how to do a head wash on a mimakie 3042hg?

[mel-]

I have a new 3042hg that is three weeks old. I print phone covers and have done maybe 1000 (so in the scheme of things, I haven't printed very much square footage).

I am constantly having trouble with overspray on the magenta. I can do maybe 40 covers and then will take hours of magnenta head cleans, a nozzle wash soak of at least 45 min, probably a custody wash that long, before I can get it up and running. so maybe an hour of actual printing then 3-4 hrs of downtime.

my daily maintenance:

head clean all heads (normal)
nozzle wash (99 min)
wipe all areas around cap station with foam tips including wiper rails

once a week I replace both filters

I even tried doing a magenta head clean between each set of covers (6). and still after 40 or so I will get overspray from magenta

I am pretty sure this isn't normal because when I read some of you guys run yours hours at a time with no maintenance. when christmas gets here, I will never be able to make the 200 a day I will sell during that time.

I saw head wash on the maintenance menu and chose magenta. it said to remove the cartridge which I did. but now I get no further message on what to do next and can find no info in the manuals or online.

can someone point me in the right direction or is this something I shouldn't be attempting on my own but is instead for a tech?

any other tips on how to proceed? again, this is a brand new machine.

also, in looking at the inks they are down to about 34% on all. is that normal with having printed so little or is a lot of it in the lines?

I have already had 1.5 times a full waste ink jug which also seems like a lot to me.

finally, it will only print one line, stops and makes a noise which I think is the pump and then prints another pass and stops etc. it didn't do that the first few days it was used.

here is a video I made that I hope will show what I am talking about. I am just printing the image on paper

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3KdqDi9faDYSXczUmNDc0VZRFk/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for any help

Melinda

 

[Supertramp]

Hello Mel,

I'm working on a UJF-3042 for 3 years now and there are not many differences between our printers. I must say that a 1,5 waste tanks and 70% of ink is a lot for a 3 week job. That is probably because you use so much cleaning, custody and nozzle washes. Maybe the printer is not calibrated the right way. The problem that can occur are air pockets in dumper or head or some cleaner left jammed in the dumper.

First of all I need some more information about the machine and your user settings as well. Are you using 220 or 660 ml inks (220 I presume)? On what print conditions is the printer working (resolution, number of passes, overprints maybe, white option printing)? Have you used fill up option?

You don't need to clean the magenta head that often. My machine is set to auto cleaning (normal) after every 10 to 15 prints (whole A3 surface).

My personal experience is that a printing quality is better the the more I print. So on first few prints I use higher resolution with 24 passes and after hour or so I use 8 or 12 passes.

I change filters 2 times a year maybe so I don't know why are you replacing them every week. My printer is working about 4 hours a day in average.

Best regards.

 

[mel-]

thanks so much for that info. I thouht I was suppose to change the filters every week but will definitely stop that

I'm using the semi flexible ink. says 600 ml on the end of teh cartridge

I am switching from dye sub to this for my phone covers and right now am still printing on the meta inserts with this printer.

these are the settings that gave me the best coverage for that metal

lh-100 CMYK
lumirror whiteback v3.1
720x900 vd
v.31
pass 12
special colorset unused
halftone ILL difusion
overprint 1
dot size profile setting 3,2,1

where do I check the autocleaning? is that int. wiping?

I did finally get back a good image. let it soak over the weekebnd in a nozzle wash. had to wait to receive shipment of some more cleaning solution but today did a nozzle wash for 99 minb and custody wash for 99 min and now back to a good test pic

still is stopping with every single pass as shoiwn in the video. I wondered if that was air in something? I think it is the pump making that noise?

just another quick question:

I finally got some plastic cases in from china to start testing on and was trying to make a cardboard jig which they suggested tho I think I'll buy some jigs down the road.

anyway, I cut the jig to size, used function work set and put the jig in there.

when it raises it's like it doesn't see the jig. it goes up high enough it pops the door with the red uv glass in it and then gives an error message.

