Single persistent missing nozzle segment

[jkschreiber]

Hi Walker,

The new inks arrived yesterday for testing and I installed them last night in a 3880 only to discover a single persistent missing nozzle in the VM (shade 4) channel. I had not noticed it previously with PiezoFlush installed, but now that I know where it is I look at earlier PF nozzle checks, both from yesterday before installing the inks and from a month ago when the printer arrived, and I see it in every nozzle check that I ran. I do examine these closely with a magnifier so I’m a bit PO’ed at myself for missing it. Always the same segment, VM channel, 4th row, 8th column.

I know you have written somewhere about diagnosing specific problems from nozzle check symptoms, and I probably saved it somewhere, but I can’t find it right now. I did all the usual maintenance on this printer when it arrived and thought, mistakenly, that all was well except for the leaky MK/PK switch which I already knew about.

Am I right to think this is a head issue rather than dampers, and therefore replacing the ink supply system would not solve the problem? What should be my next move here?

I should add that I had a similar issue on a 1430 earlier this year, a single persistently missing nozzle segment, that eventually cured itself. Nothing I did helped, but one day it was gone. There was no sign of a problem in actual PiezoDN negatives printed during that time.

Thanks,
Keith