160sp ... how to slow down carriage speed

[artbot]

is there a set up function that allows carriage/scan speed?

i'm laying down double thick white ink with the density bumped and having mild ink starvation from the load. i could go to three passes but i just think letting the printer go a bit slower would be the trick.

thanks ahead of time for any advice.

 

[iSign]

funny, I was just thinking today, you seem to be the single most knowlegable person I've read posts from, regarding printer mechanics in general, and the Mimaki in particular... so I doubt I will be able to offer you assistance very often, but I will usually read anything you have to say about Mimaki topics.

So, on this topic I have no advice, but I do have the manual. Do you have it already, or a link to a .pdf? I'd assume you would, but on the off chance it could be a source of information you didn't have access to right now, I thought I'd ask. I'm working late, so I could easily take a look if that was of any help.

I run mine through Flexi. Do you think it would be an option just through the Mimaki keypad, or possibly through software? What software are you running you JV3 with?

(actually, I just noticed you said sp160... do sp160's include JV5's & JV33's also?)

 

[artbot]

thanks... from what i can see, it's not on the menu. i have the original manual and doesn't show up in the function diagram/tree thing. unless i'm blind. and i admit to not be too good at spotting things.

as far a model #, the 160 sp is the four head jv3. (the jv3 160s has the three heads)

 

[iSign]

Artbot,
I decided to have a quick look, since I never look at the manual, and who knows but what it might benefit me some day.

On page 4-8, "Drying Time" seems to only represent a time adjustment between print completion & an "auto-cut" feature, should one be in use...

however the heading "scan" looks as though that might delay each pass.
I'm not sure, but figured I'd make sure you knew about it in case it does help.

 

[artbot]

i'll check that out. i think scan deals with if the head makes full passes or short passes where possible.

here's something that i'm sure all you mimaki guys will say "duh". my white had a little deflected nozzle printing. so i hit the remote button to pause it to see if the banding was bad enough to call it a reject (printing on .040 PETG). then i thought..."can you just do a head clean in mid print?" i tried it and with out missing a step the printer did the head clean and picked up the print where it'd paused earlier. i was like..."i bet everyone knows this is possible, except for me"

feeling stupid,

artbot :I

 

[SightLine]

Heh - I've had a JV3 for 6 years and now also have a JV33 and only figured that out myself about a year ago....

Anyways isign has it right - set a drying time between passes is about the only thing I can think of also. I've not looked into it on my JV3 but my JV33 has a "head refresh" function for this exact reason - you turn the refresh up and it will pause to pump a little extra ink into the heads every couple of passes.

 

[thewood]

I imagine any such feature would be controlled by the RIP. The Flexi RIP has a "high-speed" feature. So, unchecking it would slow down the carriage if you had that enabled.

 

[thesignexpert]

Heh - I've had a JV3 for 6 years and now also have a JV33 and only figured that out myself about a year ago....

Anyways isign has it right - set a drying time between passes is about the only thing I can think of also. I've not looked into it on my JV3 but my JV33 has a "head refresh" function for this exact reason - you turn the refresh up and it will pause to pump a little extra ink into the heads every couple of passes.

+2

Bumping that drying time between passes up a bit should do the trick. This is what we do when printing double pass prints for backlit graphics.

Good Luck.

Tim

"Useful Sign Forms, Marketing Packets and Clipart for the Sign Professional"
TheSignExpert.com

 

[artbot]

@wood

i did see the "fast printing" in the rip (speeds up carriage). but it was unchecked.

guess i was looking back on the old encad days when head carriage speed was adjustable from 1-10.

as for "during printing" adjustments, i guess everyone's aware that you can do media compensation during the job.

thanks to all for the input. eventually i chose 360x720 bi 8 pass x2. which was slow. but allowed for some really nice nearly opaque whites.

 

[MikePro]

I usually say "Ask Artbot", as well :Oops:
but ya, the only option i know of is in the RIP.

i run Onyx and there are "Pass Delay" (0-9.9), "Dry Time" (0-9.9), and "Head Refresh Rate" (0-3) options.

When I run double ink layers i usually dial up the dry time and pass delay to 5, or at least that's the number i came to notice any real difference in speed besides running in "Normal Speed" vs. "High Speed" in the print mode settings. I haven't tried anything higher, yet, but I assume that 9.9 on PD and DT would be extremely slow between passes, but I have yet to find anything that actually slows down each pass besides "Normal Speed" print mode.

 

[Rooster]

Just add a dimmer switch inline to the power on the printer. Plug it in to a 220 volt line and set the dimmer at halfway to give you 120 volts. Then you can just turn the dial to the left for slow and to the right for supa-fast.

What could possible go wrong?

 

[artbot]

i'm on it! i'll mount it where the paper cutter/IR media reader used to be. tore that off today. it's the cause of about 75% of my "head strikes" on veneer.

 

[kffernandez]

What could possible go wrong?

why do i have the sinking feeling that some nitwit might actually just contemplate doing what you suggested... just because you were the one who said it.

of course, not artbot. that would just be silly.

hehe.