Clogged print heads
[DTG Kiosk]
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My printheads last a year or so with some consistent maintenance. Althought my current printhead is showing signs of clogging in one of the colours and its only 3 months old, strange. But I'm sure I can extend the life of this printhead to 6months at least by swapping the colours around.
How do you clean yours? I use the flushing solution and distilled water like they tell me too and it still does not work all the time? I sometimes have to leave my machine sit for 2 weeks at a time due to travel for work.. I have run a gallon of water and flushing solution through it and come back an it is still clogged. I also clean my dampers too so that they do not sit with ink in them?
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If you are letting the machine for 2 weeks at a time you may want to consider leaving the machine on and filled with flushing solution while you are gone, let it do it's regular cleaning cycles with flushing solution (full stength) and be certain your waste bottle is empty before you leave.
Hope this helps!
Hope this helps!
i do that everytime!!!!
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We only began selling the flushing solution a couple of months ago, how many clogged heads have you had since that time? By the way, you are welcome to contact me directly if you'd like - [email protected]
Thanks
Thanks
It's good, or bad I guess to see others having the same issues we have. Yes, we are very proactive about cleaning our machine and head properly. We are now on our 7th head in a little over a year. Excessive, I think so but I also know it is not all our fault either. It may be a combination of poor machine design, bad ink formulas or maintenance.
For the last issue I can only speak for what I know and that is we keep our machine very clean and let it run its cleaning cycles as suggested.
The ink formulas seem to change every few months as a new HM-1 ink is being sold now. It is supposed to help with jettability and overall wear and tear to the print heads. Does this mean the previous inks caused print head problems? Hmmmmm.
Poor machine design, well we have all read the posts about the new continuous inking systems coming out soon. I can only speculate that the older machines were having so many issues that a change in design was needed. It is supposed to eliminate many of the clogging issues many have now. Hmmmmm.
What does this all mean? You be the judge by what is taking place. I'm not the only person that has had issues with bad print heads from what I have seen posted on this forum. These machines were not cheap to purchase. To see all these changes being made to eliminate a problem really makes me feel like I'm left holding the bag? Anyone else feel this way or is it just me?
For the last issue I can only speak for what I know and that is we keep our machine very clean and let it run its cleaning cycles as suggested.
The ink formulas seem to change every few months as a new HM-1 ink is being sold now. It is supposed to help with jettability and overall wear and tear to the print heads. Does this mean the previous inks caused print head problems? Hmmmmm.
Poor machine design, well we have all read the posts about the new continuous inking systems coming out soon. I can only speculate that the older machines were having so many issues that a change in design was needed. It is supposed to eliminate many of the clogging issues many have now. Hmmmmm.
What does this all mean? You be the judge by what is taking place. I'm not the only person that has had issues with bad print heads from what I have seen posted on this forum. These machines were not cheap to purchase. To see all these changes being made to eliminate a problem really makes me feel like I'm left holding the bag? Anyone else feel this way or is it just me?
WOW, I feel your pain... I agree with you 100% and then you get told by the service department that is it your fault.. I do the same as you with the cleaning. I am actually more careful with cleaning then anything.. I frustrated as well and for the money that we have spent to always be put to blame for a problem they do not want to admit to is hard to swallow. I wonder what our solution is? My machine is just over a year old as well..
Frustrated in NC!
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I've had my machine going on close to 8 months now (second hand) and its only starting to get some decent usage from word of mouth.
The only time I had to take the print head out to clean was when the black got clogged so bad that normal print head cleans couldnt clean it out.
Is everybody using ripping software to print? Could the extra ink being forced through the ink heads from the software be a cause for increased wear and tear?
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You are making the printhead fire more ink than it would in paper mode for sure. And the ratings that these printheads have are based on printing paper (usually letter size with minimal coverage - like text on a page). It is safe to assume that the average DTG graphic uses between 10 and 100 times as much ink as a page of text would - maybe even more. So, the wear and tear is greater than you might expect. That being said, clogs come from ink or either drying in the nozzles, the screen filter above the nipples getting blocked or damage to the surface of the printhead. Proper maintenance and operation will prevent or at least retard these things from happening. Unfortunately, the less you use a machine, the more issues you will have with ink delivery systems.
How do you clean your printhead. I recently replaced my print head in August after 14 months which i know is good but since i replaced it i seem to have more clogs in my dampers than i ever have since i owned the machine, have wasted a ton of ink which is not cheap either. Called to see if there was a bad batch of ink and of course not!!! I do maintenance everyday and use my machine everyday. Any tips?
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Make sure that your dampers were reseated well on the printhead nipples. Also check to make sure that the o-rings (and no, not onion rings) in the dampers are still in place. Also, does this correspond to the exact time you changed the printhead? Have you ever replaced your capping station and wiper? Not a bad idea to replace both of these when you change a printhead and they are not expensive.
Hope this helps!
Hope this helps!
