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Topic: Seiko's coming... What do i need to know?

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joshie
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Seiko's coming... What do i need to know?
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Hey there everyone! The 64s is coming here next week. I've chosen this over Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh Spitfire and Rockhopper. I hope it's gonna prove to have been a good decision.

However, i just want to ask you all beforehand - did you already make up a list of Seiko Commandments? I mean the Do's and Don'ts, or 10 Things You Should Know About Seiko But Sales Reps Won't Tell You? :) Any maintenance and feed adjustment tricks? Or how to avoid media load misalignment?

I would be very grateful for any tips and i offer some surprise gift to people willing to share the insights into this little 64" wonder.

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Johnboy
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1. Get the service contract.
2. Learn to print the prime test print (I'm not sure what Seiko calls this - the ones with the lines - not the blocks of color). You will be able to tell a service tech more with this test print than the other one.
3. Write down your voltages because you may need to change them.
4. Take note of what temperatures are best for the heaters. We have not been running them very hot lately and have had less problems across the board.
5. Some media will react very badly when heated (Solvex for one). When you put new media in keep an eye on any kind of reactions.

That's a start.

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ournigelmansell
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the print do need to see is called the nozzle check print. it's in the maintenance mode, which you'll have to get the service tech to show you how to get in. the service contact is the most important thing, but the best thing i found was to start using half decent substrates as a base, and then work from that to experiment with others. 

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joshie
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Thanks a lot guys!

As i don't yet have the CP at home, can you tell me beforehand how does the procedure for feed adjustment/calibration look like? Is it something diffucult and does it give good results?

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ournigelmansell
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if you use the seiko calibration charts then it can be quite lengthy. the feed side you can adjust on the fly, which i find is easier and wastes less media. also dependant on what image you're printing this is an easier way. the head calibration is a 5min job. in total to set up a new media shoudl take no more than 10mins to do, and this only is performed once. nice and easy! 

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joshie
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Ok, the Seiko's here :) Works great. We have it with the Caldera VisualRIP+ which is blazing fast (and i mean it!) and so easy to operate. Costs twice as much as PhotoPrint DX but has all the DX options plus auto nesting, costing, workflow automation etc etc etc. I haven't been thru more than a fourth of all the functions. It has factory profiles for many materials which are dead accurate. But nevermind the RIP.

The machine...

I have a few lame questions to you all (before the teaching starts on thursday), because there are some things i can't find in the manual (or i am not reading it thoroughly enough, or maybe i should read the english original, not the polish translation):

1. Setting the media straight - seems to be a problem. On the front side there is a small printed ruler, actually a line. How should i use it? Does the media have to be exactly along it, or a few milimeters off? Then again... when the media is not set fully straight and even tho the machine starts printing, sometimes it will stop the print when it reaches some kind of media slant. I wish i could turn that off.

2. Ournigelmansell said before that you can adjust feed on the fly. Erm... how? I mean - while printing, when i press Online to go offline, it just keeps on blinking and doesn't allow me to enter the menu. Should i press it only when the carriage is on the cap side?

3. Switching off... The question is - should i keep it online 24h a day, even if it prints on and off for approx 16 hrs a day? Or should i just press and hold Power on the front panel until the shutdown procedure starts and then just leave it over night, and the next day turn it on, do cap clean, wiper clean, test print and maybe a cleaning procedure? Should i ever do fill cap procedure if the machine is to be kept idle for a longer time (as i heard from someone)?

4. Slight spraying? While printing e.g. black type on white surface, you can see some slight spraying, mostly black and cyan. Yesterday it was more pronounced, today practically absent. What does it depend on?

All in all the machine is awesome and blazing fast. With the profiles we made for Mactac 5829 for 360dpi it prints really good and at 720 it's just awesome.

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joshie
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Ok, so i sorted out the questions i had:

1. Media slant - the sticker on the back is skewed - we've corrected it, now there's no problem with media slant. Tho i still would like to turn that feature off.

2. Adjust feed on the fly - there is an errata for the manual with this explained. Sorry for being so lame!

3. Turning off - ok, now i know. The only other question i have regarding power - do you guys use any backup power sources on your machines? What solutions would you recommend?

Cheers!
Joshie

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ournigelmansell
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from what i know their is no user errata for the manual, but it works the same way as the normal feed adjust. go up in value and the feed band gets wider and vice versa. once you have done this a few times, it's so much eassier than doing the normal calibration.


a back-up power system is somewhat a luxury and would be expensive. it would need to handle just over 2kw of power. nobody i know uses this facility.



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joshie
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It would be nice if the Seiko had two separate power supplies - one for heaters, one for operation. The heaters don't need the backup power.

BTW, i have an errata :) Or addendum or whatever it's called. A folded A3 size, so A4 size, four page, cheap paper. It has the Waste Saving option and the Feed Adjust on the fly option explained, along with some other stuff.

And, regarding auto cleaning - it can be switched off in the maintenance mode menu - maintenance manual is at YahooGroups.

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ournigelmansell
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i believe that there are two separate psu's for the 64s. but remeber dependant on what jobs are running when the power goes, if the heaters become void then the ink may just not dry leaving you with a bit of an awful mess. i guess it will be better than losing all the heads from drying out??

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joshie
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hehe, sure, but at least then i could wait until the end of the print and shut the machine down. the heaters don't cool off that fast. but honestly - i haven't looked down there to the power supply so actually i have to check if there are two ;) if so, then we will do it this way. plus, we got some problems with electrical installation anyway (i mean power dropouts that take just a split second, due to some other machinery that we have).

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ournigelmansell
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agreed, and that's always the problem,especially if you power coming in is or can be dodgy. for the sake of a relatively minor purchase compaqred to what the unit is earning you, it might be well worth it. let me know what sort of unit and prices are around if you start looking. cheers

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SpandexSalesRep
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Hi My name is Spencer and I work for Spandex UK.


I have just recently had training on the Seiko ColorPainter 100's and let me tell you it is a powerful peice of kit.


If your in the U.K and interested in taking a look at it. I would be happy to take you to see it and you can spend a few hours going over the product and watching it print.


You can contact me on 07767-200-664 if your in the UK, or mail me on sgreen@spandex.com


Good luck!


 


 



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If your looking to get into digital print and need someone to talk to. Please contact me on 07767-200-664
ournigelmansell
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Spencer, how did you find the 100? what functions did it have that make it better than all the others on the market? Do you have one at Spandex in the UK?

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joshie
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I just learned last week that on one Scitex machine the power consumption can go over 30 kWatts ;) Nice :) And of course you have to supply it with 380 Volts. But it has 5 meter long panel of infrared heaters ;) So, no wonder, really ;)

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ournigelmansell
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i think this doubles as a self tanning machine!!



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joshie
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I think it rather is a giant chicken roasting machine ;) The most expensive barbecue machine from Israel :) But i gotta admit that the XLjet Premium is just perfect. I think it's just flawless. I didn't find anything wrong or unthoughful about it. Everything is foreseen, prepared, planned. You can't go wrong. But you have to have a big wallet though. And a long queue of customers. Cuz with a very sellable 90 sqm/h and bearable 120 sqm/h (for mesh or lightly coloured banners) you're gonna produce almost too fast.

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