Chapter 6
77
Printer Maintenance
P83173A RevA
7/19/10
♦
Ingesting air into the heads through nozzles that have dropped out for the reasons
listed above.
These temporary losses of nozzles can normally be recovered by repeating a Clean Heads
procedure.
For losses of large number of nozzles, especially adjacent nozzles, it may be necessary to
perform a purge. For example, a normal clean pushes ink through the heads for a few
seconds, while a purge pushes ink through the heads for several more seconds. This
should only be necessary to dislodge large amounts of air.
Reasons for permanent loss of nozzles include:
•
Wiping debris from the underside of the carriage into the nozzles.
o
You must be careful when wiping the printhead during normal maintenance.
Any dust, lint, or debris around the nozzle surface can plug a nozzle if it is
drawn into the nozzle while you are wiping. You need to keep the area around
the nozzles clean using a new Fisher Brand foam tip swab and Daily
Maintenance Solution. You should never re-use a swab or drag a swab through
debris on the underside of the carriage and then allow that swab to touch the
nozzle surface.
•
Scratching the anti-wet coating on the nozzle plate using excessive wiping pressure.
o
Think of the nozzle plate as a very sensitive surface and be sure to wipe very
gently. The point is to make contact with the printhead surface to wick away
ink, not to scrub debris off the surface. Use only two fingers on the Anticon
wipe-covered swab and concentrate on making contact to wick ink away, not to
scrub the surface.
•
Allowing too much UV exposure to the underside of the carriage. This can happen
when...
o
Failing to use your sliding shield correctly
o
Not placing your rigid material in the ‘home’ position
o
Printing on non-rectangular material
o
Leaving gaps between material blanks on the printer surface
o
Using mismatched thickness of sacrificial material. It should be the same
thickness as the board to be printed (see page 45).
o
Printing on mirrored surfaces
o
Forcing print gap height higher than actual target substrate height.
•
Reusing swabs and wipes
•
Allowing missing nozzles to go un-recovered for several days of printing.
•
Skipping Clean Heads Procedure and End of Day Clean.
•
Using the wrong swabs and/or wipes (use ONLY Gerber approved Fisher Brand foam
tip swabs and Anticon® Gold heavy-weight, clean room wipes). Ensure they are
covered with an Anticon wipe when the procedure calls for it.
WARNING: Permanent nozzle loss due to any of the above mentioned user-
induced failure modes is not covered under warranty.
