Discussion Print Heads

[Davyd Ryalls]

Morning All,

Just general chat, whats the highest ml of ink anyone has fired form a print head ?

I know most go out of warranty and the print quality is affected and that is a sign to replace them, but I've heard of some firing up to 8000 ml which sounds ridiculous.

These are HP LATEX 570 print heads.

 

[Solventinkjet]

If you do the math on a DX5 print head, you can get around 181,440 ml if you run it to it's expected life. It's not 100% accurate because it fires different sized dots but it's a close approximation. Interesting question!

 

[burgmurk]

i've had an HP latex (300 series) head get to around about 7000ml on occasion
I'm happy if they get to 3000, any more than that is just a bonus

 

[Dan360]

Usually around 4-5k is when problems start that aren't head strike related. I switched the Y-M head recently at 8.4k.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We just replaced all of our heads are 12,000ml give or take a few 100mls. The more you run Thermal the longer they last.

 

[greysquirrel]

at least 6-7 sets of ink unless there is a headstrike

 

[Reveal1]

We just replaced all of our heads are 12,000ml give or take a few 100mls. The more you run Thermal the longer they last.

2CT I'm a little foggy this morning; would you clarify what the term 'Thermal' is, or is that just a general reference to the HP Latex print system? Similar to others, we typically get 4k-4500 with a rare max around 7K before quality degrades. Haven't had a head strike in recent memory. Running our 560 about 6 hrs/day X 5 days week mostly at 80-100% ink levels/6-8 pass if that makes any difference. Am I missing out on a trick to get 12K?

Also, I've been running into some quality issues lately with HP printheads failing prematurely, in fact two DOA in last 3mos.; maybe an anamoly but something to watch. Has anyone noticed HP getting harder to deal with; gave me the third degree and insisted on print logs, 20 minute service call to replace an obviously DOA PH (replaced with used ph that worked) like anyone is going to go through the hassle to scam a $138 printhead.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Thermal is the technology used to fire the ink droplets. It heats up the ribbon expand the nozzle and drop ink.

No tricks, just run the machine and linearize/calibrate every so often.

 

[AGCharlotte]

I have one sitting at 6k right now and one at 4.5k. I usually only replace them due to damage. I've very seldom had to replace due to poor quality.