Color Drop Out on the Anajet mPower

This is a troubleshooting guide on how to resolve missing colors or complete drop out of a color.

Symptoms

During a print a color slowly fades out or instantly drops out of the print.

Possible causes and Solutions

1. Poor nozzle Check:
   
   Do a Print Head Clean All Light followed by a nozzle check to see if the nozzle check is acceptable. If the nozzle check was not acceptable, do another Light Print Head Clean. If the nozzle check showed improvement, continue with another Light Print Head Clean until an acceptable nozzle check is achieved.
    
2. Air in the Lines or Dampers Not Staying Full:
   
   If the printer has not been used for a few days or there was a small amount of air in the lines it is possible that the damper has run dry. The purpose of the damper is to help capture air in the lines and also prevent the ink from being agitated during print head movement. The dampers are located in the print head carriage as seen in the picture below. The mesh screen has been removed for better visibility. To view the dampers through the screen use a small flash light if needed. The level of ink in the damper should be close to the thin metal bar close to the center of the damper membrane. If the ink is much lower than this your color is dropping out due to ink starvation. Activating a purge and print line fill may help but will not fill the damper back to its optimum level. To solve this issue and restore the proper level you will need to do a heavy clean from the print head clean menu. After the clean has finished check the damper level again, it should be back to normal, if not repeat this process.
   
   
    
3. Ink Cartridge Very Low or Empty:
   
   Check the cartridge that the color is dropping out of to see the cartridge is empty or very low. Replace with new cartridge and perform a print line fill from the startup fill menu. Fill Purge Lines for 60 Seconds then Fill Print Lines for 30 Seconds.
    
4. Dirty Nozzle Plate or Dripping:
   
   From the control panel select <Maintenance Functions> followed by <Carriage Control> then <Release Carriage> with a lint free wipe clean any ink drips from the plate. When finished select <Return Carriage>.  Also make sure that the wiper blade is clean and in the correct position. Once this step has been completed do a head clean all light followed by a nozzle check