Do printheads wear out

[stickersteve]

I have had my edge now for about 5 years. I print quite a bit of jobs with barcodes. I have had a couple jobs recently that when I tested the barcodes they did not scan. These were jobs that previously scanned before. When I look at the codes up close they do not look clean. I am wondering if the print heads deteriorate to the point where you may not notice it on some things, but fine lines like on a barcode will not work anymore? Is there a life cycle on print heads?

 

[TheSnowman]

I don't know about on that machine, but over time, on my Mimaki's my print heads have worn out. You don't notice it so much on the big stuff, but on the really detailed stuff you'll notice it on mine.

 

[Bill Modzel]

On smaller barcodes I've found that if you rotate them 15° or so, they'll print much cleaner and more accurately. When your looking at those thinner lines and spaces it can make a huge difference because printhead array itself. Depending on where the line hits you could be printing it with one or two pixel/printhead hits.

 

[DIGIXTRA]

I have had my edge now for about 5 years. I print quite a bit of jobs with barcodes. I have had a couple jobs recently that when I tested the barcodes they did not scan. These were jobs that previously scanned before. When I look at the codes up close they do not look clean. I am wondering if the print heads deteriorate to the point where you may not notice it on some things, but fine lines like on a barcode will not work anymore? Is there a life cycle on print heads?

Literally the printhead does wear out but in your case I guess the nozzles had been partially blocked which would cause the ink droplets not firing straight..hence the fuzziness

 

[Billct2]

Pardon my lack of technical terms but a Gerber Edge does not have printheads that shoot ink, it's a one big thermal head that as I understand fires electronically to fuse the foil to the vinyl. Usually when a thermal printhead fails they have a bad spot that doesn't fire leaving a gap that appears as a missing line or steak. You can print a test of a large solid block of color to see if there is a bad area. If that's not it UI haven't heard of Edges losing quality from use, but maybe it's possible. It could also be an issue of the vinyl not being clean.

 

[J Hill Designs]

do you clean your printhead periodically with 99% iso?

 

[Billct2]

Good question, JHill, I assumed that is a given....

 

[stickersteve]

I neglect cleaning my printhead. I am going to start doing that more often now.

 

[J Hill Designs]

make sure its 99% not 70% ISO alcohol

 

[Fred Weiss]

Printheads do wear out in the respect that as they age they don't print as evenly as before. After you clean your printhead, run a test print 11.75" wide by a few inches in length using a spot color with the fill set at 50%. If your head is printing unevenly, you will see it in the result.

 

[stickersteve]

Fred, I just did that. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for. Some areas look darker than others. I get clumps of darker spots and areas of even spots.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Fred, I just did that. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for. Some areas look darker than others. I get clumps of darker spots and areas of even spots.

You're evidently seeing it. It shows up primarily when you use halftones and, in most cases, the eyes passes right over it. It can become noticeable with spot colors. It's either caused by uneven pressure across the printhead, wear of the printhead, unevenness in the platen or unevenness in the surface of the vinyl. Other than a factory servicing (expensive), there's not much you can do other than clean your printhead and platen regularly. To me it isn't enough of a problem to justify the cost of the remedy.