can anyone tell me why my cadet is not printing please?

[davebrittain]

i let mine lie idle but when ive finished with it i uncap the heads fill the capping station with solvent and cap them again this keeps the pump wet also the little drain pipes to the bottle.

[Robert Lambie]

I can sympathise with you mate… nothing worse than something like this happening to a new bit of machinery.
I have the same machine as you but the 54 inch wide “grenadier” works on the exact same basis.
What I can say is… before I purchased the machine I was aware of this, (not from suppliers) but from this site and also reading into it & how it performed. The solvent is what makes your ink more aggressive and gives it the extra bite on the substrate/media, compared to say an ecosolvent machine, which is less agressive.
The downside of using this sort of ink is it can solidify over time. As long as you are aware of this, I think it is totally expectable, however very light maintenance is required “if” the machine is going to be idle for about 3 days onwards.
The advice I was given is that on a Friday evening, if I wasn’t working sat or Sunday… I should go through a minimal procedure to apply some liquid onto the heads, and then move the head back to seal.
This keeps the head wet and also floods the start of the tubes to prevent hardening. Monday morning you just kick off as normal.
The procedure does only take a few minutes and very easy to do.

I suppose it’s a bit like using my spray gun… I have to setup compressor, gun, paint etc and when finished clean it all and leave. This way the paint doesn’t harden in the gun…

I guess same goes for sign writers with their brushes…

“6 weeks is a long time to have left the machine without any jobs being run or any maintenance at all”… even letting the machine run a small test print every couple of days would be enough… just to keep the ink moving.

John at x-displays said he left his machine for weeks on end at Christmas, came back to work and away he went again printing?

All this isn’t helping you, I know.
What I can say is.. the guy that gave you your installation and training, “should definetaly” have shown you how to do the light weekly laintenance & explained all there is to know about the machines, do’s & don’t’s… you should also have something on paper that explains the procedure and spells out what can go wrong if it isn’t carried out.
If you haven’t, then find out why? It could be an error on the suppliers/installers part..
If so.. I think the least they could do is send you some complementary flush cartridges or send a tech out to do it for you…
The flush cartridges basically pump all the tubes with the fluid and cleans all the pipes etc.. ready to be used again as normal.

[John Cornfield]

Only thing i add to the issue is how you turn the machine off. Always make sure you turn the machine off correctly. We have started a new routine before we power down for the weekend. On the grenadier we do a simple print head test then put the machin in standbye and turn off.

The idea is to make sure the print heads are located correctly within the caps when the power is off, we leave it in standbye over night or we are printing on it over night.

Shutting down for a period i would take the cover off and the machine and double check the heads are located properly

I am getting paranoid now with the christmas shutdown a few months away. As i said in an earlier post i am sceptical about the whole flush cartridge thing. On a grenadier if you install the flush cartridge it empties the tubes of the ink within them i think this is up to 25% of each ink then when you reload your ink another 25% is used to fill your tubes remeber you don’t get the benefit of this ink it is essentially a float. 50% of a cartridge £32.50* 12 cartridges plus the cost of the flush. Nice business if you supply the inks and cartridges !!!

If anyone has a chemical degree could they tell me the difference between the solvent in the cartridge and the flush solvent. Surely the flush has to be equal or greater in strength than the ink. so if you are leaving a machine with flush it could have the same damaging effect. The only thing that it might be and i am sure some the old resolve guys might know is that it is the pigment within the solvent. I remember something about earlier inkjet printers and suspending pigment molecules. That if left through time these settle and sink.

I agree with Rob if you haven’t got it in writing shout loud and get the machine repaired under the warranty. They will have to flush and re ink the machine. I am going to check my extended warranty to see if it mentions anything.

To be safe i would always run a print head test and head clean every 3 days. You can always wind back the media and print over the same point and or change the base point to use the width of the media. This preventative action could save the lower volume users a lot of hassle.

God Christmas is coming!!!

So is my new son or daughter on Monday the missus is getting induced, scary no sleep coming our way for the couple of months!

Cheers

John

[Nicola McIntosh]

all the best john!! 😛

hope it all goes well with the new arrival!! 😛 😛

more pressies for santa to bring!! 😀 😀

Nik

[Phill Fenton]

I’m sorry to hear of your problem Arthur – I am surpised that no one warned you of the danger of leaving the machine unused for such a long period.

I hope you get the machine fixed soon.

Thank you for highlighting this potential pitfall to all of us 😀

quote popdog:

If anyone has a chemical degree could they tell me the difference between the solvent in the cartridge and the flush solvent. Surely the flush has to be equal or greater in strength than the ink. so if you are leaving a machine with flush it could have the same damaging effect.

This is my theory:-

The answer is the damage is caused not by the solvent itself but by the pigment – The solvent will evaporate over time leaving behind the pigment which solidifies and does the damage.

If solvent only is left in the machine – then (over time) all the solvent will evaporate leaving behind nothing (but air) to cause any damage to the print heads. When re-charged with liquid (ink) the printer should work again as normal.

[Carrie Brown]

Huge pain for you Arthur 😮 Hope you get it all sorted. I would definetely push for them to sort something out if you were not informed of the basic maintenance etc and have nothing in writing either from them??

[kev hoy graphics]

Hi Arthur
Just wondering how things have developed regarding getting back to B&P & some things mentioned in reply to your post?
Just being nosey, but reading with interest!

[signworkshop]

Hi,

When we had our Cadet installed, not by B&P. We were shown how to keep it clean and was told to clean the heads, and with solvent on pads which we wipe the heads and also to flush some solvent sown the head covers.

Shame you wasn’t told the same. Whoever installed yours needs sorting out.

Have you tried crimping the pump pipes and fill the pots where the heads sit when not in use with solvent and sit the heads on it, it might soften up the ink. You need to manually crank down the head ports with the special tool that was supplied with your Cadet, fill it up and then crank it back up. You can find a little hole underneath the Cadet directly under where the heads are.

Hope this helps

From
Mark

[Peter Shaw]

I’ve just been given the following instruction re soaking the heads by Tom Plunkett at B & P:

If the Cadet is not to be used for more than 4 days, soak the heads. If its less than 4 days, e.g. a weekend, Don’t.

The reason for this, as I discovered the hard way, is that if there is a pressure differential between the 2 cartridges connected to a head, it can force the ink from the higher pressure cartridge up the tube of the lower one. Thus my cyan turned black. After 4 days the risk of drying out is greater than the risk of this happening.