Just like the title says. I was just curious how many hours a day do you other guys run your ColorPainter 64s with Onyx RIP. We have ours run usually about 14-16 hours a day / 5-6 days a week and we really seem to burn through a lot of ink. Basically my questions to you other guys who have this machine are as follows:
- How many hours a day does your machines print?
- What kind of problems do you encounter on a daily basis? RIP and/or Printer.
- What kind of parts have you had to replace on your CP64s if any?
Im just another printer trying to gather some information to see if i have my own isolated problems/gripes or if anyone else has encountered my issues.
- How many hours a day does your machines print? normally around 8-10
- What kind of problems do you encounter on a daily basis? RIP and/or Printer. we tend to find we only get print quality issues on the lighter print weeks. the harder we run the less the problems.
- What kind of parts have you had to replace on your CP64s if any? mainly heads, heads and more heads. we've also had a carriage cable when the ties cut through them.
1) 16-20 hours a day 2) Some "buggy" PDF with complex shadow or transparency are causing problems, but then it does arrive we transform it into a tiff file and that works, some banding issue but quit easy to solve. 3) head and the internal scsi cable on the caterpilar
Hmm this is all interesting information. We have a few 24 hr days each week but we will absolutely print atleast 14-16 hrs a day. Im just trying to figure out what on earth is causing our banding.
Banding? I will say it again like a maniac - temperature... All banding i have ever seen (apart from skewed media and problems with feed) on my Seikos was caused from the heaters temperature being too low. We print 2pass without banding, man.
What are your temperatures? Give me a table with such columns: MEDIA | PRINT MODE | TEMP FRONT | TEMP PRINT | TEMP REAR | FEED
MEDIA | PRINT MODE | TEMP FRONT | TEMP PRINT | TEMP REAR | FEED
Media: MPI1005EZ Print Mode: 4 Pass Temp Front: 50 (Used to be 45) Temp Print: 45 (Used to be 40) Temp Rear: 50 (Used to be 45) Feed: 100.5 (We tried .1-.9)
My real confusin is that nothing on the printer or computer were changed at all until the banding started then we changed things around to trouble shoot.
tried those settings with no luck =(. I really dont think its the media feed settings because these werent changed when the banding started, and this machine used to print banding free a month ago.
ok, here's my checklist - we need to know what has changed.
maybe the ink? maybe the temperature in the room? maybe someone kicked the media unwinding assembly by accident? maybe a too heavy roll was placed there and it got skewed or the system was strained? maybe the machine was moved and it is not level in either x or y axis?
you could try to exchange the rollers or just get the heat up.
tell me about your results when you print on self adhesive glossy vinyl in 4 pass, with temperatures set at 48-44-48. if there is banding, what kind of banding is that - white stripes or darker stripes or uneven (a few white, a few ok then a few darker and all over again).
do you know how to make a nozzle check? if so, are you sure that all nozzles are firing? maybe a few nozzles or even one in the beginning or in the end of the nozzleplate got clogged and this is not so obvious while looking at the nozzle check test print.
also, maybe your service guy misaligned one head while doing some maintenance or repair?
I tried running plain sheets just to see if the alignment was weird or the roll was skewing the media but it wasnt the case. Plus we put out about 5 full 53' trailers a day so sheet feeding for us would be a nightmare. I cant imagine how badly that would impede production to have to babysit it.
the sheet test was just to show if it was the feed alignment that was causing your problem.i think i'd rather stick needles in my eye's than run the 64s via sheet feed!!!
if this test didn't cure your fault, then you need to start look at the pinch roller side/lower roller side and ensure that all is clean and functioning correctly i.e. the pinch rollers all come down and are aligned together.
have you tried running on the heavier spring setting or are you already doing that? dependant on what substrate you are using it may help (or it may get worse!).
this is true of the cogs within the take-up unit. seiko seem to have manufactured them in the softest material known to man and hey presto worn cogs. once worn they jump and spin out of mesh giving an irregular take-up function. made some of our own replacements out of steel. much better now thanks
you need to remove the take-up box which houses the cogs. to do this you remove three small scres and then detach three plastic electronic connectors for the front facing side of the box. it then slidge along the metal poles and you twist on an angle to remove.
once out you can remove the covers and see the cogs inside. it's normall yhtr ebrass coloured cog that wears as the syncromesh causes excessive wear on the soft material. you then need to carefully remove the cogs, grub screws, bearing and pins to gain access to the cog. replace as required.
seems difficult, but once you get the thing out of the printer and remove the covers, it's sort of self-explanitory.
there is a setting in the technician maintenance menu to turn off the automatic head cleaning and also you can eliminate head cleaning by queing up a bunch of jobs at a time.
pretty sure you can't turn off the cleaning altogether, but please if anybody knows differently let me know!!
all you can do is to choose between cleaning modes 1 & 2, which just look at the amount of scans involved in the print and cleans accordingly (either more cleans or less).
also, doesn't really make sense to turn the cleaning off, because it may kill a head that's not being used, which is not good and pretty expensive.
