Premature autopsy of an iX7000 print head.

[The Hat]

While trying to overprint a couple of dozen photos with the wrong optimiser in my cartridges
I managed to completely ruin a brand new print head in my iX7000, Ouch.

I cleaned most of the optimiser out of the print head and I mean I really clean it,
I Dried it and put it back into the printer along with the cartridges containing the ink this time
and expected the worst, I wasnt disappointed.

All I could get to show from the nozzle print after several normal head cleans was PK black and PG black,
the Magenta, Cyan and Yellow were missing. (Completely blank)

So after getting a new print head for the iX7000, I decided to pull the old one apart to see how bad it was clogged up
and maybe learn something from my expensive blunder. (I decided to take some Photo)

This first shot shows that the print head has six small nozzles and one large one.

On a close up of the nozzles it can be clearly seen that some of them are completely blocked
up with congealed optimiser which was going nowhere fast.

Here it is clear which inlets are blocked and are not allowing the ink to enter the print head.

In this shot of the inside there are eight outlets which allow the ink to flow from the cartridges on its way to the nozzles,
but only seven are use on this printer.

I coloured marked the inlet holes on the ceramic plate to make it easier to identify which is which,
there are two Magenta and two Cyan channels and one each for the PK black, yellow and the PG black.

Here is the plastic diaphragm (Washer) that makes the two pieces fit snugly together to give a perfect seal between the two pieces.

I would not suggest for a minute that anybody should try this themselves (it usually ends in failure thats why)
because it should not be performed on a perfectly good print head unless you have bought a new one first.

After I soaked it for a week in various substances that I had found under the kitchen sink,
I reassembled it and done a test nozzle print, I managed to get about 50% of the magenta,
cyan and yellow back working again; the other two blacks were at 90%.

Its now back soaking again because it will be good enough for the testing of the proper I.S. GO,
a few missing nozzles wont make any difference to the glossiness,
another week or so should do the job..

 

[rodbam]

Does this mean the head wasn't burnt out at all from being starved of fluids but was only blocked by the posh GO?

 

[The Hat]

Does this mean the head wasn't burnt out at all from being starved of fluids but was only blocked by the posh GO?

Yes and no, the heads still had fluids in them all the time because the stuff just wouldnt come out
so I reckon it gave them some sort of limited protection.

I am still working to clean out all of the nozzles so I wont know how much damaged was caused till then
but there will be some damaged nozzle no dough, the print head will be good enough to use for further ongoing testing.

It looks like I have ended up with a separate print head accidently that is,
so I will be unable to bugger up anything else during my GO overprinting..

 

[Smile]

Hmm normal ink ports like on Pro 9000 are round so you can use a tube, but with ellipse ink inlets how do you purge the head? Silicone flexible tubing?

 

[barfl2]

Great Post The Hat very clear photos which show the head;s construction very well. Hope it will help others in the future. Hope my problem has not blown the head.

 

[The Hat]

Heres an up-date on this print head for those of you who are interested.

There are many nozzles in all of the colours that are burned out even ones that werent before I decided to pull the print head apart,
so let that be a warning to others who are contemplating this destructive action.

All in all the head still works fine for the overprinting of GO and now its a win win situation
because I cant damage this head again and all I need is one more cartridge
to have a completely separate print system, one for inks and one for GO.