Hi, Unregistered. | Today's Posts

T-Shirt Forums
User Name
Password

Need to Register?

Forgot Your Password?


Site Navigation




+   T-Shirt Forums > T-Shirt Industry Information > Direct to Garment (DTG) Inkjet Printing > Anajet
Discussion, tips, pictures, reviews and peer to peer support for current and future Anajet DTG owners.

[Anajet] banding issues



 
Share This Thread Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 2 Weeks Ago Nov 4, 2009 2:11:00 PM -   #1 (permalink)
Forum Member
T-Shirt Member

VampieOodles's Avatar
 
Member Since: Oct 2009
Posts: 11
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts


Default banding issues

We have a new Anajet Sprint & are having banding issues when printing with white ink. We have good humidity 50% +, any ideas on stopping this?
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 2 Weeks Ago Nov 4, 2009 3:02:14 PM -   #2 (permalink)
T-Shirt Lover
T-Shirt Fan

23spiderman's Avatar
 
You can call me: Sean
Member Since: Jun 2008
Posts: 99
Thanks: 17
Thanked 20 Times in 16 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

we need more info. what are your print settings? how are your nozzle checks? is the capping station clean? did you go to training?
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 1 Week Ago Nov 14, 2009 5:53:32 PM -   #3 (permalink)
Forum Member
T-Shirt Member
Thread Starter

VampieOodles's Avatar
 
Member Since: Oct 2009
Posts: 11
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

Sorry for the delay. I had typed up a very detailed response that night and was going to finish it in the morning, but my computer did an auto-update and rebooted. Needless to say, I lost it. Here we go again:

We did go to the training and came back with the printer. We immediately bought a humidifier and a hygrometer. We keep the humididty between 50-70%. The capping station is clean, the nozzle checks were good.

The problem is this: We print a photo in white ink only onto a black shirt. The first one looked great and the very next one banded at the top and then got better towards the middle & bottom. Sometimes it bands throughout the entire image. What can be done to get more consistant results?
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 6 Days Ago Nov 14, 2009 7:07:28 PM -   #4 (permalink)
T-Shirt Lover
T-Shirt Fan

23spiderman's Avatar
 
You can call me: Sean
Member Since: Jun 2008
Posts: 99
Thanks: 17
Thanked 20 Times in 16 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

have your tried the "super fine" setting? if your nozzles checks are good, then you shouldn't have a problem with the "super fine". can you attach a picture?
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 6 Days Ago Nov 15, 2009 11:55:12 AM -   #5 (permalink)
Forum Member
T-Shirt Member
Thread Starter

VampieOodles's Avatar
 
Member Since: Oct 2009
Posts: 11
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

I haven't tried that. To be honest, I never even heard of that setting and had to look to see where it is. I don't think it was covered in the training. I did find it, but am wondering if it uses more in than the "speed" setting or not. I'm a bit shocked at the speed at which the white ink cartridges empty. It seems almost impossible to do wholesale pricing on black shirts at the rate it goes. But I will start a new thread on this topic.
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 5 Days Ago Nov 15, 2009 8:33:22 PM -   #6 (permalink)
T-Shirt Lover
T-Shirt Wizard

zoom_monster's Avatar
 
You can call me: Ian Perry
Member Since: Sep 2006
Location: California
Posts: 530
Thanks: 61
Thanked 78 Times in 62 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

Quote:
Originally Posted by VampieOodles
I haven't tried that. To be honest, I never even heard of that setting and had to look to see where it is. I don't think it was covered in the training. I did find it, but am wondering if it uses more in than the "speed" setting or not. I'm a bit shocked at the speed at which the white ink cartridges empty. It seems almost impossible to do wholesale pricing on black shirts at the rate it goes. But I will start a new thread on this topic.
Super fine is slower and uses more ink, so you'll have to adjust levels and dot size. There is more overlap and smaller increments on the platten feed. Printing wholesale w/ white ink is a tough road. I generally do not do it. How are you pricing "wholesale"?

