[Kiosk-HM-1-User]

I have an HM-1 for a few months. Ever since the beginning we've had a few problems every couple of days. Most are fixed with head cleanings.

My question is how much does a head cleaning cost? Every week I discard an entire bottle of ink from my waste container.

My other question is about the nozzle check. I do not get 100% perfect nozzle checks. I run the head cleaning over and over again, only to have it off still. Do I need to have it 100% perfect? I want to maintain this machine to last forever, so I'm curious as to how often the head cleaning and nozzle check accuracy must be performed.


My setup is the HM-1 with white ink.

 

[Don-ColDesi]

You should try to maintain a perfect nozzle check daily, though you may not always get one. The white ink especially does not always give a good nozzle check immediately after a head cleaning. I would recommend that you print a shirt daily to verify that you are not getting banding from any missing spots on your nozzle check.

 

[zoom_monster]

My question is how much does a head cleaning cost? Every week I discard an entire bottle of ink from my waste container.

quote]

This seems excessive..... You could calulate your cost by weighing the bottle empty/full. Ink weighs about 1g per ml. I use slightly less than a gram per color per head clean. Before I start printing, I'll do a check. If it looks OK or almost so, I have a gamut-target that uses about .05 worth of ink on a piece of paper. if it looks good, I'll go ahead. If not, I'll adress the offending channel to get it flowing, repeat the above and print away.

 

[Wags]

Sounds like a lot of waste. You may need to upgrade your firmware and possibly your software. We had the same issue when we would leave the machine on over the weekend. The waste bottle was almost full. We found out that sometimes the machine hiccups and the cleaning cycle gets caught in a loop and uses much more ink than normal. After our retrofit we have had no issues.

Try this thread as it deals with an issue similar to yours.

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dtg-brand/t35287.html