I tried cutting the jig on the right side down about an inch so it sits on the right about an inch in from the end. I also tried using the option set jig but it tells me no jig present.

have you bought some jigs and if so from who?

thanks a lot,

Melinda

Hello Mel,

I'm working on a UJF-3042 for 3 years now and there are not many differences between our printers. I must say that a 1,5 waste tanks and 70% of ink is a lot for a 3 week job. That is probably because you use so much cleaning, custody and nozzle washes. Maybe the printer is not calibrated the right way. The problem that can occur are air pockets in dumper or head or some cleaner left jammed in the dumper.

First of all I need some more information about the machine and your user settings as well. Are you using 220 or 660 ml inks (220 I presume)? On what print conditions is the printer working (resolution, number of passes, overprints maybe, white option printing)? Have you used fill up option?

You don't need to clean the magenta head that often. My machine is set to auto cleaning (normal) after every 10 to 15 prints (whole A3 surface).

My personal experience is that a printing quality is better the the more I print. So on first few prints I use higher resolution with 24 passes and after hour or so I use 8 or 12 passes.

I change filters 2 times a year maybe so I don't know why are you replacing them every week. My printer is working about 4 hours a day in average.

Best regards.

 

[mel-]

I've never used the fill up option. I did try the white maintenance and after taking them out it wanted me to enter a weight? I think I just accepted what it suggested which seems like 501.

I've only had this 3 weeks and am still leery of pushing any buttons I don't know what do ! and the manuals and even online aren't helping me a lot with what some options do.

could you tell me what your normal maintenance is and then weekly if different? that will give me a place to start.

doing phone covers, I've maybe done a thousand or so now but that really is very little square footage so I thought something is definitely wrong now that I have plastic cases I can use the profile settings they suggested for those and see what happens once I get the jig made.

this dye sub metal is specially coated with a white polyester coating if that helps. having trouble getting it to stick to it but just doing this temp until I get cases in to print on.

what surfaces do you use the bottled primer on?

 

[mel-]

I don't think it is set up right in terms of sensing height of the substrate.

I cut down a piece of cardboard maybe about 6x8 and put on the table and it doesn't sense that. it just pushes the cardboard right off the table when moving forward to print.

ugh. when they installed it, they did a bunch of test runs on phone cases but they did them all with the door cover off. I want to run with it on. is that not possible?

thanks again for your help.

 

[mel-]

meh. have sent an email to the company that installed it. now it isn't even trying to adjust the table height up and down no matter what height media I put on the table (piece of paper or quartr inch thick cardboard, it never moves the table up and down at all).

 

[Supertramp]

Hey again,

my printer has only 6 ink slots and yours has 8. I use M C Y K W W. I have the option to insert primer in one of the white slots but I prefer having two white colors, in my opinion the printing quality is much better that way. I mostly print on Plexiglas, plastic and forex (foamex) and I don't need primer for them. i only clean them with alcohol first. when printing on metal I use universal primer spray, the one you can find in every paint store. if needed after the print I use spray varnish for the protection and gloss effect.

Auto cleaning: Function - Set up - Auto cleaning - ON/OFF

Please be careful with soaking the heads in cleaner over the night/weekend. It's purpose is to 'heal' the heads and to fix unfired nozzles (when you do the test print the nozzles that are missing). The problem with leaving the heads soaked is that the cleaner liquid can find it's way in the head and jam the flow of the color. If that happens you need to fill up all the colors and when you do that the machine trows away about 5-10 % of the color in the system.

I saw the video and I must say that is really strange, the machine is always that slow? How long does it take him to print one phone cover?

Check this: Function - Set up - Print mode - Quality - Standard/Fine/Fast

Maybe your printer is set to fine mode of quality, if yes change it to standard. That can be the reason of slow work.

Yes the pump is noisy, that is normal.

If I understood you well by jig you mean a template (my English is not perfect). I can't help you here because i have a laser and i make my templates from old 3 mm Plexiglas. Every one is custom made for a specific job. Do you set the height of the substrate? My machine doesn't recognize the height, I must manually set it. First I put the height to maximum 50 mm and after inserting the template I measure the height and manually put the real height. The gap between the substrate and the head shouldn't be more than 1,5/2 mm so it's essential to measure right. Maybe 3042HG has automatic height recognition, I don't know. If not, manually set the height.

