The fan stops running when my Designjet 30 is turned off. It appears
the plastic bladder inside the printhead is the suspect in several
cases of premature failures. A tiny crack is developed in the bladder
which causes it to be unable to expand enough to open a valve that
allows ink to enter the printhead to replenish the used up ink.

Does operating temperature have anything to do with life expectancy of
this bladder? I don't really know, but I do feel it may be a good
thing to wait for the heads to warm up sufficiently after a period of
the machine being turned off. I think plastic is more pliable when warm.

This bladder expands when vacuum inside the head develops due to ink
being jetted out. The expansion overcomes a spring to open the
aformentioned valve. There must be a perfect balance here, if the
valve is opened too easily, the head will be flooded, if there is not
enough vacuum to cause the expansion, ink will not be replenished. The
lack of vacuum may be caused by a certain number of cells (jets) that
failed electronically.

I believe this design is the reason why the printer requires
recalibration so regularly, and the cause of so many premature
printhead failures. So far it costs me more to replace my HP
printheads than my comparable Epson with a permanent head.

--nick

--- In [email protected], Morrie Portnoff
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Yep I always thought there was a heater. But in either case 
> heater or power supply the heads are warm. The one time I 
> unplugged the machine for an extended period of time the
> yellow print head went on me. Coincidence???



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