Anajet Rumors? Help - new buyer

3249 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Don-ColDesi, Jul 22, 2010

TheTeeShirtGuyz

Discussion Starter · Jul 13, 2010

I am trying to figure out all of the mess i hear from the printing world. If you OWN an Anajet SPRINT, please answer these.

1 - Does it have epson parts? drivers? heads?
i don't care if it does or not, but i hear different things. I just want to know the truth here.

2 - Ink cost? what will my cost be? ON DARK SHIRTS WITH WHITE INK? i hear $1 - i hear $5. lets assume an average layer of white ink, some color on top, maybe 8" x 10" mostly solid image. (a project i have now)

3 - Ink Reset? i have heard i have to manually reset chips? or someone else said that every 2-4 shirts the machine "automatically" resets and it takes about 3 minutes to do that. which is true?

4 - shake inks? do i have to pull my cartridge out to shake the white ink? how often do i have to do this until its an issue?

Thanks SO much for the info. Just trying to gather real info here from OWNERS of this machine.

thanks!

Terrance.

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CoorsDTG

· #2 · Jul 20, 2010

I've owned a Sprint for almost a year now. If you read my previous posts, you can get ideas how I have made enough money to buy 6 more. Here is what I know:

1) Everything inside the printer that I can get to says Anajet on it. I don't see Epson anywhere (I'm not sure if this helps you.) The driver that I installed is called Sprint Driver v3.3. When I plugged the printer into my computer with Windows XP it said "Found new hardware, Anajet Sprint"

2) After printing for almost a year I have averaged $1.53 for dark shirts with a white underbase. The most any single image costs me is $2.00 and that is for a 14" graphic. If you're going to print on the front and back, you would of course charge extra for that.

3) ??? I don't know what that means. I've never manually reset anything. Seriously, if their printers took 3 minutes to automatically reset themselves every 2-4 shirts, Anajet would have gone out of business 5 years ago. I have my Sprint set to automatically clean itself 3 times per day but you can adjust that to every 12 or 16 hours if you'd like.

4) If you let the printer sit for a few days, I would shake the cartridges before you do your first print. I personally do it every morning before I start printing. After spending $20k, I'm going to do any little possible thing to make this thing last as long as possible. As far as doing it in between prints...never.

I shopped around for about 6 months and saw demos of almost every printer that was on the market. I'm still happy with my decision.

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DAGuide

· #3 · Jul 20, 2010

I am not an owner of this printer, but have gone through their dealer training and know several of their owners. Most of the information you are requesting is already posted on the forum. Below are some links to them.

1) There are a ton of posts on this. (See below for a couple). The name of the driver can be manipulated as Sawgrass does this same thing with their drivers. But if they created their own printer completely, why would they have their owners use the Epson Adjustment Wizard which only works on Epson printers? Also, if they did the printer themselves... and everyone knows that they don't put ink chips on their cartridges... why should you even be worried about asking Question #3? Or how can someone use an 1800/1900 printhead from Epson in their Anajet printer? Makes no sense at all.

No clue why someone would hide whether a printer is an Epson-based or not - they are good printers that have the pros and cons just like any other printer.
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/anajet/t84153.html (Compare the sides of the printers where the metal is stamped out)
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t82041.html
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/anajet/t82422.html

2) There is a post on the average cost per a print and there are a couple of Anajet users on this. (See below). The cost per a print will vary a lot depending on your design, but you also need to take into account all the costs of doing cleanings - especially if you have any automatic cleaning scheduled.
- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/direct-garment-dtg-inkjet-printing/t106164.html

3) I believe the issue you are talking about depends on which printer you have. An Epson 48X0 printer requires you to reset the bulk ink cartridges periodically based on the number of prints you are doing. No clue how many shirts can be done before this happens - but you should be able to print at least solid for 1 day before having to do this. An Epson 1900 based printer does require you to reset the ink chips and it does require a little longer process to do this. Since this printer has smaller cartridges, the firmware requires them to be reset more often.

