I need help!!!
Quick background story (with a long explanation- sorry)
Got our T2 in Sept 08. Had a great time learning how to use the machine, printing tons of shirts for us/friends/samples. Whilte all along ramping up orders with our clients over at ka-blam.com. We figured the best approach how to learn, was to jump in with both feet, read everything we could, ask loads of questions, follow what others have learned, and do things as right as we could the first time. Which seamed to work- sorta
Mid March 09- With alot of orders (for us anyways) comming up, we decided to get a Tune-Up for the T2. Go ahead and replace all replaceable parts- along with a new print head just for the sake of starting new. We we're getting really nice prints but wanted the machine to be ready to start doing REAL business. And to cleanup the mess we made getting there
Got the machine back, and WOW!!! A fresh machine with now knowing how to pretreat better and knowledge of how to use the machine... The prints were GREAT! We were very happy and thought the tuneup was way worth the money. Now the white ink was flowing heavy and no more two passes of to get enough down.
We printed a 100+ (alot for us) shirts within the next week 1/2 with fantastic results. With a two week gap in shirt printing coming, I decided to load in the cleaning carts and shut down the printer. Eariler that day, I printed a shirt that printed fine. Did a HeadCheck and the patten was fine. Did a couple of InitalCharges with the cleaning fluid from the cleaninig carts. Did a HeadCheck and the clear fluid patten was there. Shut the system down.
From then, till now I turned on the system everyday and did a ink charge. Did HeadChecks every other day or so with normal results. Also, I stired the inks (bulk system) everyday, and used a syringe to pull 40-50cc of ink through the cartriges to keep them fresh.
On Monday (4/4/09) I needed to print some orders. Loaded up and re-primed the ink carts. Did 3 InitalCharges to flush out the cleaning fluid. The headcheck patten was fine.
Now the bad news- White ink prints like poop. I suffer from white ink starvation. Every print starts off kinda strong- The print head goes back and worth a pass or two with kinda of nice ink coverage, then it backs down to almost nothing- Every time. When I do a ink charge, then a head test, the white pattens looks good (most times). If I do a head test after a failed white undercoat printing, the white patten is broken and missing. the patteren is never the same. Sometimes all three nozzles work, other times not. One will show and the others wont. Just randomly going on and off. Missing parts to the pattern- but randomly doing so. But usually all work after a ink charge.
If I put back in the cleaning carts and run the test, all the patterns show up- Every time. OH- the CMYK inks work fine. Printing to white shirts look as they always have- Great.
I put in a new encoder strip just in case, but that didn't seem to do any good.
I guess I might have killed the print head, but it was working "full-on / no problems" before I put the cleaning carts and ran cleaning fluid through the system. Not sure how I did it though.
ALSO- I tried the trick of slowing pushing cleaning fluid through the nozzles with a syringe/hose and it comes through, all the way across, with ease. It doesn't appear that anything in the head is clogged. And as I said, both, while using the cleaning carts (w/cleaning fluid) and with the ink (after a head charge) I get a good HeadCheck. It's just while printing that the ink dryes out.
HELP!!! Sorry for the long story, but wanted to explain everything I could. Guess I haven't learned everything about this T-Jet2.
ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREAT!!!
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Thomas Florimonte www.ka-blam.com - Digital Printing
Last edited by Rodney; April 10th, 2009 at 12:10 PM.
Reason: removed link to website as per forum rules -it's already in your signature :)
We're using the USScreen Bulk Ink System (came installed when we bought the machine).
Here's a couple of pics to show what the white is doing:
The first pic was the last shirt I printed before putting the CleaningCarts in, flushing the head and shutting it down- It printed great with a thick one pass undercoat.
Second pic is what it's doing now: A is from yesterday. It started ok, then faded. B is today- didn't even get it print what it was doing yesterday.
Today I've removed the bulk carts and ran a bunch of cleaning fluid then warm water through the heads with a syringe/hose and the spray is solid all the way across (for each nozzle). No missing broken cloggy looking areas. Our tech guy here Orlando showed us at his office when we we're getting the tuneup what a good head flush/spray should look like, and this looks good to me.
I'm gonna flush the tubes (even though they are brand new) and clean the carts again. We'll see.
Your running the T2 so you have cartridges and not dampers. The problem lies with in your bulk system. Some where you are getting to much air into your system causing the pressure to work back into the ink bottles. It needs to be the other way around. Check to make sure all your lines are connected nice and tight and your bulk tray is leveled at the appropriate height. Also, you need to make sure your cartridges are primed (filled with ink). This can also be a problem. One last thing, make sure that you are agitating your white ink daily. Even what you have in your inventory. It is also a good idea to pour out the white from your bottle and rinse it out with hot water to get any of the paste that has built up at the bottom from the ink settling. That can get into your system. If this still does not work then I recommend getting Equipment Zones bulk ink system.
Also check the breathing hole on top of the white ink bottle, I've had a simullar issue in the past and it turned out the breathing hole had accumulated ink and had dried, so I took of the top and ran a tooth pic through it and it solved my problem.
