Hello
@Stuart21. I'm planning of converting L1800 to eco solvent and kind of in doubt as I heard from a local printer technician that L1800 has a weak print head, he said it breaks from eco solvent conversion, but didn't explain in more details... What do you think about it? Have you experienced such thing with your L1800 or have read/heard something like that? Also, is there no problem with the compatibility of the manifold of the L1800 and eco solvent ink contact?
Edit:
Hi Derrick, yes I think the L1800 should be ok for eco solvent. The pipes have no problem (Not like the pipes supplied with aftermarket CISS systems - NEVER use these with ecosolvent ink.
What material are you printing on?
Sometimes I get what looks like a printhead clog - just total failure of one or more colours. However it is a blockage in the top of the ink buffer unit, just above the print head; a right angle where the passage changes direction to pass the ink from the input nipple, to the buffer chamber. To fix this you need to pull the buffer out, then stick a syringe into the bottom of the buffer (keep one syringe for each colour - LM & M can use one, LC and C can use one. too. So 4 syringes) Now the tip of the syringe is circular, & this will block against the valve in the bottom of the buffer unit. So you need to cut a couple of small V's into the tip of the syringe, say about 1 mm - 1.5 mm. Then when you push it into the buffer it will allow ink & air to flow each way. So draw a little air into the buffer, then pump a little air & ink out, onto e.g some scrap paper. Do this a few times until the blockage is gone. Then plug it back into the ink pipe, & you can pull ink into the buffer with the syringe. 'Mostly full' is ok, a bit of air does not hurt. Then put buffer back on the print head (Careful to not mix the colours, but if you do this 'one by one', this won't be a problem.
I would expect you should get 6 - 12 months or more from a printhead. They are getting cheaper now. I am using ecosolvent ink from Korea. Do you have a source?
If you had an extra set of ink tanks, pipes / buffers & possibly also printhead, you might be able to set you printer up for different inks. Changeover should take half an hour or so.
I have destroyed printheads by running pretty aggressive solvents through them, - perhaps because I left the solvent in too long. Just use regular solvent, 5 min / 10 min max -
Head strike can be a problem. What are you printing? Need to keep clearance, 1 - 1.5 millimetre min. (I am talking about my flatbed conversion - this doesn't apply to regular L1800s printing paper, etc)
Good luck,
Stuart.
