Ink drips

[FrznFire07 217]

So I'm assuming this is a fairly common issue since we are dealing with ink jet printers but I wanted to know if any of you have any tips/tricks for minimizing drips.  Below is a photo of what we experience once in a while.  We are using a Mutoh Valuejet 1324 with Mutoh Inks.  Print Head and Wiper are  cleaned 1-2 times a week depending on how much we are printing. Nozzle checks are good.  The printer is two years old, maintenance station was replaced about 6 months ago.

 

This particular print is a 48 x 96 for sale sign that we are installing 30' in the air.  If we weren't installing we would have reprinted it.

 

Along with what you guys/girls do to minimize the issue what do you deem acceptable?

How do you explain to customers that you've printed the same job three times and it still has a minor issue, it's not perfect?

It doesn't happen very often but some jobs end up getting printed so many times because they are not perfect and we always get into an argument as to what we should deem acceptable, we of course strive for perfection but sometimes the machinery just doesn't want to cooperate.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

usually when I get a drip it is due to a hair on the head - but that is a line of something so really not sure - is the encoder strip clean?  thinking that would affect your edges more all around though.  I think that mutoh uses a wave pattern when printing so that wide band of stuff is like it just messed up on that one pass

[PixelPusher 46]

I also agree with dakotagrafx, look at and clean your encoder strip and clean everything you can physically touch. It may be time to contact your vendor and get a proper service on the Mutoh and then ask them to show you how to properly clean the printer. If you have a good service tech, they'll show you.

 

FYI, a pro-tip: 99% pure rubbing alcohol (must be high % and not diluted with water) and VERY light rubbing can assist (or can destroy if you're not careful) getting non-cured ink off of substrates, crayons off walls, ink off carpet etc. It's magic! You may need to ask a pharmacist for this stuff since druggies use this for creating their drugs too apparently. If they ask you why, tell them it's to remove ink overspray on signs. It definitely works getting overspray off of painted wood doing large format flatbed printing on wood even after being cured by UV light (but still fresh - don't let it sit over night or it won't work). It will work on a large format flatbed printer's vacuum belt too if you soak it with alcohol and use plastic cling-wrap to seal it and prevent it from drying out and then after about 10-15 minutes, use heavy duty packing tape to blot off the ink chunks - major PITA but it does work. It will dry VERY quickly too. It's also good to reduce static on Coroplast and can be used to remove dirt, a handfy 2 in 1 benefit. Just put it in a spray bottle and use with disposable shop cloths.

 

If you get it quick enough, you may be able to get it off vinyl. I haven't tried to remove overspray off of vinyl or ink drips but do it daily on wood. If you can try it on vinyl, then give it a shot. Otherwise, you may be able to print off large red printed "bandaids" or strips of vinyl to put over top of the errant ink dots. laid 30 feet up you may not notice it too much and offering the customer a 10% discount may save you more stress and cost redoing it over and over again until you get the printer serviced.

[FrznFire07 217]

usually when I get a drip it is due to a hair on the head - but that is a line of something so really not sure - is the encoder strip clean?  thinking that would affect your edges more all around though.  I think that mutoh uses a wave pattern when printing so that wide band of stuff is like it just messed up on that one pass

yea the encoder strip is clean, and yes we print with a wave pattern although we have many options as far that goes, I prefer fine & fog when we are doing a wrap, regardless this still happens once in a while.  And yes it does do it the whole length of the material for that one pass, however it still means we have to reprint.

 

As far as cleaning ink off the print, we have ink cleaning solution that works great but if it's in an area that has other color that doesn't do any good since it would take all the ink.  We do remove the drips off of the white areas but there's nothing we can do about areas that have other ink there as well.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

part of the joy of printing - it is nice when you have someone else with a similar printer to bounce ideas off of. with my encoder strip I talked to a tech at wensco who helped a lot and they had the oem parts

[FrznFire07 217]

part of the joy of printing - it is nice when you have someone else with a similar printer to bounce ideas off of. with my encoder strip I talked to a tech at wensco who helped a lot and they had the oem parts

are you thinking we should replace the encoder strip?

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

are you thinking we should replace the encoder strip?

not sure  = that is why I would talk to a mutoh tech - they know the idiosyncrasies of those machines - I am a tried and true roland versacamm fan - that is where my experience is

[FrznFire07 217]

what do you find is the best way to clean the encoder strip? alcohol?

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

personally never used anything except a very soft cloth - loving the new printer as it is hidden behind a metal piece so anything that gets there has to float there -- not exposed like the last one.  not sure on alcohol as it doesn't cut solvent ink at all and anything that does would take the markings off the strip  - so really not sure on solutions

[FrznFire07 217]

how often do you clean your encoder strip?

along with that how often do you need to replace it?

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

clean it as needed - maybe every other month - replaced the one on my last printer after I had it over 3 years - think it might have been 1.5-2 yrs old when I got it.