My normal weeks maintenance is:

Every time i turn the printer on, I do the test print. If test print is good and all nozzles are here I start to work. If not i do one or few normal head cleanings until I get a nice and good nozzle test. Doesn't have to be perfect. You can find some troubleshoots at this link:

http://eng.mimaki.co.jp/product/faq.html?id=361

After a days work I just do a wiper clean, clean around the caps and one hard cleaning. It is all in the Daily maintenance brochure. Once a week (Friday mostly) I do a nozzle wash (60 or 99 minutes one). before doing a nozzle wash I clean the table and all the surfaces with wet rag, clean the small UV glass with alcohol and clean the dust under and around the heads (Maintance - Head ment). This is a very delicate job because that is tight space and I need to be very very careful not the touch the heads or UV light.

Once a year I change the Antifreeze water, twice a year both filters, 4/5 times a year wiper, once/twice when needed I do the air deflation out of the heads (don't do this yourself) and every 1,5 / 2 years I change the dumpers (when the specific head stops printing it' s time to change the dumper on that head). It's been 3 years now and the printer still works as good as the first day.

I'm not sure why the distributer who sold you the machine hasn't took the time to teach you everything you need to know. I hope I was a help to you. if you have hard time understanding me I can take some pictures of my machine or maybe do a video with some processes you wold like to do. Feel free to ask anything you want, my learning process would be much shorter If I had someone to help me in the beginning.

Best of regards to you.

 

[mel-]

I really appreciate that detailed response. I'm going to save this for future reference and hope that I can get to the point of your daily and weekly routine.

It's not that my installer hasn't been helpful. it came with 2 days of on site support but it took one day for them to install and the next day just didn't cover enough or I didn't ask the right questions.

they are 300 miles away. I'm seriously thinking I may need to look at paying for another days support if possible with a list of specific questions.

the 3042hg does have automatic height detection. it worked fine until yesterday and then just quit automatically detecting ! I have emailed them to find out why. I'm sure I just have managed to get something turned off under function.

the 3042hg also has a clear coat though I haven't used it yet (am hoping to use that the same way you are using spray varnish; to put a clear coat on top to protect it more)

it does have two white inks and also a primer ink

so far as the video goes, no it just started doing that the last day or two. before that, it was working like all of the videos I have seen plus the two days they were here with onsite tech. still waiting for a response from my installer to see if I need to get it repaired or if it is something I can fix.

yes, that is what I meant by jig; a fixture with slots that I can put the covers into to print (my table size will hold up to 12 cases at once). I have found a couple of suppliers here in the USA and will just have to order one to see what I think of quality I guess.

I think until I hear from them as to why it is not auto detecting height I will do as you say and measure it.

darn, checked the print mode and it is set for standard

 

[mel-]

on the video, it turns out to be the int. wiping setting. I had got it set to one so it was wiping the nozzle after every pass.

does anyone know what the recommended setting is for that?

I tried the clear coat and it was banding so now have to figure that out.

 

[Robert Gruner]

Mel,

Where is your reseller during all these issues?

 

[mel-]

claims busy.

did get back to me and otld me about int wiping so that cleared that up.

now, I just need to find out why I can't make a cardboard jig. does anyone have any ideas? I am just cutting a piece of cardboard to the size of the table and then want to print the template on it and then cut out the holes. but it is not detecting the height of the cardboard but just pushes it right off the table when I tell it to print. I could measure the height and set it manually but the 3042whg has a laser to auto detect and do that itself and it's bugging me it won't.

I know I must have to push some button first (I've tried various buttons on the maintenance menus like work set) but I can't figure it out.

really, I wish mimaki would write a better manual as they don't explain anywhere near what all the buttons do.

 

[hnkank]

3042hg

I think media Height is issue, I guess auto height sensor work within the limit that we set for head gap. Also check some people use LF Ink for cell phone due to color gamat and better photographic quality.