Looking into a Mimaki JFX200 or a Flora 2512. I believe the Mimaki has a capping station for print head and the Flora does not. The Mimaki guy says if you don't have a capping station, machine has to spit a lot and a lot of ink is wasted because it is always spitting. With the capping station the Mimaki doesn't have to spit as much so you save money on non-wasted ink going down tube. Is this a true statement and is there a big difference on how much ink is wasted between the machines? Thanks for any insight.
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Cap Station or No Cap Station
- Thread starter MacD
- Start date
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
I have never seen a printer that didn't have some sort of capping station across brands and printer type. It seems to be a universal thing. If you don't cap UV heads, light can get to the bottom of the heads and fry them. So I am not 100% but I would be very surprised if the Flora didn't have some sort of capping station. That being said, the Mimaki does have a fair amount of control over how much the machine cleans and spits ink etc. As for the Flora, I do not know.
ChrisN
New Member
Our CET doesn't have a capping station. Our Agfa m4f that we had before the CET did have a capping station, but we never used it. I've personally never had problems with heads clogging.
The CET has an ink spitting function that can be used if necessary, but we don't use it. The printer is normally totally shut down over the weekends, and we don't have any issues. Over a long holiday weekend, it could be shut down for up to 5 days in a row, and it still resumes printing just fine. Of course, if you don't have your printer in a controlled environment, that may make a difference.
The CET has an ink spitting function that can be used if necessary, but we don't use it. The printer is normally totally shut down over the weekends, and we don't have any issues. Over a long holiday weekend, it could be shut down for up to 5 days in a row, and it still resumes printing just fine. Of course, if you don't have your printer in a controlled environment, that may make a difference.
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Interesting. So do the heads just float up in the air with nothing surrounding them? Like completely exposed?
SignMeUpGraphics
Super Active Member
Océ doesn't have any capping in any of their models either. The heads "float" above the spit tray but there is very little space for light to get in there once sitting in the right position. No issues for 4.5 years so far in our environment.
ChrisN
New Member
Yeah, at the home position there's a tray to catch ink that you can slide back to give you more room to clean the heads. When the carriage is the whole way down, the bottom of the carriage is ~1/4" from the ink tray. The only thing you have to worry about curing the ink is UV light, which isn't usually an issue inside a building.
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Good to know.
flyplainsdrifta
New Member
yeah all the uv's i have worked on that are not built from solvent based machines or manufacturers have had no capping. actually both hp's fb700 and 750 models are just floating heads with a auto purge function that will do automated cleanings when in sleep mode to keep the heads fresh at pretty much all times.