Printhead Disassembly Photos

[beebill]

In the process of getting rid of my old printer, I disassembled the busted printhead (Canon QY6-0076) and took some photos. I thought it might be fun to share:


Curious to get an even closer look, I found this image online (https://baertierchen.de/wb_mai19.html). From my photos, I'm guessing it might look something like this:

I dug up this old post on the forum about the anatomy of a print head:
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/anatomy-of-a-canon-print-head.6190/

And here's an article on Linkedin about the difference between piezo and thermal printheads:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/anatomy-inkjet-head-nigel-heywood/

Also, a discussion on piezo vs thermal heads:
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/comparing-piezo-heads-with-thermal-inkjet-heads.6756/

I'm guessing this printhead is thermal, can anybody confirm?

 

[PeterBJ]

Yes Canon and HP inkjet printers for home use have thermal printheads. Epson and Brother inkjet printers for home use have piezo-electric printheads.

 

[PeterBJ]

Here is a little more about Canon printheads:

A few days ago I salvaged a Canon Pixma TS5050. It is a five cartridge printer using the PGI-570/CLI-571 cartridges. I turned the printer on and made a nozzle check. It was fine except for yellow that was totally missing. According to the nozzle check the printer had only printed 101-150 pages.

A stamp test of the printhead showed no yellow at all so the printhead and/or the yellow cartridge was at fault.

The cartridges were the original setup cartridges that seemed to have been refilled by dripping ink into the ink outlet. Sadly some of the cartridges had been overfilled which could be seen by ink leaked from the cartridge vents. The yellow cartridge was blocked and could not deliver ink. I found another CLI-571Y cartridge that was OK, but that didn't work either.

I then tried to unclog the yellow channel by attaching a short plastic tube to the yellow ink inlet and fill it with a window cleaner with ammonia. The printhead was placed in a tray on a tissue paper wetted with the same window cleaner. Like this, click to enlarge:



I left this for a couple of days. but the liquid didn't drop in the tube and the printhead was still clogged. I then placed the tray and printhead in a couple of centimetres or one inch of water in a frying pan and heated the water to almost boiling for an hour. The yellow was still clogged. I then disassembled the printhead by removing the ceramic plate.

Both the yellow channel in the upper plastic part and in the ceramic plate was totally clogged by dried yellow ink.
Here is the ceramic plate in 50 x magnification, click to enlarge:



And here in 250 x magnification, click to enlarge:



Here are the yellow nozzles in 50 x magnification, click to enlarge:



And here they are in 250 x magnification, click to enlarge:



This shows that refilling using a wrong or bad ink and/or wrong procedure can quickly ruin a printer. I kept the cartridges and dumped the printer.

Edit: I think the clog was caused by the "Yellow gello".

 

[beebill]

Here is a little more about Canon printheads:

A few days ago I salvaged a Canon Pixma TS5050. It is a five cartridge printer using the PGI-570/CLI-571 cartridges. I turned the printer on and made a nozzle check. It was fine except for yellow that was totally missing. According to the nozzle check the printer had only printed 101-150 pages.

A stamp test of the printhead showed no yellow at all so the printhead and/or the yellow cartridge was at fault.

The cartridges were the original setup cartridges that seemed to have been refilled by dripping ink into the ink outlet. Sadly some of the cartridges had been overfilled which could be seen by ink leaked from the cartridge vents. The yellow cartridge was blocked and could not deliver ink. I found another CLI-571Y cartridge that was OK, but that didn't work either.

I then tried to unclog the yellow channel by attaching a short plastic tube to the yellow ink inlet and fill it with a window cleaner with ammonia. The printhead was placed in a tray on a tissue paper wetted with the same window cleaner. Like this, click to enlarge:

View attachment 17029

I left this for a couple of days. but the liquid didn't drop in the tube and the printhead was still clogged. I then placed the tray and printhead in a couple of centimetres or one inch of water in a frying pan and heated the water to almost boiling for an hour. The yellow was still clogged. I then disassembled the printhead by removing the ceramic plate.

Both the yellow channel in the upper plastic part and in the ceramic plate was totally clogged by dried yellow ink.
Here is the ceramic plate in 50 x magnification, click to enlarge:

View attachment 17030

And here in 250 x magnification, click to enlarge:

View attachment 17031

Here are the yellow nozzles in 50 x magnification, click to enlarge:

View attachment 17032

And here they are in 250 x magnification, click to enlarge:

View attachment 17033

This shows that refilling using a wrong or bad ink and/or wrong procedure can quickly ruin a printer. I kept the cartridges and dumped the printer.

Edit: I think the clog was caused by the "Yellow gello".

Interesting. It's nice to get a closer look at the printhead issue. It seems like in many cases there's little that can be done to recover the heads.

In my particular case there was no indication of clogged or dried ink, so I guess that streaks in the prints were from the nozzles wearing out, and I was unable to source a new printhead.

It's a shame to think of the entire printer as a consumable item due to the limited amount of replacement printheads once they're discontinued.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[pharmacist]

Did you see the print head has 2 x 5 rows on the left and the right of nozzles: this mean the same print head is probably also used for the 10 channel Pro-9500. I remembered the nozzle check on the i9950 consisted of 2 rows: one row with CMY and the other with PC/PM/Y/G/R....so actually the first row the other nozzle rows are not activated.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Canon printheads have separate nozzle rows for different droplet sizes - Epson does not need that and operates with
variable droplet sizes, explains the higher number of nozzles for comparable Canon vs. Epson printheads.
Epson longer time ago published a description what is happening inside the Canon nozzles, I have never seen a direct response by Canon to that. The conclusion is that Canon printheads wear out which the user cannot prevent and he cannot clean away those internal changes.