"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Sing it brother. 600ppi/dpi is the min. for quality screen printing work imho and should be the starting point, the baseline. How are things going along with the Saati laser? (don't mean to derail)
Knock on wood, our i-Image is still on its original print head. 2014 Model.
Quote from: GraphicDisorder on November 24, 2020, 09:10:08 AMKnock on wood, our i-Image is still on its original print head. 2014 Model.We are two years in and have some missing spots, but it still prints well enough. My guess one more left in it.
Quote from: inkman996 on November 24, 2020, 09:28:27 AMQuote from: GraphicDisorder on November 24, 2020, 09:10:08 AMKnock on wood, our i-Image is still on its original print head. 2014 Model.We are two years in and have some missing spots, but it still prints well enough. My guess one more left in it..The thing about “missing spots”is that you do have to address those when you see them. Same day. Clear those out. How to do that...is in your manual in the Maintenance section about (Daily maintenance). A nozzle check should be done (every day) to assure there is no issues with a few blocked. When you see them, do a couple auto cleans and test again. If still there, Switch the black ink...to the PINK cleaning solution and follow the instructions step by step to flush that line to get black ink out...fill with pink ink the lines till the entire line turns pink. Then, with the pink filled, set ink valve to print...and then do a couple more auto cleans (using the pink through the heads). This is a degrading solution and will help break up any dried ink in the jet. (be sure to follow the procedures in the manual exactly).It’s possible to continue on with your day, and it will print and cover looking and exposing just fine...but it’s not covering 100%. What happens over time, is that (those few spots) get harder and harder to clear out or become clean. The first few days, it may just be an air bubble blocking those few jets. So you let it go, assuming it may work it’s way out. A few wks later if you’ve not done anything about those, “they spread” into the adjacent jet, and then perhaps ink lays on top of that bubble, but it’s not going anywhere, and begins to dry and become not just an air block, but a dried jet. If this sits in the head, it can get worse and worse, and spread and spread...and this is why a head can go bad in a year or two.Typically, you can bring most clog issues back to life with the pink cleaning solution. It’s been my experience that I’ve been able to bring them back. Some very easily, and some take more time with repeat procedures. I think I’ve had to replace print heads at about 4 of my 300 shops.
I am not a fan of using an arbitrary number such as years for guesstimating the life of a print head. Years does not mean anything if one shop barely uses the machine or another shop uses it 8 hours straight every day. Just like in commercial equipment they use hours not miles or years, the hours are based on actually running time, excluding the time the machine is not running. I would prefer to see a counter system that counts the actual amount of time the print head itself is firing, that would give a far more accurate life expectancy to then be able to better compare the life of a print head from one shop to the next.A salesman could easily tell a potential customer that he knows of one shop that got 7 years out of his print head but neglect to tell you that shop used the machine a couple times a week. What he will not tell you is that another shop he knows that uses the machine 8 hours a day only gets one year out of each print head.