Phaser 350 White strips on test page 2

[GrimtheOgre]

Help

I have just picked up a 350 from Ebay, and when it powers up & prints the test page it has white line missing all the way down, about 1/2 inch in width, Some of the text is smudged,

Is it possible to power up with just black inks inserted, I need yellow, but I am worried about spending lots of money to find that I might as well find a dumpster.

I can supplied a photo(jpg) if anybody needs to see problem.

 

[marty5261]

To clear up the light stripes you need to run the cleaning for light stripes, for this you need to have ink in the printhead. It is possible to defeat the out of ink message by blocking the ink load plungers back but if you run the printhead out of ink running the cleaning cycles this will defeat what you are trying to clear up and may cause you to experience light stripes in the low/empty colors.

 

[GrimtheOgre]

Hi Marty

Thanks for your reply

I have been doing the light stripes clean, which is why I have run out of ink ( yellow ). I think that the problem is blocked jets on the print head, and I would like to try and clear them. I have read that there is a service menu that you can up the temperature, and this may do the job.

Or is there another method of cleaning the jets ( solvent ?)

 

[oscaragrouch]

GrimtheOgre,

sounds similar to the problem I have: the initial test print of my Phaser 350 has vertical white strips (single color stripes missing) and a complete vertical white bar on the left side of the page (about two inches long in total).

This phenomena occurs almost every time the printer is shut down and turned on again long time later (gaps about two weeks), sometimes with similar stripes on a different postition of the paper.

The problem resolved after some cleaning test pages were made, yet from time to time there were smudges on the paper, regardless of doing test prints and even when printing from a computer.

This problem could (in my case) not be solved with any (repeated) test print ("cleaning for stripes" or "cleaning print head&quot: the printouts contained smudges and sometimes test cymk color bars contained other colors. E.g. on a test print a horizontal cyan bar contained black color. => so new ink might not be sufficient to save your printer, be warned.

A solution for this problem seems to lie within the maintenance tray, the maintenance clutch or the cap/whipe/purge unit (short: cwp). Currently working on this problem, I've checked that my maint. tray and the clutch - both are ok. Am now trying to clean the gasket of the cwp as this one is very dirty. Though the gasket itself is not broken, I'll have a look if it has to be reseated. Next I'll check my vacuum mechanism.

In case that works I'll repost here again ... gotta get a vaccuum gauge from some place now.

BTW: Thew thread thread723-594165 has somewhat related information on this problem.

Hope this helps a bit,

oscar

 

[marty5261]

There is a hidden service menu where you can up the temperature, unfortunately it escapes my memory of how to access it. You can up the temp to 200, normal is 128. Doing this had been used as a temp fix and worked with mixed results. It is advised that after running the cleaning cycles at 200 that you lower the temp back down to 128 as to not burn out the printhead. I have run it as high as 165 for long periods of time.

 

[oscaragrouch]

folks

I'm sorry, but this is a little off-topic ... this menu marty mentions is only accesssible from the service software under the menu "thermals". You can set temperatures for the right/left jetstack (jr, jl), the drum, preheater and the reservoir.

From what I now my Phaser 350 has a temperature of about 140°C for jr and jl.

So far I never even dared touching these numbers, as I do not have any idea how high these temperatures have / ought to be. And the service manual doesn't mention anything.

Is there any way where one can get the appropriate operating temperatures from?

Did increasing the printhead temperature to about 160°C really solve your white stripes problem or the problem GrimtheOgre has mentioned?

oscar

 

[Dacurve]

When you change these values that Marty is talking about, you are not changing the temperature of the printhead!! But the voltage that is supplied to the piezo electric christals (which drive the jets).

Voltage is different per head, per machine. But the standard voltage will always be a value of 128 (the heads were calibrated in the factory, and to make the life easier for engineers.. the standard voltage is always this value). You can possibly clear some missing jets with raising the voltage.. raise the voltage by steps. But be VERY sure to set back to 128. These are options that are left over from the older solid ink machine (where the engineer had to calibrate the head after a certain amount of prints or replacement). It was never the intention to change these values on the 3 & 8 series of solid ink machines. Just a left over from the older models in the firmware.

Als check if you are using Xerox ink in your machine. I have seen problems caused by using the "compatible" stuff.

It is also worth checking things like the cap/wipe/purge assy and the proper working of the vacuum pump with a vacuum meter (as Oscaragrouch was planning to do).

 

[oscaragrouch]

Dacurve,

can you please let us know where these voltage settings can be applied, i.e. how this hidden menu can be addressed? ... just for curiosity.

The service manual doesn't mention them and I can not recall having seen them in the PC-diagostics software.

oscar

 

[Dacurve]

I believe it's in a hidden menu on the machine itself, not in the diagnostics software. I'll look it up for you tomorrow if you want.

Just be adviced to be careful, because a lot of people seem to think you're changing the print head temp. and if you raise the voltage too high, you could damage the piezo chrystals.. which would mean that the missing jets would never recover. i'll let you guys know tomorrow.

Some Xerox engineers (the once that were around when the first solid ink machine were introduced), try this as a last way to recover missing jets before they replace a printhead. There is a lot of potential to ruin the head, but if you're replacing it anyway.. you might as well I suppose.

 

[oscaragrouch]

that would be really nice - we are looking forward to hear from you

 

[Dacurve]

This is from the 360 service manual:

1. Enter the extended menu by pressing Menu and Exit together.
2. Scroll to the Service Support menu item and press Menu.
3. Scroll to the item Cool-down Head Adjust and press OK.

