Epson Stylus Pro 7600 CIS system--Need Help

[Trigger 37]

I normally don't work on Epson printers or on CIS system, but a friend of mine ask me to see if I could fix his Epson Stylus Photo Pro 7600 printer. For those that don't know this is a VERY Large format printer that mostly prints on roll paper. It will print on sheets put you have to manually load each sheet. So it is really designed for large format Photo prints. The max width of paper is 24".

These are giant printers and weight over 100 lbs. They contain 8 ink carts and each refillable ink cart will hold about 16 oz. The CIS tubes that run from the ink cart across the 24 inches to the right where they roll up and attach to the inlet port of the printhead. Here is my problem. I have been able to repair the broken part that cause all of the problem in the cartridge area and now all carts are recognized and feed the CIS tubes. Now the problem is that I have been able to clean all but one of the printhead nozzles. Of the 8 colors the only one that is not working is the Photo Magenta.

I have good experience with my Epson 1280 (mini wide format printer) and over the years have learn most of the tricks of cleaning and purging the printhead. I've used all of my bag of tricks and I still can't get anything out of the PC head. Some of the things I have tried is all of the Secret Service Manual Power cleaning steps, KK1 & KK2 cleaning, and I've moved the printhead/carriage to the far left and folded up heavy duty paper towels and laid then in the path of the head, then move the head over the leading edge of the towel. Once it is there then I wet the next section of the towel with hot water and move the head over it. I let it set for a few minutes and then wet the next 2 inches and repeat the process. At the end I grab both ends of the towel and gently slide it back and forth to clean all the accumulated ink of the bottom of the printhead. Once the towel is saturated with ink, I remove it and get another and do it all again.

After each of these steps I would do a nozzle check but never got any sign of any improvement. So I installed another hot towel and left it over night. I ried one more thing that did work and that was I took an old empty ink cart with some minimal amount of PC ink in it and put in about 8 oz of hot water. This did not work because the PC head is so clogged that the cleaning cycles can't even such ink through the nozzle. If they could it would problem clean up and work.

I own a special syringe and tube that I can use on just about every other Epson printer to force cleaning solution down through the inlet on each nozzle. This has worked great on printer where I can remove the ink carts and get directly at the head input. On this 7600 CIS system I can't do that unit I pull out the head. It is not accessible.

So the next step is to remove the printhead and try to clean it. I can verify that I have good ink flow all the way up to the head. There are mini CIS carts that sit above each printhead nozzle input and supply the pool of ink. I can veryify that I have ink into all of these mini carts. To remove the printhead, the Service Manual wants me to first "Dump" all the ink in the CIS, then I can release and remove the mini carts and hang those on a local hook. Now the printhead is free to be unlocked and removed.

My question is,... Since there is no pressure inside the CIS tube and the ink only flows through them via suction, if I empty just the ink in the mini carts, can I hang the CIS tube up high such that they are not below the storage ink carts and prevent the ink from coming out, or do I have to clamp each one off.

Any suggestions on how to do this would really help. I have ZERO experience with CIS systems.

 

[websnail]

The only thing I can think to add would be to go top and bottom with cleaning solution..

ie: rest the printhead over a solution soaked pad, overnight.. and have a cleaning solution cartridge sitting in place as well... Unfortunately because it's a CIS based system it's unlikely the solution in the cartridge would reach the printhead until (guess what) it starts clearing the clog to allow it to flow...

Art Entlich sounds like your last hope to be honest...

 

[Trigger 37]

Websnail,.... who is Art Entlich????? where can I locate him.

 

[websnail]

Websnail,.... who is Art Entlich????? where can I locate him.

Oops... Sorry.. Insider knowledge...

Art Entlich is the guru when it comes to printhead cleaning for the Epson inkjet printer range... This blog is here:
http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3CCDAAAD12BCDCB7!129.entry

Anyway... he has a guide to cleaning printheads that he hasn't put on a blog or site as yet and just emails it out to people who request it..

If you email him at: e-printerhelp (AT) mvps (d0T) org and request a copy of the manual he should send it back to you...

It's very useful and detailed stuff...


Art is also very helpful but he is pretty busy so expect long delays before you hear anything further...

 

[Trigger 37]

Websnail,... Now I remember him... He sent me his cleaning process more than a year ago,... and I'm affraid that it is so poorly written that I could not follow it nor make head or tails out of it.

Since you have a CIS system, your information will be much more usefull to me. It is not how to clean the Epson that I need to know. This epson printer has a factory designed and installed CIS unit. Why,... because this model is intended to be for production. I have seen this same model printer, or the next generation, installed at Sam's club to print large poster size prints for walkin or Internet customers. It is designed for high volume usage.

So,... having said all of that, what I need to know is how to disconnect the CIS ink supply and remove the head without getting ink all over the place. This CIS system is not much different from every other CIS, but since I know nothing about them , I am reluctant to just start unplugging things.

I have the manual that tells me in detail how to get the printhead out and after that I know how to clean it. The problem is how to disconnect the CIS ink supply tubes without getting ink everywhere.

Here is the way things are laid out in this CIS. There are 8 very large ink carts that hold 12-24 oz of ink each. At the rear of each ink cart, about 1" from the bottom, the ink exits the cart into a tube. The tubes runs the entire width from left to right of the printer, laying flat in a tray. At the end the tubes are rolled up and curved back 180 degrees to mate with miniture ink carts. These ink carts hold no more than 2-3 ml of ink and each one sits on top of the ink input prong of the Epson printhead. The mini ink cart has the ink tube attached at the top via a compression nut. Epson Service Manual wants me to go through some elaborate "Empty" process that will dump all of the ink out of the entire CIS system into special waste ink cartridges. Once the ink is all dumped, then it is safe to disconnect all of the mini ink carts (which are now empty), lift them out of the way, and unlock the printhead and then just lift the printhead out of the carrier.

I have a feeling if I don't dump any of the ink, and just unlock all of the mini ink carts and lift them off of them Epson input prong, the ink will just run out of the mini carts all over the place, until all the ink in the tubes is dumped.

If you can tell me another way to do this, just let me know. If you need pictues, just let me know.

 

[websnail]

The trick is going to be clamping the tubing... Essentially you could try the trick of somehow sealing the cartridge in-port end so that no air or ink can get into the system that this should have the same effect as putting your finger over the end of a drinking straw.

Common sense tech I know but I can't think of a reason why it would work... Failing that I'd try to figure out a way to drain the system.

 

[Trigger 37]

Websnail,... It turns out the all the ink carts plug into a housing that has similar features as any Epson ink cart. Each Cart plugs into a serparate port that seems to be air tight, and when you remove the ink cart there is no air intake, so all of the ink stays in the very long tube. Of course it is also held air tight at the other end. I don't see a way of clamping these tubes as they are made out of very stiff plastic tubing.

I have access to the Epson priority customer line and I'll give them another call. What they want to do is have one of their specialist drop into my house via parachute, but they warned it might be a little expensive for house calls. I said, "No thanks". Hopefully they can tell me how to do the draining.

 

[websnail]

LOL... good luck... let us know how it works out..