4) To keep the inks agitated, you should shake them every day or at least every business day. However, there are other maintenance items that you need to do also to keep this printer running (i.e. cleaning the capping station, encoder strip,...).

Hope these answers and links help. Keep doing your research and you will find more clarity to your questions.

Mark

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zoom_monster

· #4 · Jul 22, 2010

TheTeeShirtGuyz said:
I am trying to figure out all of the mess i hear from the printing world. If you OWN an Anajet SPRINT, please answer these.

1 - Does it have epson parts? drivers? heads?
i don't care if it does or not, but i hear different things. I just want to know the truth here.
Epson Parts yes. The print head is from a 1900. The driver differs from epson in several ways and offers more flexability for ink deposit and resolution. This works in tandem with firmware and boards that are unique to the Anajet machine.

2 - Ink cost? what will my cost be? ON DARK SHIRTS WITH WHITE INK? i hear $1 - i hear $5. lets assume an average layer of white ink, some color on top, maybe 8" x 10" mostly solid image. (a project i have now) This is always a big debate. If you think about it, this will change depending on coverage. I can show you a design that is 12X15 that uses less that .20 and I can show you a design that is 8X8 that uses $4. If you post a design and tell me if it's going on pure black or a different color shirt I can give you an estimate. Anajet ink is more expensive that most of the other bulk options. There are a lot of options to save the amount of ink you use for a particular design.

3 - Ink Reset? i have heard i have to manually reset chips? or someone else said that every 2-4 shirts the machine "automatically" resets and it takes about 3 minutes to do that. which is true?
Manually, no. Because of the use of an epson printhead, the electronics read the amount of ink that passes through each channel. When a channel reaches a threshold, the software initializes a reset. I believe ir resets all channels (not sure). On the original machine, you had to do this manually(though the software) when the timer warned you. With the new firmware, this happens automatically. The frequency, still depends on the amount of ink used. During this process, your machine will take care of auto maintence functions at the same time such as wiping the head. It may be 8 shirts, it may be 30... depending on the volume of ink.

4 - shake inks? do i have to pull my cartridge out to shake the white ink? how often do i have to do this until its an issue? Once per day or more often if you think of it. Rotate your stored ink also. Stagnent ink will settle in the carts AND the tubing. keep it moving(print every day) and you'll not get settling.

Terrance, I actually own the older machine (not the Sprint)I've owned the original for about 3.5 years. I've updated the head, firmware and ink system to the latest specs. Some of the maintenance features and hardware are more advanced on the newer machine.

Ian

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Don-ColDesi

· #5 · Jul 22, 2010

Manually, no. Because of the use of an epson printhead, the electronics read the amount of ink that passes through each channel. When a channel reaches a threshold, the software initializes a reset. I believe ir resets all channels (not sure). On the original machine, you had to do this manually(though the software) when the timer warned you. With the new firmware, this happens automatically. The frequency, still depends on the amount of ink used. During this process, your machine will take care of auto maintence functions at the same time such as wiping the head. It may be 8 shirts, it may be 30... depending on the volume of ink.

Actually the printhead has nothing to do with the ink resets - the ink chip counter is a feature of the Epson motherboard. All Epson cartridges have chips. When an Epson printer is re-purposed it requires some sort of chip reset function as the cartridges (in this case 1900) have relatively small values (about 12 ml on the 1900). A large direct to garment print can consume as much as 20-25% of that amount from a single white channel. The Epson 1900 behaves different from previous Epson printers as it actually initiates a "purge" when a new cartridge is installed which takes 2-3 minutes to execute, longer if another chip reads empty during the purge. When the Epson motherboard says the cartridge is at empty it will execute this process. There have been some improvements on this as some are now resetting 4 channels at a time when an ink chip out occurs - we have not found any yet that will reset all 8 at once consistently, even so the number would probably go up to every 8-10 shirts.

