Oce Arizona 250GT Frequent Printhead Failure

Dear All,

I looking for potential buyer for Oce Arizona 250GT, UV Inkjet technology with variable dot 8 picolitre.

I am having Oce Arizona 250GT for sale with well maintain and running condition.

This printer can print flat bed rigid material 4x8ft or roll to roll (unattended Print running more than 12 hours non-stop). Very ink saving and easy maintenance. Just ink filter, top up coolant, cleaning dust at table and dust filter.


Thank You
Frankie Koh
 
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Hi Frankie,

Something is definitely wrong. Oce printhead should last 3-4 years under typical (12 hrs per day) operation.

Are you using OEM inks? I see frequent nozzle clogging problems with our clients when they change to bulk ink systems.

But... I think your nozzle clogging is a symptom of another issue -- microparticles of dirt in the ink carrying system. So, even when you add new ink or do your syringe cleaning, you're not really solving the problem. The nozzles just re-clog.

I think your best solution is to (hope you're sitting down) clean the entire ink carrying system.

The weird thing I don't understand is why they would clog next to each other? Unless they are clogging because of the drying element? Just a thought...

Ed Fagenson
printheadcleaners.com
804-423-7188
 
more info

more info

More info Please:

How long each day do you print ?
How Long idle ?
Is the machine on when Idle ( overnight ) or is it powered down ?
How often do you change filters ?
When Idle does ink drip from heads ?
Head Height is correct ? too low can cause strikes and or clogs.

What material do you print on. IS it generating static.
Roll or flatbed material ?
 
what kind of change did you do on the machine, I have the yellow head failed half of it, what should I do? itis H7 (head 7)
thanks.
 
Really sounds bad for your service guy, escalate to upper management since those head lasted two years of almost 24/7 printing here. Could be a coolant or electrical problem, baring any user caused issues.
 
Hi

First of all daily and weekly maintenance is crucial for printhead reliability.
But is you printer located near solvent printer?
It is a well known problem that if the Arizona / aquity printers are located in either a dirty enviroment or near a solvent printer you will get permanent nozzles out in groups.
Another thing you should pay attention to is to make sure you don't drown the heads in flush.
The flush NEVER get inside the printhead as it will dissolve the electronics in the head.
So flush only on the nozzle plate ( and please - no syringes )
 
I guess I'll never complain about our vutek heads. 21 heads in printer (UV). Replaced 9 in the last 5 years. The printer runs 9 hours a day.
 
Yeah small printers tend to be more fragile but that all depends on the workload, conditions ( not near a solvent printer, dust, static etc), and the operator, to some extent the field eng too.
Vuteks tend to be of heavier metal , beafy with rugged parts, but the average is 2-4 per year per machine ( all under either an ink agreement ( 2 per machine per year free ) or service agreement ( 1 per color per machine per year RE FREE.) in our case thats up to 6 and 8 time the number of machines, Contracts are expensive but we more than make up the differance at almost 24/5 and 24/7 production. I do the service so mostly its for parts.
Vutek head problems are mostly crossfiring ( even after flushes ) and some heater failures either stuck on or off. You will get one day a shorted head which is nothing but a pain because it tends to cascade into multiple board problems.
GAndi/agfa is almost always cloggs but you will get a short hear and there. ( not very expensive but cheaper (50% off ) with ink agreement
Oce/fuji will clogg or just fail badly and are expensive.

Uv printers tend to be more problematic for a number of reasons:
Uv light reflectins back to the head and cureing ink on head,
Head from uv light
Material strikes because of head or poor vac. table
static from material shocking heads
dust attraction. etc
 
Vutek service agreement is very $$$$. We have never had one. The guy that runs our press could work for them. We get hour head replacement thru Nazdar and the ink volume we buy.
 
You got that right very pricey indeed,
The issue is arizona printhead failures. so what environment the printer is in is important, static is a big one, and what materials printed are used, of course head stikes are deadly.
 
We have been very fortunate with head strikes. Don't get me wrong we have had 3-4 dozen but the strike has never taken out a head. We even had a few on .024 Alum. Turned the sheet into a pretzel but the heads were OK
 
Most often, frequent failures with the printhead are caused by static on the media. What kind of media are you printing on most frequently? Are you seeing printing defects? If so what kinds?
 
Oce Arizona 500

Oce Arizona 500

We have had the Oce Arizona 500 for the past 20 months and already we have had 3 printheads go. We pay £1100 every month for maintenance, and today the engineer was called in AGAIN as the machine was not working properly, he then told us we have to buy another head and pay £5000 for ONE HEAD !!!
The head failure was not our fault and seems to be a fault of the electrical system within the machine as the engineer suggested, but Oce are saying we must pay for it. When we complained to Oce, they basically told us to pay up or shut up!!
Who can afford to pay for printheads going wrong every few months? I will not recommend this machine to anyone again and will never buy another Oce product again.
Regards
Athil



Dear All,

I looking for some statistic for the printhead failure for Arizona 250GT,

I am having Oce Arizona 250GT for more than year and already change more than 8 Printhead. The nozzle failure simpton is starting with one or two nozzle cloged and more nozzle fail after perform purging or cleaning with flushing solution, the nozzle fail always next to each to each other nozzle. anyone had this exprience please help how to manage it.