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456 Posts
After reading all these posts, I'm having second thoughts about getting into any heat transfer system. I'm considering the Epson c88 with dye sub inks. Can I look forward to clogged nozzles on a regular basis?
After reading this I dont really think I will be going this way until They improve on the way these things work. If I am going to spend 17grand to only have it work a couple of days and then have to buy another head for 500. I think the best think for me, is just to farm out my work to a screen printer. Wow... Hope the next gen works a lot better.
OK here is what I am finding out, I have had my machine for almost 2 years now. I have had to replace the print head, the lines, the mother board, the wiper station and more dampers than I know what to do with at 20.00 a piece... I have learned that when I do my normal maintenance and then I also flush the machine, run a gallon of distilled water in it. Clean and purge the dampers before I fill the machine with half solution and half water while I am out of town that. When I get back the dampers are all clogged. Now, I have spoke in DEPTH with the tech support people at SWF and then continue to tell me that I am the problem not the machine, But yet I do an followed that EXACT instructions on how to clean and flush this machine. At what point are they going to take the blame for there machine having problems... Now, it is costing me way more to maintain this machine then it is the run it and make money with it.... I find that until they find a better way with ink and a better way to stop dampers from being clogged which in turn clogs the print head cause once the dampers are clogged nothing is going to get to the print head to keep it clean and damp!!! UGHHHHHH what a NIGHTMARE this has been...
I think you are in the wrong thread or have a big misunderstanding... this thread is about a printer that has been seriously modified to print garment inks... A C88 with dye sub inks is a completely different situation. DTG and dye sub are totally different...
Man I can feel your pain. I’ve had my machine for six months. So far I have had to replace the print head, 2 sets of dampers and have what seems like a gallon of wasted ink. I have wasted almost as much money as I have made. 
Between emailing and phoning I have gotten to know most of the techs at SWF East. I don’t want to say anything bad about SWF East because they have helped me numerous times but sometimes the techs do seem to want to say well what did you do this time. I changed to the new v.02 inks which does seem to help or maybe I just getting better at this. My machine has been sitting idle for almost a week now (business is slow) and I have replaced all the inks with water but when I restart it I’m sure it will be a pia again. I’ve read a lot of good things about the bulk ink system that Equipment Zone sells but SWF says No, No, No. Maybe it’s the way to go???
Between emailing and phoning I have gotten to know most of the techs at SWF East. I don’t want to say anything bad about SWF East because they have helped me numerous times but sometimes the techs do seem to want to say well what did you do this time. I changed to the new v.02 inks which does seem to help or maybe I just getting better at this. My machine has been sitting idle for almost a week now (business is slow) and I have replaced all the inks with water but when I restart it I’m sure it will be a pia again. I’ve read a lot of good things about the bulk ink system that Equipment Zone sells but SWF says No, No, No. Maybe it’s the way to go???
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Sorry, my bad. I didn't realize what DTG stood for.
Man I can feel your pain. I’ve had my machine for six months. So far I have had to replace the print head, 2 sets of dampers and have what seems like a gallon of wasted ink. I have wasted almost as much money as I have made.
I agree with you 100% oh and just wait till you try to use the machine after it has sat. The dampers will all be clogged and the print head will need to be flushed manually.. I am just floored that they can save they have not had the same problems with ther machine and they do not offer anything to us clients that are suppose to be the people that keep them in business... I am dumb founded about it all.. I know all the men in tech as well and I even drove my machine from Charlotte to Tampa for a one on one with Allen to make sure I was not doing things wrong... I follow every instruction they tell me to. I buy all the new lastest and greatest ink and everything for it and it is not costing me more than I am making!!!! UGH Heaven HELP US!!! But, I feel they should do more for us since we spent so much money on these machines.....
Interesting thread.... We just got our Kiosk in January, haven't used the white ink in it yet. We just went to the SWF training on Tuesday.
They hadn't used the machine in over a week... ran a nozzle check, it was bad... did about 10 head cleans, still bad. Spent about 45 minutes flushing the entire system out and replaced 2 dampers. Loaded it back up, did 3 head cleans, perfect nozzle print. I was impressed and it was nice to see how they would handle that type of situation. Once we figure out a good place to deal with the pretreatment, we're going to load up the white ink. I probably won't leave the white ink in the machine unless we are going to use it continually. Otherwise, I will clear out those 3 channels and leave them filled with flushing solution.
They hadn't used the machine in over a week... ran a nozzle check, it was bad... did about 10 head cleans, still bad. Spent about 45 minutes flushing the entire system out and replaced 2 dampers. Loaded it back up, did 3 head cleans, perfect nozzle print. I was impressed and it was nice to see how they would handle that type of situation. Once we figure out a good place to deal with the pretreatment, we're going to load up the white ink. I probably won't leave the white ink in the machine unless we are going to use it continually. Otherwise, I will clear out those 3 channels and leave them filled with flushing solution.
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