Question Does Anyone Make a Printer That Can Sit Idle Without harm?

[David40]

I've been a slave to my Mutoh printer for 8 long years, having to run a cleaning once a week to prevent the print head from clogging up. Is there anyone that makes a wide format printer of any type that is designed to sit idle for any length of time without causing some kind of harm or damage?

Thanks

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Latex, pretty much the only one.

 

[FrankW]

Summa DC4, available from Airmark (www.airmark.com). Thermal transfer, no liquids, so no dry up. You only need to protect it from dust. But: prints only on vinyl. Or, similar, Gerber Edge ( www.gspinc.com ) . Or KIP Large Format Laserprinters (www.kip.com). Not shure about maintenance, but it prints without liquids too.

Be careful with Latex: Often, if don´t using the printer for a longer time, the pigments in the ink cartridges settle, what lead to massive colour problems.

 

[Gino]

It's a real easy fix. Just print a sample or something on Monday and do it again on Friday and it'll keep your machine in tip top shape. If that's too much bother, sell the thing and sub out, as it dcoesn't sound like a good investment, if it needs to sit idle the length of time you need.

 

[P Wagner]

Private message sent to OP

 

[David40]

I guess it's counterproductive for a printer manufacturers to design the machine to automatically circulate a small amount of ink through the nozzles at regular intervals even when it's off. It would be nice to be able to take off on a three or four week vacation and not have to worry about hiring a baby sitter for your printers.

 

[Gino]

If you can afford to leave the shop for 4 weeks, you can afford to pay someone an hour a week to come in and run it through it's paces.

 

[unclebun]

I guess it's counterproductive for a printer manufacturers to design the machine to automatically circulate a small amount of ink through the nozzles at regular intervals even when it's off. It would be nice to be able to take off on a three or four week vacation and not have to worry about hiring a baby sitter for your printers.

Epson printers recirculate ink at regular intervals and also perform cleanings at regular intervals, which puts ink through the heads. This prevents clogging, but still requires attention at intervals because at some point it uses up the ink, and the inks also need to be shaken every 3 weeks. In addition you need to perform manual cleaning of the capping station, wipers, and the area between the nozzles on the print heads weekly. So they are still not totally maintenance free.

There are procedures for putting a printer away, involving flushing lines and such.

 

[tbaker]

Any solvent or latex printer will dry up eventually. It has to do with the carrier fluid for the pigmentation evaporating leaving pigment on the face of the print heads. The more volatile the carrier (solvent) the more damage is done by inactivity. The most viable solution is uv ink, but with stability comes cost, a uv printer typically costs significantly more than a comparable eco solvent or latex press. It does have its benefits on being able to print to more substrates than the rest, but the cost/benefit needs to be evaluated by each shop.

 

[Bly]

Our Epson 40600 keeps itself ready for action quite well.
Since we got our Colorado it hardly gets used.
We do leave it turned on and it does spit ink through the heads regularly.
It might be a week or two between uses now but always prints cleanly when needed.

 

[iPrintStuff]

I’d probably have to agree with Gino here. If you’re not busy enough to need a printer regularly why not just sub out? In the grand scheme of things the automatic cleanings are pennies worth of ink. Then there’s all the headaches of when it breaks etc.

Definitely worth looking into just subbing out until you need a printer regularly. With a lot of them, especially solvent, the more they’re used the more consistent they tend to be.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I'm going to re-iterate the Epson comments here. When we first got our 80600 it would sometimes sit for 2-3 weeks (we were still transitioning from our Roland) and it would still print perfectly first time every time.
It has in-build sticky wiper for the heads and will self-maintain every couple of days to keep everything running smoothly.
Manual maintenance is so infrequent I never remember the last time it was done. I think the printer requests it every 4 weeks or so, so it's not a tough ask in comparison to other printers out there.
Apart from our aqueous printer (literal zero maintenance in 18 months) the Epson does a great job keeping itself alive and running.

 

[ikarasu]

Our latex printer was having issues and a tech suggested we replace every head to rule out a bad head. We replaced it..printed with it for a day and it didnt fix the issue, so we put all the old heads back in. Re-capped the new heads and put them on the shelf.

About 3 months later I grabbed one of those heads - It wasnt a perfect nozzle print the moment I put it in... but I was using it for a template that I just needed an outline for, so I didnt care. I ran the print... about 12" in, the banding went away... I re-did a nozzle test, and to my surprise it was perfect. So 3 months out of the machine after it had ink go through it... and it didnt get damaged. I thought I'd have to clean it with water and a cloth to get it back, but I was amazed when I didn't.


I dont know how long the ink can sit without being shaken or losing its pigment. Honestly, you shake it 3 light times after its been sitting on the shelf for 4 months and its fine... so I dont think it sitting there will be an issue. It's not like UV ink where you have to shake it every few days... If youre printing once a month, or once every 2 months... A latex printer is the best printer you can get.

I used to own a 110 at my house... and it'd sit in my garage for months at a time in between uses, and it'd boot up and print perfectly.

I do miss some things about solvent printers... and while when I just switched to Latex, I'd never touch a solvent again.. I'm more open to it, The Epson looks awesome. But hands down... if you're not printing everyday, or every other day... The only printer I'd recommend in the wide format category is a Latex. People can compare Latex/Solvent in many different categories... but you'd be insane to say a solvent can sit dormant as long as a latex can.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Our Epson 40600 keeps itself ready for action quite well.
Since we got our Colorado it hardly gets used.
We do leave it turned on and it does spit ink through the heads regularly.
It might be a week or two between uses now but always prints cleanly when needed.

I'm going to re-iterate the Epson comments here. When we first got our 80600 it would sometimes sit for 2-3 weeks (we were still transitioning from our Roland) and it would still print perfectly first time every time.
It has in-build sticky wiper for the heads and will self-maintain every couple of days to keep everything running smoothly.
Manual maintenance is so infrequent I never remember the last time it was done. I think the printer requests it every 4 weeks or so, so it's not a tough ask in comparison to other printers out there.
Apart from our aqueous printer (literal zero maintenance in 18 months) the Epson does a great job keeping itself alive and running.

I've had the same experience with our Mimaki CJV 150-160. We usually do a three week holiday shut down around Christmas and New Year's day. With the last of our scheduled print jobs printed days before shut down and new jobs not going into production until perhaps a few days after reopening, our printer has easily sat for four solid weeks with no printing and prints a perfect test print the first time, every time. We also do minimal maintenance and see consistent performance.

 

[BVG]

Our Epson 40600 keeps itself ready for action quite well.
Since we got our Colorado it hardly gets used.
We do leave it turned on and it does spit ink through the heads regularly.
It might be a week or two between uses now but always prints cleanly when needed.

Sell the 40600 to me then

 

[Bly]

Sell the 40600 to me then

Sure for the right price.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I thought it was a 60600?

 

[Bly]

Haha yes it is.

I've lost so much interest in it I've forgotten what model it is.

I wouldn't sell it. We need a backup printer for when / if the Colorado is down.

 

[David40]

Wow, thank for all the great replies. Gives me a lot to consider.

 

[Superior_Adam]

Any solvent or latex printer will dry up eventually. It has to do with the carrier fluid for the pigmentation evaporating leaving pigment on the face of the print heads. The more volatile the carrier (solvent) the more damage is done by inactivity. The most viable solution is uv ink, but with stability comes cost, a uv printer typically costs significantly more than a comparable eco solvent or latex press. It does have its benefits on being able to print to more substrates than the rest, but the cost/benefit needs to be evaluated by each shop.

A UV printer can clog up as well. There is the whole negative pressure system your relying on. White on UV is even worse.