Thank You
Frankie Koh
 
We you say they go ( fail ) are you talking about complete failure or just blockage ? I have found that even machines under so called contract have ink filter that are way overdue for changing. If you are talking about nozzle clogging there are ways to solve it without changing or removing the head. Send me or post a photo of your jet test.
 
We have had the Oce Arizona 500 for the past 20 months and already we have had 3 printheads go. We pay £1100 every month for maintenance, and today the engineer was called in AGAIN as the machine was not working properly, he then told us we have to buy another head and pay £5000 for ONE HEAD !!!
The head failure was not our fault and seems to be a fault of the electrical system within the machine as the engineer suggested, but Oce are saying we must pay for it. When we complained to Oce, they basically told us to pay up or shut up!!
Who can afford to pay for printheads going wrong every few months? I will not recommend this machine to anyone again and will never buy another Oce product again.
Regards
Athil

Tell Oce thank you very much and goodbye, will be looking at a replacement for the 500 and it WILL NOT be an Oce product. I don't think I've every met one happy Arizona customer. I've known 5 companies who ran they and they all had major issues. Do you self a huge favor and start looking for another printer if you have not already
 
Hi Cliff, the head is completely destroyed. The engineer said that they normally run at 47C and this had gone up to 140C. This is not our fault as the machine hardware was faulty, but Oce are still arguing the toss with us. "Customer comes first?" not when you're dealing with Oce!
We have a very strict service and daily routine on cleaning and purging. We only use Original Oce inks and have been using these machines for four years. The 550GT we've got is a Friday Night job and has always been going wrong. Oce even replaced the whole motherboard inside the machine 2-3 months ago!!
Anyone out there thinking of buying an Arizona from Oce, think again!! They are great at selling their machines but absolute rubbish at aftersales service.
Athil
 
Hi guys, we have already got the Oce people here and their attitude stinks, they never accept responsibility and all they are interested in is making money out of us. We are all here to make money, but Oce are just a "rip off" plain and simple.
We have looked at a Swiss machine made by Spandex and also at the Mimaki flatbed as we have two JV33's and they work perfectly.
While printing White ink on the Arizona, we could be cleaning the head for 90 mins, yes 90 minutes, before we can get the heads to fire properly !
The machine has been down three times in the last three months, on one occasion, it went down on Monday morning and was finally up and running on Friday afternoon! And we pay £1100 a month for maintenance contract !!
The Oce rep is always telling us the Arizona is the best product on the market!! We know through experience that this is not the case.
 
I should correct myself. We have the OCE alter ego, Fuji Acuity HD which is identical in every respect except color. Service is marginal although we have a few OCE reps here that promise the moon and stars about service. Obviously here in Canada we are in a distortion field. At any rate we have had only one head failure and one blocked because of over the weekend leak. The head failure one we did manage to get it free since it was within the 1st year ( Fuji ) . Head are considered consumables even under a service agreement which is nuts. Our Vuteks at least have 1 head per color per year for failures etc. The Acuity is running 2 to 3 shifts at times but is never off.
Now since it melted down on its own you have a good case, you need to move up the food chain. Anyone who gets terrible service and pays for it is in the right. Be ready for a fight, get prepared. Since I service these and other printers I can tell you its really not normal. Frying board and head is usually power related, get the input power lines checked and out put voltages check. almost think there was an error during install.
 
Hi Cliff
Thanks for the advice, we will be prepared for everything Oce might throw at us. I cant see how they can blame heads melting and boards blowing on us. I agree that the install might be at fault. We have recently had a full electrical health check in our factory, and we have the certificate for it.
Also agree that, we should be thinking of a better quality machine as I've had it with this machine.
PS. since the White head went down three days ago, and the Oce rep coming here, we've heard nothing from Oce!? Good service!!
 
Thats Great that you have had your site electrical checked. I was refering to the oce guys actually setting the electrical connections and verifies input and output. What part of the planet US, Canada, Europe Other requires different locations of taps on the OCE machine. I find it funny that a few people at my location believe the hype that oce says about their service while belittling Fuji. All said about Fuji,the machine working with little surprises, yes there have been a few ( a few ) issues but in the end it worked out well. When we had a lightjet from oce it was funny to see the tech come in and call someone on how to repair it. After we switch to intergra and all the old issues went away. So I happen to agree that Oce is lost.
 

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