I Image print head life expectancy

[Lizard]

What's the life cycle of I Image print heads?  Has anyone here had to replace any?  Having issues with a one year old machine. Seems a bit premature and wondering what others have experienced.

[ericheartsu]

We have an I-Image STE II. Just reaching it's 3rd year. Our 2nd set of heads is about done.

So..yeah about a year sounds right.

[GraphicDisorder]

Knock on wood, our I-Image is still on its original heads and we installed it I think late 14 or early 15.

[Zelko-4-EVA]

our 2015 i-Image ST, with two heads is running with its original heads... 

how do you know if the heads are failing? 

my records show ive bought 29 liters of ink, i dont know how many screens have been printed....   

ive had to use humidifiers in the winter and dehumidifiers in the summer - keeping the temperature and humidity consistent helps.

[Dottonedan]

I carried around a head set of three for 2 years and needed to replace them to sit in my bag for another 6 months before ever needing one. I had worked in the Digital dept.

There are four things that result in a head replacement.

1, Factory defect. This might be one head out of 100 maybe? Just something wrong about it that makes it not be perfect and (it MUST be perfect. Can't be "semi ok. Even this is rare since they build and test for days on any one machine and will be working fine there...and once at a shop, it may take a week or a month before the defect really shows up.

2, Normal wear and tear. They say approx. 6 years is the life of a head. That's a give and take depending on how much it gets used of course. I've been in shops that have had the original ST for 5 years and they were just replacing them for the firs time.

3, Head strike.  Very rare, but can happen. The first thing people say, is (We've never had a head strike)  and then you wipe down the ink off the bottom of the head plate and shine a flashlight on it and see the deep gouges into the plate. There is the smoking gun. The other tell tail sign is when doing a nozzle check and the bad spots or the blocks, align with the deep gouges in the head plate.

4, Neglect. The most common issues is the lack of maintenance. People always feel they do enough maintenance.  I always asked first, "How often do you do this...or that and the answer is either....Never, We were never taught that...or oh, we do that when we have  a problem.  I had seen some machines that looked like a murder  took place on the machine with a chain saw.


One MAJOR issue I see with buying (any brand) of these machines is not the machine, but people in general.
Proper follow thru on maintenance is not important enough to many employees. 7 out of 10 shops that I've gone back to, didn't do the needed maintenance. Some not at all. Some will admit, they just go thru so many screens in a day, and so busy, they just don't have the time to stop and do this stuff. That's ok, but you should figure in head replacements every few years.

Another factor has been a mix up of older model numbers of ink or the wrong ink being used.  I went to one shop and they had head clogs and I found they were using an ink that they got from a distributor that was for I-Screens. That's a completely different heads and ink used.  Some shops have no issues with some older models of ink (and don't want to change) to the new. If it's not broke, don't fix it, so they opt to keep the old model. This is because of the differences in the environments. Some inks work here, but not there, so that's why they developed different inks to come up with one that works in all situations and emulsions. So if you happen to be using the wrong ink for a while, (and mixing inks), it could cause a head clog.

For any of these issues, you will find the tell tail signs (in your nozzle checks) along with your typical air bubbles that can build up over time.  Remember the maintenance?  Well, some shops don't do these prescribed "daily nozzle checks" AT ALL.  It's in your manual.

I like to think that I've done my best and that I'm better than most at stressing the maintenance and showing them step by step. I ended up doubling my review time of the maintenance because I found people just didn't remember and didn't take notes. I was known as a tech that ended up needing an additional day most times to just go over the stuff again. You can kind of tell when they just aren't on board yet. People forget things for the most part. Most screen room operators are often overwhelmed at the thought of the machine. It's really pretty simple. I tell everyone, always right this stuff down. Nobody does.

[DannyGruninger]

We had our I Image for a couple years and the heads seemed to be as good the day we sold it as the day we bought it but we cared for the those heads like children. I feel like with proper care those ricoh heads will last years if not decades. Take care of them and it will last a long time(at least they should)....

[screenprintguy]

Our ST was installed and put right into heavy use in December 2014. I just replaced the print head last week. The top section in nozzle checks, like a 1/8 of an inch of it was clogged up, but the head still printed, I just wanted to be proactive and not have any issues arise, so I changed it. The section that was clogged as more than likely due to laziness on our part. Having newmans with tape sticking up in corners and the head would graze them going back and forth. That only needs to happen a few times to cause an issue. We've since the install been doing the tape across the corners of newmans to make sure that never happens again. I can say that original head took a friggin beating and kept on going. Basically, if you do as instructed, you won't have any issues. If it's a defective head, that will show itself within your warrantee time. We just got lazy, stopped doing nozzle checks and putting frames in the unit that needed the fabric tape addressed before hand.

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

Whoah... Hold on there.

How much do the heads cost? I would assume they would hold up much longer than 1-3 years...Esp with how expensive this machine is.

