Broken piece of something found in 3880

[jkschreiber]

I posted this in the main Piezography forum too, but not sure I classified it correctly.

So a couple days ago I decided it was time to do some routine cleaning on my 3 month old refurbed 3880 running K7 Carbon. Cleaning the wiper and capping station - that sort of thing. After moving the head carriage all the way to the left and getting to work with a PiezoFlush dipped swab, I notice a piece at the far left with a tiny drop of ink on it. When I touch it with the swab it moves. Soon I realize it is loose and not attached to anything. I remove it and see that it has obviously broken off of something, but I don’t see anything that looks broken. The broken piece is plastic with a metal leaf attached that looks like it might be a contact or part of a switch. I have the service manual which I looked through in search of some clue as to what this piece may have broken off of, but found nothing. The printer has not produced any error messages, and seems to be working fine too. I have a second 3880 (running OEM inks) and have been comparing the two printers to try to find something different that might help identify this broken piece, but no luck there either. It was found at the extreme right end of the track on which the head travels, to the right of where the head parks. This was the first time I had moved the head to look in that area. Since this printer was a refurb, I’m wondering now if the broken piece could have been there when I got it. Does anyone recognize it? It looks like it must have taken a fair amount of force to break it.

Thanks,

[PiezographySupport]

I’ll look at our 3880s in the morning tomorrow. I forwarded your IJM forum post to Dana as well.

[jkschreiber]

Just found some pictures of the head from various angles including from the bottom, and I think I can safely say that it is not part of the head assembly. That was my worst fear.

 

[PiezographySupport]

It looks like it’s the part of the carriage (head assembly) that holds the ink-lines to the assembly. This actually may be nothing to worry about.

[jkschreiber]

Well I’ll be damned! You are absolutely right. It’s from the top right rear corner of the Carriage right behind the white cog. How in the world could that happen? It had to get caught on something, but what? No way it was paper or film - much too far from the paper path. Any idea what the metal piece is for?

That must have made a loud snap when it broke. I don’t remember ever hearing anything like that. Weird, eh!

 

[PiezographySupport]

On this printer it looks like it’s only connected by 1 flimsy screw.

[jkschreiber]

Right. One screw holds the metal part to the black plastic. But what is the purpose of the metal part? In the pictures above it looks like it contacts the smaller diameter smooth part of the white plastic gear.