sponge parking / cleaningpad replacement

[Smile]

Hello, on newer canon printers the parking pad is made from ceramic and does not require replacements, however some printers still use sponge pads for cleaning the head.

For example Brother MFC printers have a sponge pad at the left side of the printer (opposite parking location) that is used to clean the printheads. There pads are very bad quality and are glued so they can't be washed etc. After some 300 A6 prints the pads needs to be cleaned else the dirt will overfill and photos printed will get dirt on them making the owner to believe there might be print head problems.

In fact the only simple cleaning will resolve this problem.

---------

I decided to find a replacement material to use instead.

How about this http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-PAK-Whit...330?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item461f32b422

 

[PeterBJ]

I know these "magical cleaning sponges". The secret behind their "magical" cleaning ability using only water is that they are abrasive. Not a material I would like to contact the underside of a print head.

 

[palombian]

While trying to clean the parking aka purge pads of my MX7600 (to cure the typical illness of this printer: black line on the back of the page) they disappeared in the innards of the machine.

Unable to find replacements - deep silence from the Canon repair center - I tried different types of sponges and even pads from an Epson printer.
They all caused disaster (contamination between colors, ink smearing and overflow, etc).

The material must be 1,8 mm thick, rigid, permeable but not sucking, a big secret indeed.

At the end I found (on this forum) how to dismantle the printer, recovered the pads and cleaned the purge unit.

I think the best way to clean the purge pads and cups in a Canon printer - without dismantling - is by spraying Windex with a long syringe or the like on the pads without touching them.

 

[RagerToo]

just a comment, and I didn't take any pictures when I had it apart.

My HP 8250 has two 'park' spots. They are mounted on a sled that shifts as the printer firmware requires. The actual "done printing" park side looked like it is a hard pad, as you describe, I poked it with my tweezers, and the print head drops down to sit on top of it. There appeared to be no ink what-so-ever on the pad, and there's at least one rubber wiper that seals the area. The pad is probably less than 2 inches square. I can only guess it has some sort of preserving makeup to it. I also have quite few pages/ photos printed on this printer, less than 300.

The waste side of the sled has some very large open-cell material. Probably to reduce splash, and drains to a slanted flat bit to "the depths" of the printer. Much of the surrounding area is packed with adsorbent paper(?) material. None splattered, on mine.

I also suggest none of these items touch the print head.

 

[Smile]

I know these "magical cleaning sponges". The secret behind their "magical" cleaning ability using only water is that they are abrasive. Not a material I would like to contact the underside of a print head.

Thanks for input, how about this one then

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roland-FJ-5...345?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item461e720fc9

 

[PeterBJ]

This material seems to be absorber material for a printer. It is probably a felt like material and probably suitable.

The porous pads in a Canon purge unit dont touch the underside of the printhead. AFAIK their purpose is to provide resistance to air and ink flow to distribute vacuum evenly to the underside of the print head, so all nozzles are cleaned.

What does the Brother wiping material look like? Is it a felt like material or a foam like material or? I think a similar and non abrasive material might be best suited for the purpose.

 

[Smile]

Brother print head parking station looks like it has no pads felt, or foam inside. It looks like canon with white rubber or teflon backing inside it. But unlike other printers brother has another pad on the left side of the printer with sponge in it to clean the print head between cycles, after cleaning I do not know the purpose of it.

I do knw it has no ink outlet, so must be periodically cleaned. I hoped to find a sponge i could cut to side and replace onc in a while.

 

[PeterBJ]

What is the size of the needed replacement sponge? Maybe a replacement sponge could be cut from a sponge from a HP300(/HP60 in the US) black cartridge? The sponge material in the HP cartridges seems non abrasive and has a good absorbent capacity, and can be cleaned using water. Or maybe a replacement sponge could be cut from a non-abrasive kitchen sponge?

 

[palombian]

I've cut replacements for the sponges under the platen in my Canon printer from (the non abrasive part of) a kitchen sponge.
This to avoid leaking when printing borderless (and I suspect the printer p.... ink voluntarily from time to time).
I rinse them in water.

 

[Smile]

I was able to slowly feed the sponge with 10ml of cleaning liquid, the pad has washed and unclogged. Since the liquid got somewhere not overflowing I have say it should not be cleaned by hand.

The clog must have happened when I changed inks from pigment to dye inks, who knows. Lets see perhaps I don't have replace anything.