[tshirt_elliot]

With how fast these machines are there can be a lot of down time. Also some 'extended' down time lets say waiting for a head or troubleshooting. I'm not talking about draining ink and putting a machine down for a month or two...but what is your rule of thumb for keeping ink moving a week with out printing, two?

Daily:
White ink circulation
White ink stir sticks I leave on.
I turn on every machine to keep white ink moving even if not being used.
Wet Cap nightly

Lets pretend a machine is down for a week for Christmas break, what are you going to do? Leave the white ink stir sticks on probably. vendor advised turning off white circulation as the motors are cheap/weak to leave on 24/7. I'm more concerned about color , do you just run nozzle checks and consider that enough movement or do you run ink fill / headcleans every couple of days? Just trying to gauge what everyone's risk tolerance is.

Happy Holidays

 

[TABOB]

Lets pretend a machine is down for a week for Christmas break, what are you going to do?

Reverse waterfall the white channels and then wet-cap the printhead.
For the CMYK channels, just wet-capping is OK for up to 2 weeks.

When ready to use the printer again, do the following:
1. Shake the ink bottles.
2. Draw enough ink with a syringe through the dampers to refresh the ink in the tubes. You can filter and pour this ink back in the bottles.
3. Shake the ink bottles again.
4. Wait for a couple of hours (optional but recommended).
5. Run a couple of cleaning cycles and print a nozzle test.

 

[TeedUp]

2. Draw enough ink with a syringe through the dampers to refresh the ink in the tubes. You can filter and pour this ink back in the bottles.

What kind of filter?

 

[TABOB]

What kind of filter?

5 micron syringe filters.
They are cheap and also reusable if you flush them with a bit of de ionized water after use.