Need to Register?

kipandcandy · 2 Weeks Ago

This is a new problem for me. Printing 1440 underbase with 720 color on a large print that is predominatly yellow (full back hoodie print bulldozer). Underbase is great but 50-75% through the color pass I am getting an almost dry pale blue (mostly white with a tint of blue) splatter usually at the beginning or end of the head travel. And at the same place there will usually be the same color ink on top edge and maybe running down the side of the bed. This happened a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I was able to clean the splatter off the hoodie and save it. Thought that was weird but went on with other jobs.
My next white underbase job was a small print with no problems. Today I have a large job with large solid font using underbase, it is again yellow color, no other colors in the print at all. Coincidence? And I am getting this splatter on about 60% of the shirts but not all. A head clean seems to stop the problem but only for 1 or 2 prints at most. The small print I did last week never did this once. The ink is Fastink3 and the machine gets very regular cleaning maintenance.
Thanks for your time,
Kip

equipmentzone · 2 Weeks Ago

The bulk system might be over filled or the height might just be a little to high. That is why it is not happening on small prints and happens on large ones. It takes time to print the large ones so it has time to start bleeding, blending in with other colors, or even starving the ink towards the end.

Harry
Equipment Zone

kipandcandy · 2 Weeks Ago

Thanks Harry,
I'll lower the bulk system a 1/4" or so and see if that makes a difference. I was able to look at the bottom of the print head once after a long color print and saw that there was white condensing on the bottom of the head so I was thinking the same thing. I still don't know why it is always tinted with blue but never any other color.
Thanks again,
Kip

Steeletec · 2 Weeks Ago

Hey Kip,
It sounds like it is directly related to the ink bottle heights or the ink levels in the bottles on your bulk system. You should always make sure that the white ink level is higher than the colors or you will get some weird pressures in the head that can cause the colors to mix. I usually run the white levels between full and 3/4 ful and the colors 1/4 to half full. A question I have however is if you do a head cleaning when it starts to do this does it go back to normal and go back to the mixing colors with the underbase?

kipandcandy · 1 Week Ago

Hey Karl,
Thanks for the reply. My white was getting a little low in the bottles, they were probably near the actual height of the colors since they have a spacer under the white bottles. So I understand why it might have a touch of blue mixed with the white but the real issue was why I was getting the white on the bottom of the print head in the first place. I think that the head passing over the bed sides must have been the reason for the splatter at both sides of the bed. I just didn't think that my bottle/ink heights were any different than they had been for quite a while and this problem just showed up. I will lower the whole ink tray and see what happens. Maybe this will help white clogging issues also I hope, if I have had white sitting on the face of the print head sometimes when I didn't even realize it. I need to print again this afternoon so maybe I can tell something then.
Thanks again,
Kip

Need to Register?

Resources

T-Shirt Sites

[Fast T-Jet 2] Dry White splatter