Ian
__________________
imprimeo! ....Make your mark Btownpixelprint.com
Are you kidding me? Free Embroidery software?
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!
Old 5 Days Ago Nov 15, 2009 10:03:02 PM -   #7 (permalink)
Forum Member
T-Shirt Member
Thread Starter

VampieOodles's Avatar
 
Member Since: Oct 2009
Posts: 11
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts


Default Re: banding issues

Ian,

It seems that I've got the banding under control for the time being. I may try the superfine setting if it becomes a problem in the future. In the meantime I am trying to keep ink costs down, so will keep to the least expensive method possible.

Honestly, on the wholesale front, we were told by Anajet (and it’s posted on their website; see http://www.anajet.com/fin.html ) the ink costs for a white shirt would be about $.60/shirt, and for a black shirt with white base and color on top about $2.25, which would be acceptable. Additionally we were told that those cartridges should last anywhere from 150-200 shirts.

However, we blew through the first set of four white cartridges very quickly. At best we only got about 45 shirts, including errors (you’ve gotta love the learning curve!). But of course this included the initial ink charges to get the machine going for the first time, which were numerous. We also, had been mistakenly printing white ink at “Heavy 2”. While struggling with the humidity (the 45-55% range doesn’t work well at all. So much for the “operating range” of 45-85%!) we also had to do MANY head cleans and a few ink purges of several white channels.

All that had been dealt with by the time we installed our second set of white cartridges. We now use “Medium 2” as a standard setting for white. We maintain a humidity level of 60%-70% at all times, and combined with daily printing and weekly maintenance have reduced our need for so many nozzle checks and print purges.

This would lead me to believe that our white ink cartridges would, from then on, last considerably longer. When the new cartridges were installed, I weighed them and the spent ones each on a postal scale. New ones weigh in at 7 ounces, while spent ones weigh between 3-3.5 ounces. Translation: at best we get four ounces of ink for $84. This fact alone is infuriating.

As of today we have printed 45 shirts on the new set of cartridges, and they weigh about 4 ounces each. In essence, I’ve used 3 ounces from them and got 45 shirts, so using this average, I will only be able to get 60 shirts (15 shirts per ounce) from the full set. This translates to a cost of $5.60 each, not including the color layer if used!!! ($84 x 4 cartridges = $336/60 shirts = $5.60)

At this rate I don’t see how wholesaling shirts using white ink is even possible. This is extremely upsetting considering that 1) Anajet represents that wholesaling black shirts is possible, 2) Wholesale was part of my original business model, and 3) It is very unrealistic to expect every possible customer to be happy using a white or natural colored shirt (this is also a problem since we are doing our own original designs and many of them work best or were designed for black shirts).

I am looking for other Anajet owners’ experiences with these pricing issues. Any suggestions as to how to keep your white ink costs down (while still being able to print with it, obviously) would be very much appreciated; i.e, alternative ink sources, different settings that still yield good results, etc.

Thank you very much for addressing this topic and your helpful suggestion about the banding. I will additionally post this in it’s own thread to allow more users to see & respond. BTW Ian, your reputation precedes you. You were mentioned several times during the training as someone I should pay attention to due to your experience!

Jason
 
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.us Tweet about this Post!


This is a discussion about banding issues that was posted in the Anajet section of the forums.

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Banding on T-Jet blazer elcarl Direct to Garment (DTG) Inkjet Printing 17 July 10th, 2009 11:56 AM
[DTG HM1] hm1 horizontal banding noveltea DTG Brand 10 March 11th, 2009 10:37 PM
[Anajet] banding issues bvano Anajet 9 November 1st, 2008 08:37 PM
T-jet banding mitshirt Fast T-Jet 7 October 7th, 2007 03:20 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 06:08 PM.


Copyright 2004-2009 T-ShirtForums.com. All rights reserved.