Printing Priming
Once a printer has been installed and inked up. It is likely further priming of the engines will be required. The main reason is because of air:
Shows ink trapped within the engine.
It has been found that priming of engines from new, or a print station that has been drained can prove time consuming due to difficulty removing trapped air.
The air trapped along the side wall can be difficult to remove and prevent the engine from wetting out. The engine will still appear to be purging ok, but not printing. The following technique should speed up the fitting of new and spare print stations on line.
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A. Check the print quality
Example test print
- Place a test card in front of the print-station and press the GREEN test button.
- Inspect card and confirm that all channels are present.
- If any channels are missing, press the SHORT purge button one time, and then gently wipe the engine with Postjet (STS-WIPES) cloth in the direction of the mail flow.
- Repeat the test. If after 3 attempts channels are still missing, then repeat with the several LONG purge cycles. When using the long purge, it is a requirement to use a lint-free wipe to catch the excess ink from the front-plate and wipe the print-engine nozzle plate. Always wipe in direction of the mail flow with approved wipes.
- Then Purge On Demand, using red and yellow buttons. This can be messy, so we recommend removal of the face plate to enable cleaning.
B. Blocked nozzles continue after initial set up
Vacuum Priming Pump connects to X4
The vacuum priming pump can be used.
- Connect pump to “AUX I/O” port on print station.
Remove long tube from top of bottle. - Turn on the pump.
- Hold end of tube against blocked nozzles to create a seal between end of tube and the print engine.
- Move tube quickly and smoothly up and down print engine
C. Low temperature purging of Print engines
Sometimes to speed up or help recover stubborn persistent missing nozzles, lowering the ink temperature to increase the viscosity can help.
Shows display for Low Temperature Purge
- Connect Ink supply and power up print station
- Make a note of the Head Target Temperature value
- Change the Head Temperature to 32 DEGREE C
- Allow system to reach temperature and fill with ink
- Prime the engine using the red and yellow buttons together (extended purge) while using a PostJet wipe to catch the ink expelled from the engine
- Repeat this procedure allowing the system to fill between purges until no more air bubbles can be seen coming out of the ink
- Perform 2 more extended purges
Following this low temperature purge connect the vacuum priming pump and vacuum the engine for a couple of minutes.
Reset the Head Target Temperature back to the noted Head Target Temperature value and wait for the print station to be “Ready”.
After performing all these steps remember to take a test print.