Re: Perfect condition Printhead instantly died...

Hi every body, I have an HP Latex 310. I used to always replace printheads when banding effect appears ont prints. Then I often use to replace printheads betwwen 2 and 3 Liters printed by the defect head. It seems normal for me. But now I went to encountered a phenomenon that I had never had with any HP Latex printer. I have had a big print job to do and before this, I launched the printhead test to veryfy that all the printheads status was perferct and i can say that it was really perfect. Then I start printing and printer was good printing, perfect printing during about 20 minutes and during printing a large red image, one of the two Magenta printheads stopped spitting ink little by little in a few seconds as you can see on the pictures I take. I had never seen one perfect condition printhead instantly died. What do you think about that ? Have you ever encountered a similar phenomenon?

Hello @lerouxjul I suggest that you do a hard clean of all PrintHeads > go to the menu of FP > image-quality maintenance > clean PH > clean all. Or you might prefer just to clean the PrintHeads that detects that failure. Another recommendation would be to incorporate thicker Spit bars (configured from the RIP) and if none of these recommendations improves performance you should contact your support team and have the printer checked for any hardware problems. I hope this helps

Hi, Thanks for your answer, Of course I run multiple PH clean and this don't helps, the head is dead and I have replaced it. The new one prints well. That was not my question, My question was to know if it is usual that a good working printhead dies instantly in a few seconds ? What is "thicker Spit bars" ?

Hello @lerouxjul The spit bars are these colored bars on the sides, like the ones you see in the pictures that you have attached, the idea is to configure them to be thicker. We belive this can help a lot. If after all recommendation you still experiencing the same problem, please contact your support service.

Yes ok, But could you said if it is usual that a good working (during one year) printhead dies instantly in a few seconds ?

Wow, I've never heard of one dying that fast.. There could be a lot of factors involved in this issue. #1.. Is the print head still under warranty? If it IS under warranty, I'd suggest calling HP right away to see if they can diagnose, and possibly replace the print head. When purchased, did you check the warranty date? Some resellers unfortunately send out print heads that are old or almost out of waranty. Old but new print heads may still be usable, as long as they were stored properly, and shaken like crazy before you install them. As noted above by Sonia, clean...clean...clean the printhead through the use of the printers front panel. You may have to do it 5-10 times on the single print head with the problem. #2. Did you try to replace the printhead again? I know this seems redundant, but sometimes defective printheads can come right out of the box. A while ago, I read some forum posts that all talked about a batch of bad magenta/yellow printheads for the latex printers. At some point last year, I had to replace mine a few times, even with less than 500ml sprayed from them. #3 If a replacement printhead doesn't work, then there may be an issue with the printer itself. (Hopefully not the case.) I've read in the forums that people have had their internal air lines crack, which reduces or nullifies air pressure to the print head, causing print issues. ' I hope any of this helps!

Replacing the printhead directly solve the problem and I have now perfect print quality. The defect printhead was out of warrandy and printed a lot for more than one year. I'm not surprised by the fact she died, but I'm really surprised that this printhead was dying so fast in a few seconds as you can see on the picture... Then, I just ask other HP Latex users if they have ever encountered the same phenomenon ?

I've personally never seen one die that quickly, but I suppose anything could happen. For me, they start with a little banding at first which eventually gets worse, followed by color consistancy issues. Ours haven't completely shut down like that luckily. Glad a new print head fixed the issue!

It does happen - i was once told this " The printheads are Man Made - Mass Produced" - this, unfortunately means that all printheads are not created equal and some will last and perform better than others. Two other options come to mind with this issue: One thing i have been doing more often recently is checking the Drop Detector - from the front panel find the program called Force Drop Detect and run. Then go to Calibration and calibrate the Drop Detector. The 2nd thing, Check the rubber nibs on the Primer Assembly (the crane looking thing inside the right side) If there are nibs missing (should be 4) then this will cause premature issues with the Printheads. you can not get rubber nibs as a part and have to order the complete primer, replace it and calibrate it. Good Luck Roy K

Hi Roy, Thanks for your answer, - The program called "Force Drop Detect" is in the Service Menu, isn't it ? - Do you have a picture of the 4 rubber nibs on the Primer Assembly ?

Hi Lerouxjul, yes, the Force Drop detect is found in the Service Menu under Utilities - Scan Axis Menu. If you lift the front glass, get a flash light and look to the right - above the carriage is something that looks like a crane. This is the Primer Assembly - look where the tubes connect to the arms, just below each tube should be a rubber nib. if you see any brass then the nib is missing. Cheers, Roy K

Hi, thk for answer, I don't know how to access Service Menu ? I will try to see primer assembly condition and take a picture if you don't one.

Just an important note.. be careful what you do in the service menu, as it could mess up the printer. Don't make any changes, unless you fully know what will happen. **USE AT YOUR OWN RISK** The force drop detection... from the front panel, hit: -settings -servicce menu -#1 service utilities -#1.5 Scan Axis Menu -#1.5.1 Force Drop Detection Hit OK to run the test, and let it do its work. It will tell you how many ink nozzles on EACH printhead is bad. A tech told me that Anything around 100+ bad nozzles will cause issues, but be cautious of any printhead showing a high number. ok, and I attached pics of the "crane". You will see the 4 black rubber nibs that should be there.. if you see brass, then a piece fell off.

These are pics I take of the "crane" of my Latex 310 :

is it OK ?

Yes. That looks ok. I know this is from three years ago. But I am dealing with non working print heads. Replace them and still have issues. Hope you got it figured out.

I know this is dead but i have the same issue, on the same print head slott #6 on my HP latex and ive had techs come out never fixed it. when it did it while it was under warranty i was assured it was the print head and not the printer. but it only happens to that one slot and it looks exactly like the images above, works then just STOPS no flow at all