Reality of my statements above are this - if the printer does not have an Epson mainboard it would not be bound by the Epson ink chip issue and, if a printer has and Epson mainboard and Epson printhead - it most likley also has an Epson chasis (rails for the printhead carriage), Epson capping station and wiper as well as carriage - leaves pretty much just the power supplies and motors that may not be Epson. This is what the majority of Epson converters do to make direct to garment printers. We all add our own boards, firmware and other features (larger ink supplies, head height sensors and the like) - but it is still an Epson at heart.

Don't buy the hype.

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zoom_monster

· #6 · Jul 22, 2010

Don-SWF East said:
"..... The Epson 1900 behaves different from previous Epson printers as it actually initiates a "purge" when a new cartridge is installed which takes 2-3 minutes to execute, longer if another chip reads empty during the purge. When the Epson motherboard says the cartridge is at empty it will execute this process. There have been some improvements on this as some are now resetting 4 channels at a time when an ink chip out occurs - we have not found any yet that will reset all 8 at once consistently, even so the number would probably go up to every 8-10 shirts.

.

Don, thanks for your input. On the original machine, I remember that the "auto maintenance" included something akin to a head clean (purge, suck and wipe). When I upgraded to the new head and firmware (new boards also?), this "pain" was eliminated. I just timed one a little while ago, it was >45 seconds. A real big improvement. Like I said, the frequency depends on ink use. Improvements needed... no spit before every print (on a production run). I know the heart and soul IS epson, and I'm sure everyone here would love more "open" achitecture. Hype? This is the heart and soul of the salesman. I've been in this industry since 87, and that will never change...

"don't buy the hype" goes without saying, understand it...and you will go far.

Ian

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Don-ColDesi

· #7 · Jul 22, 2010

Thanks Ian,

By the way, the older units were 1800 based and with much easier chips to "crack" than the 1900 and without the whole "purge" process that goes on with the 1900. Typical timing on a 1900 reset is just under three minutes.

By the way, the hype I was referring to was the line I hear from virtually everyone who has spoken with a salesman from company "A" that their machines are not repurposed Epsons. I even have emails from Sales Managers there stating that they only use Epson heads and nothing else.

Thanks for all you do to help support the direct to garment community up here.

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DAGuide

· #8 · Jul 22, 2010

Ian,

When you did your firmware upgrade, did you change the Epson 1800 boards to Epson 1900 boards or did you upgrade the Anajet firmware? I think what Don was mentioning is that the Epson 1900 ink chip process is different than that of the Epson 1800 printer. So unless you changed basically the entire print engine (Epson board, ink chips,...), you are probably comparing something different than what Don is talking about. Changing the Anajet boards (which deal more with controlling when the Epson printer can begin doing work) would not make your printer operate using the 1900 ink chip process. Thus the reason for asking the question.

I think most of the people that have been playing around with the Epson 1900 are starting to figure out the resetting of the ink chips is an issue that needs to be addressed soon.

Mark

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zoom_monster

· #9 · Jul 22, 2010

Mark,
Not sure exactly what got upgraded. My original head lasted about 2 years and they had not come out with the Sprint yet. I did notice an overall though-put difference. I asked Anajet about me being able to use a lower "pass" setting than before thus increasing my speed, and they told me it was more that it was a new head and as time went by the efficiency had dropped on my old head. It did seem to me, that the teflon face was a plus as well. I really do not understand how this all works, but the "ink" chips that would normally reside in the epson carts are replaced by a manufactured block that rides in the carriage. whether they have been able to bypass or fool the electronics is up for debate, but my average throughput went up due to less auto maintenance as well as better ink lay-down at a "lower" setting. There is definitely a lot of room to reduce seconds from each cycle and in between passes.

Ian

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Don-ColDesi

· #10 · Jul 22, 2010

Less maintenace was probably due to resetting all chips at once instead of one at a time.

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