Epson carriage drive belt - Does it need to slip?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beemer
  • Start date Start date
B

Beemer

My Epson 1290 has a broken clip which clamps the carriage to the drive belt.
I have glued the broken pieces together but I'm not confident that it will
stand the strain. It was almost keyhole surgery to get the pieces back in
position as I could not remove the carriage to do this as special software
is required to set alignment.

The clamp is serrated to match the serrations on the drive belt. Does the
clamp need to slip in any operation of the printer or could I glue the belt
to the clamp?

Beemer
 
Beemer said:
My Epson 1290 has a broken clip which clamps the carriage to the drive belt.
I have glued the broken pieces together but I'm not confident that it will
stand the strain. It was almost keyhole surgery to get the pieces back in
position as I could not remove the carriage to do this as special software
is required to set alignment.

The clamp is serrated to match the serrations on the drive belt. Does the
clamp need to slip in any operation of the printer or could I glue the belt
to the clamp?

Beemer
Click to expand...

It will self align but to what extent not sure. Stuck my hand into the
printer one day and stopped the carriage the belt slipped and the
carrige stopped in the middle. when I rebooted the printer it self
aligned. Thats with a 1270 which is the same as the 1290
 
It will self align but to what extent not sure. Stuck my hand into the
printer one day and stopped the carriage the belt slipped and the
carrige stopped in the middle. when I rebooted the printer it self
aligned. Thats with a 1270 which is the same as the 1290
Click to expand...

The shaft encoder in most Epsons is in the carriage stepper motor
or it counts steps from the optical carriage limit sensor. So as long
as it doesn't slip whilst printing it should be ok.
 
You can glue the belt to the clamp (and carriage), the printer will align
the carriage in any case. I suggest to glue it because the forces are very
high in this point. Use much glue...
Because you can't glue the clamp in its correct place (it can't push the
belt to make the "curves") you may need to tighten the belt. You will
understand it when you hear a strange "bang" sound each time it goes to the
end of its movement. In this case you should make a modification to the
spring/gear which tighten the belt.
 
No, it shouldn't slip there. The only place slipping is and does occur
is occasionally the carriage loses its way and the head becomes
incorrectly positioned in regard to the stepper or other pulsing, so the
belt will slip on one side of the printer pulleys to reset the position.

Do keep in mind there is a second belt in that area which seems to be a
gray transparent plastic. It is actually a replacement for some of the
older stepper circuitry so the printer reads small lines on this
tapelike part optically. Sometimes that belt is damaged, or even falls
off. If necessary, they aren't terribly costly from Epson Parts suppliers.

Art
 
My thanks to all who replied. I have now completed the repair using
superglue then metal particle loaded epoxy. FYI then printer uses a d.c.
servo motor not a stepper motor. The plastic strip with lines is the
position "counter" and this had to be removed during the repair in case any
glue got onto it. The printer have much nozzle cleaning is now back to
normal. This was so nearly a bin job as I would not have been prepared to
again pay nearly £200 to get it repaired. Last time I had to get the print
head replaced and this was the cost including transport and two new
cartridges.

I am wondering now that with some new printers having up to 8 cartriges (and
12 cartridges I believe for a Canon 5000) the cost to replace these after a
repair is prohibitive.

regards,

Beemer
 
Back
Top