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what point do you change heads
just wondering, for those without service contracts, at what point do you change your printheads. Do you do so at the first sign of deflecting, or do you push them to the limit. my 6 heads on the soljet, all show at least some sign of deflecting, and wouldnt want to change them, if there is still life. There is some hardly noticeable banding so am happy to push them, and oddly enough some days i get worse deflecting than others, i am also thinking this could be due to some days being much hotter than others, 41 c last week! tips for a hotter climate appreciated
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7 Replies
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Chris if it were me then I would be changing the heads, as far as I am concerned if there is any banding no matter how slight then the quality wouldn’t be good enough for me to sell it’s as simple as that.
That’s easy for me to say I know because I don’t have a large format printer or the costs that go with running one but from what I have read on the forum most people who have bought one have been delighted at how quickly the machines pay for themselves so you should still make a good profit even if you are putting money aside for maintenance and replacement parts.
I think it can be very difficult to build a good reputation and very easy to lose it but thats just my opinion
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Chris
normally it would be when print quality deteriorates to an unacceptable level. Extreme heat is as bad as extreme cold for these printers. Do you have very hot days but cold nights. The reason i ask is that the ink viscosity changes with temperature and when it gets warm then cools, solvent evaporates & this may be the reason for some of the deflection that you are getting. The heads are supposedly good for 600 billion shots you can check each head in the service menu.
Hope this helps.Martin
6 heads at £650 each is not something you do without needing to. Banding isn’t normally caused by deflection but if drop out on the test print is present then that would point to heads needing changingKev
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Kevin, I’ve got a pretty good idea about the cost of various jobs on the machines just from reading the forum and like I said it’s easy for me to say when I don’t have those sort of expenses. I can understand and respect your position as a printer owner and wanting to get the most out of the heads is what I would want to do as well.
If Chris can tweak the machine with some help from people on here and get rid of the banding then great but if I ordered prints from someone and there was any sign of banding even if it was hardly noticeable then I would be sending them back. 🙄 -
back from hols and in this time manage to get printer working fab. little advice from bp. they advised i swap a deflecing head with a light color. so swapped the cyan with light cyan, a cheat if you like, but prints are perfect. heat really doesnt help here and nights are hot also. just seems patience is the key
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If you are having a problem with the heat then move to Scotland :lol1: That should sort the heat problem instantaneously even in the summer if you can call it that 🙄
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I’d soak the heads with cleaning solvent. Should clear up some deflected nozzles.
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agreed, but we have been known to change a head after 1 deflection in the head, there is two deflections on our set at the moment.
We change it when it hampers our quality
On some UV Printers, they have an option called ‘nozzle off’, which issolates that particular nozzle, so it doesn’t cost a fortune in replacing them.
I am unsure if any of the roll-fed solvent printers has this feature
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