from another printer, a printhead which is at least working partially , and which you could use for a test in your hardware.

Ink stained Fingers said:

I'm running as well a Pro 7600, somewhat regularly, and I did not get into problems as far as you are currently in.
It is difficult at this point to decide whether it is a faulty printhead or the problem is somewhere else, so going for a new printhead may be risky and expensive. I don't know whether there is another large format printing forum in your country, if you just could find a rather worn down printhead from another printer, a printhead which is at least working partially , and which you could use for a test in your hardware.

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I've reached out to a couple folks on classifieds in hopes of getting something to test. Thank you so much for your help.

Ink stained Fingers said:

I'm running as well a Pro 7600, somewhat regularly, and I did not get into problems as far as you are currently in.
It is difficult at this point to decide whether it is a faulty printhead or the problem is somewhere else, so going for a new printhead may be risky and expensive. I don't know whether there is another large format printing forum in your country, if you just could find a rather worn down printhead from another printer, a printhead which is at least working partially , and which you could use for a test in your hardware.

Click to expand...

Hello again. After soaking the head, charging the lines, and taking another look, it appears as though the dampers do not fill upon charging the lines. Is this normal? They appear "inky" but not full of ink.

There is no fixed level given - go for 20% - 50%, a significant air bubble should remain -

Hello, ink dampers will probably have ink clumping (pigment out of suspension) after a long period of no use, replace the dampers and try again.
The printhead in these older 7600/9600 printers are really hard to kill, unlike the newer more delicate printheads in the Epson large format models.