Epson 4880 print head

2194 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by mustfly, May 23, 2014

mustfly

Discussion Starter · May 22, 2014

K,..just as a matter of curiosity, is there a useful "life" one can expect from the 4880 printhead on a Neoflex? I'm beginning to suspect that a goodly portion of the white layer inconsistencies I battle, could be a result of the printhead's 3yr age. Not saying this is a fact,...just LOOKING for facts on this issue. My nozzle checks are fine, with the occasional missing bar that is easily taken care of by either a simple clean or an F2 cleaning.

I'm using IA pre-treatment,...and squeegeeing (is that an actual word?) the pretreated shirt per Sean (the incredible Spiderman), but still,...some items print with a mind blowingly beautiful white layer,...looking almost like plastisol ink,...then 3 shirts later on the same run of the same design,...the white starts to thin a little, so that on a dark shirt, for example, I will see splotchiness caused by dark threads showing through on the white layer,...then 3 or 4 shirts later it might begin printing the beautiful white layer again. Dunno.

Also,...I squeegeed the surface of the dark navy shirts, and still got the f#%$ing white hairs sticking up on the surface after the white layer was laid down. I'm sorta missing the more sticky DuPont pre-treatment as it did have the power to create a beautiful white layer.

Attached are a couple picks from this afternoon while printing the shirts in question. Grrrrrrrr to those white fuzzies ! And I DID squeegee the surface after using dark IA. It's not the Neoflex, but some of the inconsistencies that have me pulling my hair,...well, if I had any,...okay, biting my nails on a daily basis. I'd cus like a sailor right now, but don't want to make anyone blush, nor do I want to get booted from the forum.

So,...original questions still stands. Have I exceeded a practical life span on my print head? Or better yet,...IS there a lifespan. I care for the print head meticulously, so I don't think it's a neglect issue. I'm probably due for a cascade/back flush to bring it back to life. Any info at all will be much appreciated.

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spiderx1

· #2 · May 22, 2014

yikes, what brand of shirt is that, or did you say and I missed it. the fibers are wicking the white up to the top.
Well, more pretreat and more pressure. Also be sure you are rolling your bags from time to time if you are using a neoflex, or a bad damper, anyway sounds like an ink starvation issue, the ink is being used from the damper faster than it can be resupplied. Note the times when the prints lack white, did you do several in a row, then stop for a bit and the white come back?

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mustfly

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 22, 2014

The shirt(s) are Anvil ringspun. I had just changed to 4 new bags of white prior to this run. The white was beautiful,..then seemed to taper off a little,...then came back. Just a little frustrating to have to re-invent the wheel each time I get ready for a print run. This was a short run (front/back of 9 tank tops)...just sick of having to out guess the machine. I normally will do a simple clean and nozzle check prior. Grrrrrrr !

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23spiderman

· #4 · May 22, 2014

if your white layer was great, then poor, then great again, and the shirt didn't change, then i would lean towards the pretreat being your issue. it could be starvation, but when i've had that problem, it didn't get better on it's own. i don't know about the shirt you are using, but i've seen this issue on the Anvil 980 where one size would pretreat and print beautifully, then another size would soak up the pretreat and not have a smooth underbase.

try using Keya, LAT, or Cotton Heritage for ALL of your white ink prints. the Canvas 3001 prints well also. i have never had a bad print on Keya!

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cow town

· #5 · May 22, 2014

when was the last time you flushed and cleaned your ink lines that may cause problems for your ink supply. do the white and colour lines see if that helps..your dampers or printhead filters may be starting to plug up.Try pressing the shirt after the preatreat is dry it might make a difference.

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mustfly

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 23, 2014

Issue RESOLVED. It was TOTALLY a pre-treatment thingy ! I was applying what I thought was enough and experienced what appeared to be ink starvation, but kept getting excellent nozzle checks immediately afterward. For grins, I applied a LOT of pretreatment to the exact same shirt style (non ring spun in this case...customer's choice),...to the point that the normal heavy cotton tee appeared wet,...hit it for 35 seconds at 330,...then another 30 seconds and by god, the white layer was absolutely gorgeous,...looked like plastisol it was so even. Holy f#$k,...could it really be that simple? Anyhoo,...the prints are world class now, even on a normal Gilden heavy tee. I definitely needed a little victory tonite.