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CET white ink questions.

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synergy_jim

New Member
We are having great luck printing undercoat white on our machine. The only problem I have seen so far is white drop out when printing flood coat white in reverse for our lit graphics. It looks grainy and sometimes has drop out.

Nozzle checks on the white look great after a cleaning, but can look iffy 15 mins later...

Any feedback or methods for getting a little better consistency would be appreciated...


Thanks.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
i'd like to see this thread develop. both white and varnish are great and i've dialed my heat in the best i can tell as a novice. but what is the accepted/experienced heat setting range?
 
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synergy_jim

New Member
artbot said:
i'd like to see this thread develop. both white and varnish are great and i've dialed my heat in the best i can tell as a novice. but what is the accepted/experienced heat setting range?
Click to expand...


sorry.... we were crazy busy today. I'll post pics and settings tomorrow...
 
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synergy_jim

New Member
settings

head temp settings
 

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artbot

artbot

New Member
what CET is it? konica, spectra? for our konica heads we have our white at 45 and varnish at 47

...ALSO

for the life of me i can not find the white curves in production house. could someone type out the pathway to them?

thanks
 
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synergy_jim

New Member
Spectra heads. voltage on my heads range from 93 to 96

what direction should I move the head temp to see if it gets better?
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
@mrnick6 ...curves for the white. in rasterlink, the channels can be modified to cut in early late from cmyk to white. i poke around in production house and never see anywhere where my two spots have a curve adjustment so that i can set limits and linearize the white.
 
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RyanFelty

New Member
Hey synergy I also have a CET but my white has been printing great. My temp is at 50 and voltage is at 86. I dont know if this will help but I hope it does!
 
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KaranGrewal

New Member
We are having the Same issue on our Fuji acuity x2 HS flatbed. We do regular head cleaning every morning , then perform nozzle check, all heads firing 100% including white but after printing for few minutes white print heads drops out . Fuji tech came changed white print heads , worked fine for 2 days , and same issue again. We have wasted lot of media coz of this issue.
 
Matt-Tastic

Matt-Tastic

New Member
Bump your white head temp to 50, and (if you have the ability to) drop your vacuum by a few tenths on the gantry. The higher heat on the white ink helps it flow better, and lower vacuum allows it to come out of the head easier. watch out on the vacuum though, as too low and it'll start to drip out of the head.

Artbot, I'm not sure, but I don't think there are "curves" for spot colors in ONYX. if there are, you have to create them when building the profile (there is a check box to read the specialty colors when making a profile). Manufacturers don't make profiles that curve spot colors.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
@matt-tastic thanks for the feedback on onyx. i can stop looking.

we noticed that although our white heads temps were set to 47, the head not printing as well was only getting to 45.9

we lightly heated the heads with a blow dryer monitoring the head temp until it got to 49 and 51. the test pattern was much better. but the problem is that the heads (fairly old but printing well) don't seem to reach the temp that they are set to. is this a sign of heads that are going out? even setting to past the temp i want doesn't get them to the right temp.
 
Matt-Tastic

Matt-Tastic

New Member
artbot said:
@matt-tastic thanks for the feedback on onyx. i can stop looking.

we noticed that although our white heads temps were set to 47, the head not printing as well was only getting to 45.9

we lightly heated the heads with a blow dryer monitoring the head temp until it got to 49 and 51. the test pattern was much better. but the problem is that the heads (fairly old but printing well) don't seem to reach the temp that they are set to. is this a sign of heads that are going out? even setting to past the temp i want doesn't get them to the right temp.
Click to expand...

The heating element on the head may have come loose. the paste used to glue it on may also have work out, or the thermistor itself may have failed. while not a cheap resolution, replacing the head may be the only way to remedy the situation. I'm sure its possible to fix the head, but it may jsut break it more.
 
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MrNick86

New Member
All my heads on my CET fluctuate within 4 degrees on temps if you keep clicking the "read" button in onyx. I believe my white heads are set to 47. I dont know if you guys know this, but white ink had tungston in it making it thicker overall compared to standard cmyk inks. That is why the CET has recirculation on white inks, as well as why the heads require more maintenance to survive. The higher temps increases the viscosity to help it pass through the nozzles.

I hear that varnish really kills heads. #Artbot...how do your varnish heads perform in comparison to cmyk and white?
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
the varnish is a long story. we had varnish in the printer for install but our dongle was not for varnish. so varnish sat in the printer for weeks fussing with this as we waited for the proper dongle (our particular build of printer had never been run with varnish so the dongle firmware had to be a custom issue). when we got the varnish running V1 has always been perfect, V2 has always been choppy. in that we've been wanting to get this very recent white clog cleared, we pulled both the W1 and V2 and cleaned them with NMP. the very clogged varnish head's nozzles came back instantly. i'm sure when i reinstall it sunday, it will be great. the white still has some nozzles that are not straight but all are clear. hopefully it will loosen up. white is a bit of a mess in that the pigment isn't a resin. it's a mineral. so it can plaque up and solvents have no effect on them.

as for the usefulness of varnish, as an art producer, we have to have it for effects. considering how quickly it came unclogged, i don't see it being problematic. and i believe my issues were due to our very protracted install.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
UPDATE:

we got the varnish and white (after cleaning) back in the printer. i decided to put the varnish head in the white head's position because it came so clean (it had an odd checkerboard missing nozzle pattern). the white head is now in the varnish head's position. well, the former white head now is doing the checkerboard nozzle thing during the test pattern. so it's not a clog that's causing it. it's data related. we are doing a data cable swap with a performing channel to see if the issue follows the cable. in the meantime we are searching for a cable that is local to get an order out that is late.

are these cables common? it's looking like we will have to order it.
 
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KaranGrewal

New Member
Fuji acuity Update :

Fuji tech came over today ( 12th time reg same issue ) according to him you can't ink temp for individual heads ( they have changed this in newer model 2013 ), in Acuity its same temp setting for all print heads. but he did lower voltage setting for white print heads.
 
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synergy_jim

New Member
White Update:


Turned up the heat a few degrees and turned our negative pressure down to -3.2 fro -3.8.

White is printing great now!!!!
 
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