Brother GTX-4, Service Manual

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Before Using Your Printer for the First Time
1-6-5. About Closure Cleaning
If printers equipped with white ink are neglected over prolonged periods of time, the print head may dry up and cause
the nozzles to clog. GTX-4 incorporates the closure cleaning functionality as an attempt to resolve this issue.
Closure cleaning is a process to replace the ink content of the white-side cap with cleaning solution. Closure cleaning is
initiated when the printer is left idle for a certain duration after the completion of the printing, or when the printer is
shutdown by pressing the Power switch.
1-6-6. Characteristic of Ink cartridges
Ink cartridges used in GTX-4 allows for the replacement of ink pouches within the cartridges.
The ink pouch is equipped with IC chips, and incorporates capabilities to wind up ink pouches. The wind-up mechanism
is used for the adjustment of pressure within ink pouches and to identify the quantity of remaining ink.
Winding up the ink pouch also serves to reduce the quantity of undischarged ink remaining within the pouch.
Wind-up mechanism
Winds up the ink pouch around the wind-up shaft using the force of flat spiral springs. The mechanism does not work
while large quantities of ink is contained in the pouch, but starts to wind once the ink quantity decreases. The wind-up
shaft is locked and immobilized when the ink cartridge is lifted and unlocked when the cartridge is placed on a flat
surface. Wind-up is released when the lid of the ink cartridge is lifted, allowing for the exchange of ink pouches.
Remaining ink level detection mechanism
Two ink level detection plates are attached to one side of the ink cartridge. The wind-up mechanism winds up the ink
pouch as the remaining ink decreases, and the wind-up shaft moves the ink level detection plates as the remaining
quantity decreases below the specified level. The ink level detection plate blocks or opens the optical path of the two
remaining ink detection sensors (transmission photo-sensors) located at the insertion port of the ink cartridge by their
position change. The remaining ink quantity is indicated on the printer display depending on the condition of the two
remaining ink detection sensors.
Ink pouch IC chips
The ink pouch is equipped with IC chips, upon insertion of the ink cartridge, the circuit board located at the ink cartridge
insertion port reads out the stored information and identifies the ink cartridge.