Epson 7880 Printing Problem

Open Discussion
1

Yesterday my 7880 wasn’t printing correctly so I did a nozzle check, half of one of the black channel’s nozzles weren’t showing so I did a standard head clean. Another nozzle check now showed that in addition to the black two other channels were now showing missing nozzles. Another 2 cleans and now all channels were totally missing apart from the yellow channel which was now half green and half yellow (yellow always prints funny the first print of the day but then settles down, I think it’s the damper.)
Anyway I did a manual clean of the head but no difference. There is pressure to the refillable cartridges so it can’t be the pressure pump. There is ink getting to the maintenance tank after a clean so it’s not that.
Any ideas please? Thanks.

2

Have you examined your clean and flush station? If it’s gunky or the wiper blade is too worn, you may be experiencing foam and wiping issues and the head is not actually wiped clean so that the jets are unable to fire under the head gunk. Were this the case it would eventually cause drips while printing an image. If you have detected a drip while printing you need clean your printer’s flush and clean station and clear the tube to your waste tanks, change the wiper blade.

This time of year you can be experience low humidity and print heads need between 45-65%rH to be happy or they dry. Is your studio dry?

Would be odd that all your dampers are now dirty at one time and need replacing… but 7880 is old and should have new dampers every few years…

But the ‘all channels missing but yellow’ is a bit troublesome…

if ink is getting into the waste tank but not printing on the paper - it does beg the electrical question if the jets are being fired…

with the yellow being half green I say your printer needs some maintenance and the source of your issues is the cleaning station.

best,

Jon

3

Thank you for taking the time to answer.
I don’t think it is the dampers as they would have had to all fail at the same time.
I did a manual head clean by putting folded up cloth soaked in cleaning fluid under the path of the head and ran the head over it until it stopped leaving ink on the cloth.
I emptied the maintenance tank and did a power clean and there was about half an inch of ink in the tank afterwards so I guess the capping station is ok.
After the power clean I did a nozzle check and there was a slight showing from a magenta channel but it also had a touch of cyan in it.
Does this mean a print head problem?
Thank you.

4

Either cleaning station causing print channels to draw ink up during cleaning, or a print head. The former is easy to deal with and cheaper than replacing your print head. And if you do replace your print head you should replace your clean station anyways.