[Dottonedan]

Heads in I-Image last about 5,6,7 years. Depends on how well they are taken care of with the routine maintenance.  I know shops that have never replaced a head in over 5 years.

Follow the maintenance schedule. Do noz checks and correct even the smallest issues in noz checks each day.  Leaving a small gap of white space and thinking it can't hurt that much or my prints look good (with the gap) is leaving air in the heads. Air in the heads of wet ink means what eventually?   Dried ink. Dried ink in a head does what?  Clogs. Glogs grow bigger (block more) with more air and wet ink.

[screenprintguy]

AGAIN, my head change was due to hitting tape and messing it up ourselves. I'm sure if we were more careful and didn't have so many head strikes, the top little section that clogged out would not have. Like I said, the rest of the nozzles were perfect, it was just the top 1/8 or so inch.

[Lizard]

This is where we were at for the last few days.



This is where we are at now.  Disappointing for a one year old machine.  I'm certain this is due to our poor maintenance/lack of care but somehow we are capable of making an epson work for years and as much as 50,000 prints.  Our old trusty epson is up and running after sitting idle for a year with only two head cleanings. Thank goodness for backup but it sure is a challenge switching your system around to accommodate. 

[Doug S]

I still have the epson model I image.  I've replaced the head myself after 3 years due to head strikes.  After replacing, I'm extra careful to make sure no obstructions such as a fiber from reclaiming brush is stuck in the middle that the laser might not catch.  I do atleast a nozzle check daily and on non humid days drop a moist cleaning agent in the capping station at the end of the day.  Also, occasionally I'll print a dummie screen using all of the nozzles if I go a day or 2 without needing it.  So far, after replacing the head a year later, I've only had 2 instances where a small break in the nozzle check showed up but a normal cleaning fixed it.  I also have a spare head here if I should need it but I'm hoping I don't have to go through that replacement again atleast for another 3 years or so. 

I'll do whatever to keep this thing going or get a replacement.  Even with all of the extra time in maintenance, it's well worth it.

[Dottonedan]

I'd say that this looks to be a bad signal or electrical issue at first glance,  For example, the mechanics inside the head could be bad or the head board where the head cables seat into the head board locks
Could not be in correctly, ink down into the locks etc. even dust, hair, fibers , anything.

I'll also say that (I could be wrong).  I used to think that I had been experienced enough (seen enough different head issues) that I could look a noz check and know what the issues was. Like bad head or just needed cleaned well. Just when you think you know, you don't.  These print heads provide strange results for different issues. This, bottom pic... is rare, but I've seen it once or twice. Can't really pin point it since I've been out of that game for a while but I can say this.

If it were a bad head from factory, you would have seen this the first week you had it. The checks you show above, from last week are nothing more than just needing proper cleaning to get them back to perfect.

What I say now, you won't like, but it's what I know to be true.  Something you did caused this to get what you see in the bottom pic. The 2nd set below with the very bad strip is a result of whatever you were doing incorrectly since last week to get it back. It's important to have someone who's trained to be on the phone with you, while you go thru the steps to get it back or have them on the spot doing it for you. The stuff you do on your own can really make it worse fast. More than likely, you were performing the steps to get it back out of sequence or just wrong. I don't know what it is, but something happened.

I say that because the two pictures just don't make sense.  They are unrelated. The above (fist pic). Isn't even all that bad. It's a typical dried ink clog that while doing a proper cleaning and purges could be brought back to perfect within and hour or two.

What you have in the next pic is something different and now looks like the head could indeed be bad.
Having said that, the heads don't "go bad" after a year of running well. They don't suddenly pop a spring or blow a gasket on their own within a year or two or even four years. If it's been good for a year, then it was indeed a good head. They go bad (like this), caused by doing something odd or incorrect to it.

Having said all that, I know you would go back to your "trusty DTS" when the head gets replaced, because even with having a bad head experience, the DTS is still going to be better than doing film with your reliable Epson.

[geoffb]

Toby,

Regarding head life span, we use top quality, industrial Ricoh GEN 4 print heads. These are designed for long, trouble free life, but heads are expendable components, much like spark plugs, or brake pads.

The life of the heads in normal operation should be 1 to 3 years. This can vary based upon a multitude of things, including level of usage, environment, maintenance, etc.

With an average head life of approximately two years, and an average work year being comprised of 262 days, the cost of replacement heads would add aproximatly $6.00 per day to the cost of ownership of the i-Image. I think that if you look at the additional cost of the heads versus material savings, and increased efficiency, there is a substantial ROI on your i-Image investment.

If you have any additional questions, or suggestions please let me know.

Geoff Baxter
Director, Digital Products Division
The M&R Companies

[Dottonedan]

1-3 years must be the "official stance" on life expectancy. Geoff would know.


M&R doesn't want people assuming they should get 4, 5, 6 years out of them based on what I've said, and then get upset when they don't.  Understood, but most do see a longer life than that in my own field experience. Thats a good thing.