Thomas,
The issue is most likely with your bulk ink system.
If the issue was the white ink separating, you wouldn't have gotten print A. If the issue was a print head clog, you wouldn't have print A either. That leaves ink starvation, which means that when you print a lot of white ink, the ink can't get into the cartridges fast enough. Like Billy said, check the height of your bulk system. But likely something happened internally.
How come you do so many ink charges? It seems like you're wasting a lot of ink. A head cleaning or two should be enough to clear up almost any issue.
Thanks- zhenjie, lazographics, mgarcia16 & Alex !!!
I'll raise the bulk system and the white a bit tomorrow- I really hope that does it. I did raise the white a little, but I marked the levels before when it was working and that's where I was gauging off of. Also talked to Tom V, over at National UV Supply, and he said the same thing. Also gave me advice about the cold/heat and humidity levels here in Orlando. Said because of this I'd have to change my printing strategies as the weather changed. Four weeks ago when I printed the last shirt, it was in the 40's- And now it's in the 80's. Crazy- but I love it! We're getting a humidifier set up tomorrow to get the levels up (it's usually around 45).
Alex- Ink Charges- When you just spent $500 on a tune-up and $300 more on a new head, you'd do anything to get more ink into the head. As you can guess, I was getting a little upset. At that point I didn't care how much ink I wasted to get the machine back up and running
I'll let you know how tomorrow turns out- THANKS!!!
Thanks everyone for the help!
I tried the raising of the white level with the same results. I then made sure the white carts where full and disconnected them from the bulk system thinking the back suction was stopping the ink from leaving the head. Also didn't help. Put the cleaning fluid back in and got a check pattern. I though the white ink may be bad, so to check, I replaced white ink into the yellow cart and ran a check pattern- and it workedfine. Where the yellow would be in the pattern, white came through strong and clear.
At this point I'm thinking the worse I replaced one of the white inks for yellow... and you guessed it... same bad check pattern as before. So I guess I killed my head. But I can't even begin to guess why/how. As I wrote in the first post- The last shirt printed fine with no problems- The check patter look great. I replaces the carts with the cleaning carts, ran a few head cleans to flush the head, and even ran a check pattern with the cleaning fluid and it also looked fine.
I know I'm whining, but what could I have done wrong? Thanks.
Thomas @ Ka-Blam
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Thomas Florimonte www.ka-blam.com - Digital Printing
Dont give up hope on your printhead yet Fill your capping station with cleaning solution and soak it. To do this, do a head clean and when the printhead goes over to the left to the spit station, fill your capping station with cleaning solution with a syringe. Once it comes back over and homes itself in the capping station, shut off your machine, and let it soak for a good hour. Make sure to put the solution in the capping station in this method so it does not get sucked out, before it seals on the capping station.
Also get some foam tip cleaners and use alcohol to clean the face of your printhead. Do this several times, as the alcohol will break down the dried ink in the nozzles on the face. See if either of these get you a better nozzle check. If not you can flush your printhead, but I would try these two things first.
Also once you get your machine back printing good, always make sure to put around 10 drops of cleaning solution in your capping station each night to keep your printhead nice and moist.
Anyways try the soaking and cleaning of the printhead and let us know what happens.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Hope you're able to unclog your print head. Just make sure to remove it from the printer before trying to flush it with a syringe and make sure it's completely dry on the outside when you replace it.
Also, make sure anytime you are putting solution on your capping station to shut off your valve on your waste bottle to cut off the pressure from that point. This is how ink can gets drawn out of your bulk system and into your waste bottle.
also, make sure anytime you are putting solution on your capping station to shut off your valve on your waste bottle to cut off the pressure from that point. This is how ink can gets drawn out of your bulk system and into your waste bottle.
i would just gat the bis from equipment zone ,i live in florida and dont have all those ink problems since i switched to that bis,it is really awsome
As it turns out, it was the print head. Not all the way dead, but enough to kill the ink flow. I'm gonna try some magic on it and get it working again. Wish me luck. I've got just the print head (just the tip) sitting in a vat of cleaning fluid for now. We'll see.
But now- time to catch up on the 50 shirts that have been sitting around. Don't tell my customers
Thomas @ Ka-Blam
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Thomas Florimonte www.ka-blam.com - Digital Printing
First thing I'll say is don't give up. After replacing a head it was just few days later I appeared clogged...again. Time for the super fuel. First step is be careful not to get your connection wet! Cleaned by putting hot water in cleaning cartridges, helped a bit. Used syringe with hose connection very gently pushing and pulling from the head. Was better still but then began to work ever so lightly on the top filters on the head with the sponge cleaner with 91% alcohol. I then began to see results just in the holes beginning to open. At this point I syringed out the remaining water in the cleaning heads and refilled with alcohol and ran a few head cleanings and then did the syringe thing again. WOW! I now as a regular cleaning use 91% alcohol in the cleaner heads and start ups after 3 head cleanings are perfect. Also bottom of the bulk system is set at 8.25" for a good ink flow. Good luck, hope this works for you.
My T2 is driving me crazy / White ink problem 
(with a long explanation- sorry)
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