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Uniform printers : holiday shutdown procedure
Hi all
We are today sending out a fax to all of our CADET and Grenadier users, for the benefit of those who may have purchased from another Uniform dealer, I thought I should post the following…
IMPORTANT NOTICE – for all Uniform Grenadier & Cadet owners and operators
As we all approach the Christmas holiday period, to avoid any problems that may arise upon your return and limit costly down time that may also arise from blocked print heads and pumps etc. it is required that you prepare your printer for the period of time it will be left unattended whilst you are away.
The recommended procedure will require that you have sufficient supply of the 220ml MX Flush solution for maintenance and also Maintenance flush cartridges, 4 cartridges are required for a Cadet and 12 for the Grenadier.
The purpose of this fax is to ensure that you are aware of the Maintenance process and also that you have sufficient time to address any supplies that you need to perform this required maintenance procedure.
If you are unsure about any of the requested procedures as stated below please contact you Uniform dealer for advice.
BEFORE YOU SHUT DOWN FOR THE HOLIDAY PERIOD
1. Remove all ink cartridges and replace with Uniform flush cartridges.
2. From the user menu go to the HEAD CLEANING option.
3. Perform the POWERFUL HEAD CLEAN twice to fill the ink system and heads with flush solution.
4. Visually check the ink lines that supply the print heads are diluted (remove right hand side blue maintenance cover) the lines should look translucent perform a Further 3rd powerful head clean if in doubt.
5. Power off the printer and with the pipe tool provided in your maintenance kit wind down the capping station and move the printer carriage out to the left to expose the capping station tops.
6. Apply the clamps also supplied in your maintenance kit to the length of tube running from each of the capping stations in-between the Cap and pump.
7. Using the pipette and 220ml MX Flush from you maintenance kit carefully fill each of the exposed caps with the MX flush taking the usual safety precautions in handling this fluid
8. Re cap the print heads as outlined in the user manual (Grenadier P.107, Cadet P.104) and replace Right side maintenance cover Your printer is now prepared for the Christmas Period.RE-ACTIVATING PRINTER ON RETURN FROM HOLIDAY
1. Remove right hand maintenance cover.
2. Remove the clamps from the waste ink tubes.
3. Remove all Flush cartridges and replace with Uniform Ink cartridges.
4. Power on the printer normally.
5. From the user menu go to the HEAD CLEANING option.
6. Perform the POWERFUL HEAD CLEAN twice to fill the ink system and heads with Uniform ink.
7. Replace the right hand side maintenance cover and work with the printer as normal.If you need any parts to carry out the above maintenance, it is vital that you contact your supplying dealer to ensure delivery before the holidays begin.
This is a straightforward procedure, and will save time, effort and possible expense on your return to work in the New Year. Note that any engineering time and/or parts required, arising from failure to perform this maintenance procedure may not be covered by warranty.
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21 Replies
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thanks for the heads up kev, much appreciated mate.
ill be honest, last year i never did this, i just came in after 3 days, run a meter square test print on banner, (couple of quid) then did an end of week few minutes clean and never had one problem. i did this at christmas then at new year…please note: max time between any of these print tests/clean was 3 days.
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Another way, is to put in a roll of banner/vinyl… setup your printer to print a foot every 2 days or something, my RIP allows for scheduling and if you have a rip that uses a Windows Print queue then you could use windows print scheduling.
It is interesting about the flush… as AIT’s advise for the JV3’s is NOT to use Mimaki Flush carts, the flush solution can cause damage to heads if used too often as it could melt in the insides of the heads, I guess your flush solution for the heads is of a different type.
The important thing in our view, is dont let your print rooms get Frozen! we have a little heater running to keep it at a nice subtle tempreture.
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quote Dave Rowland:The important thing in our view, is dont let your print rooms get Frozen! we have a little heater running to keep it at a nice subtle tempreture.
same here mate we have one in print and cutter room to prevent the vinyls getting brittle. we also have a heater in our router room because we managed to cause £1000 of damage last year due to the cold damaging the display boards & blowing something with the surge when we turned the machine on. 😕
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dave, just a thought… yeh troop allows print schedualing and also cutting. you can print labels heavy with ink, allow whatever time you wish to allow curing then the machine starts up again and contour cuts the labels. ide guess by the time 3 days is by, you would have used lots of banner material to the point it maybe running off? 2-3 days interval is ample… just like any weekend. my work is close to me so nipping in to do a test print & clean for 15 minutes, is nothing… 😕
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No names mentioned but I was advised in preference to doing a print it is better to start the machine and do a head clean as this ensures that the heads are properly flushed with fresh ink a thing that printing may not do depending on the size of print.
