Leaving a Versacamm swithed off ??

[Chris Wool]

tim
i have a EX
as i understand it the machine should be left switched on but sleeping aparently it will wake its self up and do a cleaning cycle when it wants to
so they will tell you its one of the advantages over full solvent inks
however i give the key to a trusted friend that will come in & just press the setup key once a day leave the temp settings low
but ring roland if not convinced by the manual
the cadets and grenadiers will have there own methods

chris

[Robert Lambie]

yeh, im with chris on nthis tim. i would call roland and let them tell you what to do. last thing you want is to come home from a nice holiday to a problem.
not sure if this applies to versacamms, but can you not flush the inks. clearing the tubes to be left? 🙄

[Chris Wool]

rob
as you have been impresed by the speedy drying time of the ink / prints from these machines that is why they have to be managed when not used for a while kept wet is one explanation.

as i understand it at the factory they are tested with water based inks then shiped the first thing that is done when installed is to be flushed out
once the solvent inks are installed then a lot more care has to be given to down time never to be left with a cart out for more than the time to change it etc.
air in the system could be very bad

chris

[Rodney Gold]

The heads have capping stations
Keep it switched on or leave it off as you wish. (personally I wouldnt leave any machine switched on for 2 weeks – voltage spikes, brownouts etc etc)
I switched mine off (soljet) for the 3 week break we had over December and was printing 3 minutes after switch on.You wont have the same problems with the eco-sol inks as you will have with true and more agressive solvents in respect of head dry out etc.
To answer another point , the way the carts work , you cant really run the machine without a cart , and the only way you will get air in the system is to put a cart in that you have messed with (we suck ink out of old carts and refill using a syringe , get about 1 full cart from 6 -8 olds ones in this situatuation you can inject air if you arent carefull.)
There is a neck seal on the cart (like a vial bottle) and the internal bladder is air free , there is actually ink in the lines and about 10-15ml in the bladder when it indicates empty – you can cut a bit off the tab that projects on the side that hits the empty cart microswitch to fool the machine , you might however damage a pump if the thing actually cant feed ink , tho you wont induce air that way either.
An ink flush is something you wont want to do unless you have some really big head problem that cant be solved by the manual cleaning cycle on the machines menu – it’s a serious waste of ink and not at all needed for interuppted use , perhaps if you were storing for months it MIGHT be advisable. these are tried and tested Epson heads and dont go down often and seem to take a lot of abuse (not even a head strike on ABS has damaged mine)