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davitos · November 17th, 2009

guys, i really could need your help.

we have a design to print with red and violet on dark shirts.

the first part of the design prints out fine, then stripes occur first in the violet, then in the red. a headcleaning fixes the issue for one shirt, then it starts all over again.

the printhead is kind of new (8 weeks) and well maintained, capping station very clean and so are the wiper blades.

nozzle check shows some broken nozzels on the black (3 in total). we are able to pull ink from the cartridges without problems.

do you think this is an ink flow issue?

please let me know when you have an idea!

thank you so much.

d

equipmentzone · November 17th, 2009

From Michael in our Support Department:

It sounds like your magenta is starving out. Since the problem goes away after a head cleaning, I would rule out the capping station/printhead.

That being said, since the problem goes away after a cleaning (a cleaning forces ink through more so then the normal gravity used during printing) it would appear the cartridge may be clogged.

I would replace the magenta cartridge, and clean the bulk ink system for the magenta to make sure there are no clogs there also.

If it is not completely clogged (it does not sound like that), try raising up the magenta ink level a bit to see if that can get you past this issue temporarily.

Harry
Equipment Zone

davitos · November 18th, 2009

hey, thanks for the reply. how do i know the magenta cartridge is clogged? i mean when i use a syringe at the bottom of the cartridge and pull - i get magenta ink easily. i also sucked direclty from the hose and it flows even more smoothly.

i will try to add more magenta to the bottles compared to the other colors and see what happens.

any further thoughts you might have?

tnx so much.

davitos · November 18th, 2009

so we exchanged the magenta cartridge with a brand new one. did not really change anything. this is how a print looks like: after a headcleaning it comes out good, second shirt stripes in violet and red as you can see:

please let me know what else i can do? change the capping station? will replacing a printhead help (although this one is almost new and we usualy change a printhead after 8-10 months as it is constantly in use)....

one weird thing though: this only happens with this design - other designs with similar colors come out great it seems....

thank you soooo much!

davitos · November 19th, 2009

cmon guys ... please share your wisdom

equipmentzone · November 19th, 2009

Which bulk ink system do you have?

Harry
Equipment Zone

davitos · November 20th, 2009

bulk ink system that came with the t-jet2 (the latest one they released)

equipmentzone · November 20th, 2009

The original bulk ink system on the T-Jet 2 had operating issues. The original system that you now have had issues with enough air getting into the bulk bottles. The breather holes on the caps of the bulk bottles were very small and can get clogged. You would then get ink starvation because there wasn't enough air available for the ink to flow after the initial start. Open the caps on your bulk bottles and just let them sit loose on top of the bottles and see if that helps. Many T-Jet 2 owners have upgraded from the original system to the EZ PRO bulk ink system which fixed all these issues.

Harry
Equipment Zone

davitos · December 5th, 2009

for the past job we made the design smaller which fixed all our issues.

now another large design 10.5" x 15" on white we have the same problem again.

our magenta ink level is 15% higher than the other colors and the cap sits on the bottle.

anything else we could do?

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[Fast T-Jet 2] red & violet printing stripes