Logic I suppose and is what I am doing now.Goop
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if been running a print every couple of days the machine is not running, and also clean it every thursday, i’ll be popping into the work every second day during the holidays…do you have to clean the heads all the time? 😀
nik
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well for the info peaps, the ink is always in the print head ready to go and the JV3 is always waking up and doing a quick head suck… sortof every 45mins i think… when you turn the machine on (from standby), the machine does a quick suck and then wipes the head. You should then check the rubbers in the capping station and just clean around the heads if poss, then print “head print” and off u go.
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Kevin,
Thanks very much for that info. Can you tell me (maybe post a piccie)what these clamps that go between the heads and pump look like?
I don’t recall seeing any clamps in my maintenance kit but I could just never have taken notice of them.
thanks
Robert
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I am a cynic as you all know.
So heres a chance for the manufacturer to come clean based on £60 a cartridge for ink, what does your recommended process cost including flush cartridges? I ask cause you are flushing away fair amount of ink.
The other thing i don’t understand the solvent in the flush cartridges, it has to solvent yeah cause it is solvent ink, whats the difference as it cant be weaker than than the solvent ink, can it. Yeah it is clear no pigment and the pigment particles can settle.
I am with Rob if you leave your machine over a weekend then set your rip to print every 3 days over your holiday. It has got to work out cheaper!
I await the B&P reply with interest.
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When i had my machine fixed last week i had the new firmware update that runs a clean cycle every 12 hrs i think it is, i was told just to leave on standby and it looks after itself.
Anyway i’m only shut xmas day and boxing day so just like a normal weekend for me.
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Hi Paul, where is this firmware available from?
George
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It was put on my machine by an engineer when it was repaired.
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I have just been contacted by our cadet supplier telling us our firmware would also be updated free of charge as uniform now want all their machines on this 12 hour cleaning cycle.
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Hi all,
We recommend you flush your uniform printer if it is to be left unused for anything up to a week or more. This is to prevent the ink from drying/crystallizing in the pump, tubes or the print heads.
We recommend the powerful clean method as opposed to the Head Wash method so that instead of draining the m/c it will be left full of the cleaning solution, which does not dry or crystallize, thus keeping the heads moist and greatly reducing the risk of any particles of ink, left in the system, from crystallizing.hope this helps
regards Kevin -
Kevin,
I wonder if you can clear up a couple of points.
I have the updated firmware but was told the cycle was every 24 hours.
Can you confirm:
1. is it 12 or 24 hours?
2. what exactly does the cycle do?
3. is the cycle affected by the Maintenance Message, if it should appear, as everything else is?Peter
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the actual time is 24hours after the sub power has been switched off or when the machine is in sleep mode for this period of time.
the machine will wake or turn itself on and perform the operation.
the total amount of ink used is 0.032cc on a 4 colour machine.
hope this helps.
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if you have a 4 colour machine and have 4 flush cartridges (or 6 colour and 6 flush) you can do the shutdown procedure differantly and probably save time.
menu—ink control–pump up
remove ink as prompted by printerwait for ink to empty.
menu—ink control—fill ink
only this time install the 4 or 6 flush cartridges.
ink lines fill with flush.
this only works if you have enough flush carts.
after the break…
menu—ink control–pump up
empties the flush
reload the ink
menu—ink control–fill ink
you wont have to stand and watch it
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How about:
1. Remove the ink cartridges and insert flush cartridges
2. Print labels for your own business ( to stick to signs etc)
3. Stop printing when the ink has gone
4. After the break, fill with ink as normal.This would utilise the ink in the tubes on a non-critical print rather than throw it away.
Are there any technical reasons not to do this?
Peter
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Yes there are Peter…
As the firmware upgrade was issued as part of Rolands upgrade to MAX inks, it assumes you are doing an ink changeover and starts a flush and replace process that uses up a fair amount of ink. Even powering off and on won’t stop this process, it will simply start itself over.
That is the reason we are not globally issuing the firmware upgrade to Uniform users. We are upgrading machines when we have an engineer on-site, but this entails switching the machine into engineering mode so we can install without initialising the ink flushing process.
Before anyone asks, no we won’t give out the instructions for switching the machines into engineering mode – you can quite easily render the machine inoperable by pressing the wrong keys when in this mode.
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Kevin,
I wasn’t referring to the ink changeover process but the xmas shutdown process.
Peter
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Sorry Peter, I misunderstood, it’s hard sometimes because these threads tend to whizz off at a number of tangents, it makes my head hurt!
There are no reasons why you can’t do as you suggest, in fact it sounds like a good idea. However it would be quite a lot of print before the ink was cleared from the system, certainly a fair few metres of print.
Sorry I can’t be more accurate with the figures, but it is dependent on colour density of the image etc etc,.
I suppose another option is for any jobs that come in, that don’t have to be delivered until after the holidays, you could run some of those prints out whilst the inks are clearing through.
I do understand that no-one wants to waste ink if it can be avoided, but the flushing method is the ‘failsafe’ method. If you guys figure out an equally effective method of keeping the ink on the move, and the heads clear, then more power to your elbows.
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