It should be the same procedure on the 350, you might have to go to the service support menu and then press the menu and exit button together. But I can't check this for you at the moment because I don't have access to a working 350.
If this doesn't work, let me know and I'll see if I can find my 350 service manual for you.

 

[Dacurve]

This might be interesting for you guys as well, also from the manual:

Streaks or lines down the print
1. Clean the blade and the wick of the drum maintenance tray.
2. Possible missing weak jet. Print the Service Test Print 2 “Weak Jet” to determine if a jet is not performing. Perform a printhead cleaning cycle to try to clean a clogged jet.
3. Scroll to the hidden service menu item Service Support - Head Adjust. Raise the head voltage value displayed to between 160 and 180. Never raise the voltage setting above 200. Set the head voltage value to the minimum setting that assures proper print quality.
4. If necessary, turn off the printer and allow the printhead to cool for 6 hours.
5. Ensure that no wiring harness are interfering with the horizontal slewing of the printhead. In such a case, the streaks or lines should be parallel and evenly spaced.
6. The x-axis drive is not functioning correctly. If the x-axis drive does not slew the printhead smoothly and evenly during printing, vertical lines appear in the print. Print Service Test Print 1 “X-axis” to reveal an x-axis problem. Replace the x-axis drive, if indicated.
7. Replace the x-axis drive assembly.
8. Replace the power control board.

Seems that you can actually leave it at a higher setting according to this (I thought you always had to set the voltage setting it back to the standard "128" value from the 3 series onwards, but apparently it's only from the 8 series onwards).

Also be sure to use tektronix ink in these machines, the heads are very sensitive to this. Discoloration of the pigments in the inks and missing jets can be caused more quickly by the compatible inks than the true tektronix inks.

Hope this info is of some help to you.

 

[oscaragrouch]

GrimtheOgre,

maybe my results will help you: I've found that the created vacuum in my Phaser 350 is ok (9.8 psi), referring to the created vaccum before the vaccuum solenoid.

But when I'm running a purge cicle, the vaccum behind this solenoid reaches about 6.5 psi at max and then drops immediately to zero. This seems to indicate a non-fitting gasket of the cwp and/or some ink in the metal hose of the cwp. Maybe my analog gauge is too slow to follow or the valve itself is damaged.

I've also detected that during a single wipe cycle my head
is not wiped entirely due to longitudinally twisted wiper blade. Yep, my wiper blade is not a "straight line" ... dunno why. During the wipe cycle I was observing that the cwp gasgket stands about 4mm away from the printhead and the wiper blade was hardly touching the printhead.

> Does anybody know or can tell me if this gap is too large?

Somehow it comes to my mind that the head is not close enough to the cwp.

So next I'll pull out the cwp and most likely will clean it and change the wiper blade.

> Does anybody know the part number of the single wiper blade?

oscar

 

[Dacurve]

Oscaragrouch, seeing these values makes me think the gasket of the c/w/p is not sealing properly.

For info (from the manual):
Vacuum check

Tools required
Magnetic screwdriver
Vacuum gauge
T-20 TORX tip
T-15 TORX tip
PC diagnostics

Use this check to verify the actions of the vacuum pump and the solenoid valve. In addition, you can determine if the cap/wipe/purge assembly is sealing properly against the printhead faceplate.
1. Turn off the printer and remove the power cord.
2. Remove the top and right-side covers as explained in the Chapter 8 topic, “Cabinet panels and covers” on page 8-4.
3. With a T-connector, connect the vacuum gauge to the inlet side of the solenoid valve. This allows you to check the action of the vacuum pump and accumulator.
4. Turn on the printer and enable the PC diagnostics as explained in the Chapter 6 topic “PC-based diagnostics” on page 6-29.
5. Scroll to and select the test suite Actuators. Select and run the test Purge Pump Vacuum Test.
6. The test prompts you to measure the vacuum created in the accumulator as it runs the vacuum pump for about 90 seconds. You should see a vacuum of 51 cm Hg (20 in. Hg, 9.8 psi) created. As the solenoid valve is energized the vacuum should bleed off to 0 is about 5.6 seconds. If the vacuum does not reach the expected value, there is a leak in the vacuum system from the pump, the accumulator and their plumbing or the vacuum pump is defective.
7. Connect the vacuum gauge to the outlet side of the solenoid valve.
8. Run the Purge Printhead Test from the Head Maintenance test suite. When the solenoid valve is energized you should see the vacuum gauge jump to the value 51 cm Hg (20 in. Hg, 9.8 psi) and within 5.6 seconds bled off to 0. This allows you to check the action of the vacuum as it is applied to the printhead; the cap/wipe/purge assembly should be sharply sucked against the printhead faceplate. If it is not, there may be an ink clog in the vacuum tube leading to the cap/wipe purge assembly. If the vacuum does not bleed off at all then the air valve is not opening properly or the 7-mil orifice (a part of the valve solenoid) is blocked. If the printhead is hot, such a condition can allow ink to be sucked into the vacuum system tubing. If the vacuum bleeds off too quickly, then the cap/wipe/purge assembly is defective or check for the cap/wipe/purge assembly is not sealing properly to the faceplate. Check the cap/wipe/purge assembly is properly positioned by performing the “Cap/wipe/purge assembly belt adjustments” on page 9-11.

You could also check if the c/w/p is positioned correctly (I can post the picture on page 9-11 if you want). But I doubt this is your problem. It's probably just a leak in your vacuum system, which is usually caused by a leaking gasket. You also say that the wiper blade doesn't seem to be in position, this would in turn also cause the whole assembly to not properly seal the printhead when purging.

Unfortunately it seems that the wiper blade itself is not available, you would have to buy a whole assembly.