DesignJet Z3200 Repair Porthmadog, Gwynedd
Pretty quiet week last week, although a lot of miles were covered. Started with a trip to Whitehaven in Cumbria to repair a KIP 660. That, however, is a story for another time and place. The week finished with a journey down through Clwyd, to carry out a DesignJet Z3200 repair in Porthmadog, Gwynedd.
The customer, a well-known local artist, had reported “colour fade out” during prints on his DesignJet Z3200 plotter. Also, it was leaking ink down the right leg.
The second of these issues being a straightforward fix, however the colour fade was slightly more trickier.
The first job was to replace the service station. Over time and usage, the reservoir of the service station becomes full of ink. Although the print drop size is very small, only 4-6 picolitres (10-12). Roughly only slightly bigger than the diameter of a human hair. When they band together in BIG numbers, they can cause havoc. Hence, after years of printing the service station begins to overflow and the ink runs down the leg of the plotter onto the floor. Once there it spreads itself out over as large an area as possible, patiently waiting……
….. waiting just for someone to step in the “puddle”. Then it becomes a feature of the carpet everywhere the unsuspecting host carries it. A little ink goes a long way. Believe me, I’ve been a victim of its prank!!!!!
So, right end cover removed, service station replaced, and all traces of ink cleaned from every contaminated surfaces. It was also a good idea to clean and lubricate the rail as well as gently cleaning the Y-axis encoder strip. This action forming part of the DesignJet Service that is carried out to every plotter during a repair.
The chassis of the DesignJet was also cleaned of aerosol and the rest of the service carried out whilst the machine was powered off.
At this point the DesignJet was rebooted, now it’s time to investigate the colour fade. After running several diagnostics prints the problem was narrowed down to the light grey printhead. For some reason the nozzles stop firing during print.
Checked the ink flow to the printhead from the ISS, this was perfect. Checked the pen carriage contacts, again these were clean, the obvious problem here, was the printhead its-self.
Replaced the printhead, carried out the alignment and colour calibration, everything seemed to be functioning OK. Successfully completed several diagnostic prints. The DesignJet was looking good at this point. Just two essential things to do before final test.
The service station needed to be calibrated, along with the drop detect sensor, and finally the plotter had to be informed of the replacement.
Now it was literally time for the customer to run a few test prints, before signing the plotter back over to them.
This DesignJet repair in Porthmadog, Gwynedd was a standard fix. The only stumbling block being the colour fade. However, this turned out to be a faulty printhead, or perhaps a well-used one anyway. Every DesignJet that is used on a regular basis will need a service station replacing at some point. Providing a logical process adhered to the repair time and consequently repair costs can be kept to a minimum.
At Hutchins IT Limited every engineer follows our “Total Care Solution”. A process that’s been developed through our experience of over 20 years in the DesignJet repair sector. This principle ensures every repair is carried out with the upmost care and attention to detail. This ensures the downtime is kept to an absolute minimum and costs are agreeable to both parties.
Our Total Care Solution is paramount to our high “First Time Fix Rate” (around 95%). This enables us to be efficient and give our customers the best possible service in terms of reduced down time and repair costs.
Hutchins IT Limited, your DesignJet Repair Partner in Porthmadog, Gwynedd and throughout Clwyd and Y Canolbarth
