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CET FK512x - Voltage & Temp Settings

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MrNick86

New Member
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MrNick86

New Member
I would really appreciate some guidance. I have not been able to get any help on this through my printers customer support, I cannot find any sources on the internet. If there is anywhere I can look or anything please share.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
CET is flying out to train me on an FK512 on dec 10. i might be able to convey what i learn about the voltage settings from that. but that's a while from now.
 
Matt-Tastic

Matt-Tastic

New Member
contact CET. they shoudl be able to help out.

as a rule of thumb, too high of voltage leads to overspray or ink trails (the droplet of ink explodes), too low and it doesn't come out in time.

As far as head temps go, the higher temps will allow ink to flow smoother, but also may wet it out too much and cause it to drop from the head. too low and it is too stiff.

If it is a new head, the box it shipped in should have voltage and temp settings on it. if not, all your heads should have similar voltages, unless you are running a spot color (like white), which may have different settings.
 
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MrNick86

New Member
Thank you for the feedback.

I have spoke with CET on the phone a bit lately because I was having crazy vacuum issues. I ended up modifying the original vacuum manifold by ditching the crappy plastic valves with some awesome heavy duty industrial grade ones. If you would be interested in looking into the upgrade yourself I would be happy to share photos and my supplier.

Back on point...
I have 16 print heads. one row (8 heads) is about a year or two older than the other. There have been head strikes in the past from previous operators, which is why I feel that Black is in bad shape due to it being one of the first to strike in the left direction.

Today I want to drain the ink out and flush it out with solvent to see if that my help straighten out the spray of the nozzles. They are all firing so I would find it hard to believe that I would not see any improvement.

@Matt-Tastic:
It would make sense that bringing up the temp would increase the viscosity of the ink, I never heard anything about over spray or ink trails which makes me think. If I had been printing a lot in a day I would notice a ton of ink coated on the bottom of the head chassis.

When it comes down to it, I think I really need to convince my boss to have one of the CET Guru Fellas to come on down and lead me through a solid run-through on this machine, especially the features and settings in ONYX. I have learned quite a bit about this thing in the past 5 months of running it. I tore it apart numerous times.

That is all I have for now, I will post an update on how the solvent flush went for me.

Also, I would be happy to upload some photos in a separate thread of my new vacuum manifold. Just let me know!

:thankyou:,
Nick
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
I can't help you with your voltage settings but I would be interested in some sort of write-up on the vacuum valves. We have a 500H but I assume it would be similar. The plastic valves on ours are extremely tight and I'm just waiting for one to snap off when we're trying to open or close it.
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Pat White said:
I thought you said you didn't have any complaints Mike!! haha jk.

Getting pretty close to getting the financing in place...getting more excited every day. Still hoping to check one out in action before we pull the trigger though.

Any chance you can send those pics of your 500H environment when you have a minute? Still trying to wrap my head around how much working room we need to set aside.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

LOL!

Actually, right before you posted this I was just taking pictures of ours on my phone to send to you, that's sort of creepy... Check your email in a few minutes.
 
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MrNick86

New Member
I flushed the head out with solvent and a syringe, blew air with the syringe through it, let it air out over lunch, and then hooked it back up to the ink supply. Fired up the printer and lowered that heads temperature until I had some ink flowing through it to ensure the solvent and heat did not severely damage the head. I then brought the temperature back up to nominal and HAVE NOT SEEN ANY IMPROVEMENT! :banghead:

I am letting the temperature increase a little more, maybe the voltage a bit as well, and see if the ink flows differently. I have a feeling 3400 bones on a new head is forthcoming. :covereyes:
 
D

davecich

New Member
Good morning Mr Nick.

My name is David Cich, and I am an owner at CET Color.

I am sorry to see that you are having issues. Y'all have run alot of material through your printer in the last few years, and I think all the heads are still the original ones.

If you would call our tech line, 404-505-1890, and tell them that you would like to speak directly with me, I will make sure your issue is resolved.

Thank you for being part of the CET family.
 
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genericname

New Member
Pat White said:
Now that's what I call customer service. :thumb:

You can bet the farm that you'll never find the owner of HP, Fuji, AGFA etc. coming to signs 101 and personally handling issues with end users.

The more I see and hear about CET the more I like the company.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I was originally scared by the price (not expensive, comparatively, I'm just cheap), but lately I've been gently pushing the big boss in CET's direction for our next equipment purchase.
 
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Robert Gruner

New Member
"all pretty like the HP"? LOL

Love these threads. :) I enjoy the banter, especially from the end users. Smart folks like yourself exercise due diligence prior to purchasing.

I have viewed the evolution of the CET for a couple of years now. It was pretty neat to see Dave Cich post at this forum; and, you are surely correct in your observation that an end user would most likey never hear from the President of HP, Agfa, or other big printer manufacturers. It has been my experience that HP executives in the printer division will interface with end-users especially where unresolved mechanical problems continue to exist.

It would appear that you have pretty much decided that the CET is best suited for your applications. I wish you considerable success and good printing. Your decision is an informed decision; and, informed decisions generally pan out.

By the way, the HP?Scitex FB500 and FB700 aren't that "pretty" and all in all have been very dependable work horses for all my customers. :)
 
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genericname

New Member
Robert Gruner said:
It has been my experience that HP executives in the printer division will interface with end-users especially where unresolved mechanical problems continue to exist.
Click to expand...

And its been the experience of many more that HP execs interface with end-users' wallets.

HP's based on a hardware-loss/high-cost consumable model. Screw them.
 
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MrNick86

New Member
I am sorry for the delay of response. I am completely blown away by having David of CET Color show up on this board to stand by his work. After I have a discussion with my shop owner, I will be contacting CET Color to help assist us in ensuring that our equipment is running top notch.

Thank you for your support!
 
Nameci

Nameci

New Member
@Nick,

Nice to talk to you over the phone.

Anyway, just give us a call on our tech line if you have some more questions. Our techs are more than willing to help. This will help also so that your call will be recorded and be not left unattended.

To stay on topic, usually voltages of new heads starts from 13.5v. As the heads grow older, the voltages can be increased to maintain the dot gain. You can increase in increments of 0.2 volts, until you get the desired clean registration.

The temperatures for the inks that you are using ranged from 38 up to 48C. It is best to start from 38C and increment by a degree until you get a straight solid color block on the left side of your nozzle test. Be sure to adjust the voltages after that to match the intensity of the color on the blocks in between heads of the same color.
 
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