UCJV330 - White ink waste

[dinomaskot]

I've noticed that during regular printing (not with white), my UCJV is using/wasting quite a lot of it compared to other colors. Is there anything i can to do make it better apart from adjusting my pricing?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Because the UCJV330 uses circulation dampers for white, they seem to bleed a lot more than subtanks when idle, especially on circulation cycles. Not sure there's a way around it. Can check your capping station gap. Note that I did my first install on a UCJV330 just this past month, so I don't have a ton of experience on them.

Just looking at the capping station, it also appears much more prevalent on the screen because it's a thicker ink in general. Empty your waste tank and check on it in a couple of days. If it looks bright white, it might be an issue. If the ink is more of a milky freakish purple, that's pretty normal.

 

[dinomaskot]

Because the UCJV330 uses circulation dampers for white, they seem to bleed a lot more than subtanks when idle, especially on circulation cycles. Not sure there's a way around it. Can check your capping station gap. Note that I did my first install on a UCJV330 just this past month, so I don't have a ton of experience on them.

Just looking at the capping station, it also appears much more prevalent on the screen because it's a thicker ink in general. Empty your waste tank and check on it in a couple of days. If it looks bright white, it might be an issue. If the ink is more of a milky freakish purple, that's pretty normal.

Thank you for the reply! <3
I've had it for a bit more then a month and my white ink levels are at 28/33% from like 60% when installed, and I didn't print more than one square meter with white. So it doesn't seem right. Then again, its my first printer with white, so maybe it's normal.. dont know..

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Are you going off the screen/what the chips say, or off bottle weight/feel/looking inside? The chips are terrible on accuracy as they are basically just a counter.

 

[dinomaskot]

Off screen/rasterlink... but bottles feel even emptyer to be honest.. a week ago it said
M:56 C:53 Y:52 B:51 Cl:64/64 W:35/38 and now it's
M:53 C:49 Y:48 B:39 Cl:61/61 W:28/33
And i didn't do anything with white or clear, and quite a lot with CMYK..

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Yeah, looks pretty typical. White is one of those things that just loses a good bit in bleed-out. Not much you can do to change that unfortunately. Any time a cleaning or purge is done, all channels are pulled from, plus you have circulation losses and also a white ink circulation tank to fill. Once the system is filled, you don't take as much of a hit on white, so if this is your first set of inks, it'll average out in the long run.

 

[Philw]

I've noticed that during regular printing (not with white), my UCJV is using/wasting quite a lot of it compared to other colors. Is there anything i can to do make it better apart from adjusting my pricing?

So do you have the UCJV 300 or UCJV330 ? My understanding is that whereas the UCJV300 had Ricoh heads the UCJV330 has possibly Brother heads. My UCJV330 is just over 5 years old nbow and the white is the printer's strongest feature. If you're not printing much then the flushes and waste white ink are a major pain but the wastage appears top drop with higher usage, I'm assuming the flushes reduce in frequency when it's pumping a lot more ink. I've using LUS170 and white ink account for probably 60% plus of the printer's output these days. Interestingly the white nozzles have by far the best print quality and the least over spray, I pretty much always run in 600 x 600 24 pass mode. The wastage is a pain but much better than clogged nozzles.

 

[White Haus]

So do you have the UCJV 300 or UCJV330 ? My understanding is that whereas the UCJV300 had Ricoh heads the UCJV330 has possibly Brother heads. My UCJV330 is just over 5 years old nbow and the white is the printer's strongest feature. If you're not printing much then the flushes and waste white ink are a major pain but the wastage appears top drop with higher usage, I'm assuming the flushes reduce in frequency when it's pumping a lot more ink. I've using LUS170 and white ink account for probably 60% plus of the printer's output these days. Interestingly the white nozzles have by far the best print quality and the least over spray, I pretty much always run in 600 x 600 24 pass mode. The wastage is a pain but much better than clogged nozzles.

Are you running LUS200 for the White? We have LUS170 for CMYKLcLm and LUS200 for the white. (Just the way our UCJV came when we got it 5ish years ago)

I agree the white is great on these machines, I only wish it was easier to work with in Onyx. I created some custom profiles for cmyk + w printing but it's so inconsistent it's actually making me consider going back to Rasterlink for white printing. (barf)

We've barely used the white on this thing, definitely throw out more than we use and yet the nozzles are still firing 100% which is really impressive after 4-5 years of not enough use.

We've been pretty meticulous with the regular maintenance though so I guess that pays off.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

So do you have the UCJV 300 or UCJV330 ? My understanding is that whereas the UCJV300 had Ricoh heads the UCJV330 has possibly Brother heads. My UCJV330 is just over 5 years old nbow and the white is the printer's strongest feature. If you're not printing much then the flushes and waste white ink are a major pain but the wastage appears top drop with higher usage, I'm assuming the flushes reduce in frequency when it's pumping a lot more ink. I've using LUS170 and white ink account for probably 60% plus of the printer's output these days. Interestingly the white nozzles have by far the best print quality and the least over spray, I pretty much always run in 600 x 600 24 pass mode. The wastage is a pain but much better than clogged nozzles.

These use the Epson i3200 HD 8 channel UV heads. While I do have some gripes about the printer, I would definitely call it an upgrade to the UCJV300, especially in terms of print quality, and the 300 is a tank. Interested to see if it can be just as reliable in the long run too. The printer has only been out for a bit under 2 years or so, but their sublimation and solvent printers in the 330s are basically the same printers with slight modifications to hardware.

As for heads in the UCJV300, those are indeed Ricoh Gen5 heads. A weird 4 channel 150DPI variant instead of the more common 2 channel 300DPI heads.

 

[dinomaskot]

Yeah, looks pretty typical. White is one of those things that just loses a good bit in bleed-out. Not much you can do to change that unfortunately. Any time a cleaning or purge is done, all channels are pulled from, plus you have circulation losses and also a white ink circulation tank to fill. Once the system is filled, you don't take as much of a hit on white, so if this is your first set of inks, it'll average out in the long run.

Got it. Thanks.

Is it possible to mix and match lus170 and lus210?

210 is a lot cheaper

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Probably a bad idea.

 

[dinomaskot]

Probably a bad idea.

I figured . It would be great if they allowed LUS210 to be used in CMYK+W+CL config.. Have they added such support for machines after they have been released before?

 

[netsol]

Off screen/rasterlink... but bottles feel even emptyer to be honest.. a week ago it said
M:56 C:53 Y:52 B:51 Cl:64/64 W:35/38 and now it's
M:53 C:49 Y:48 B:39 Cl:61/61 W:28/33
And i didn't do anything with white or clear, and quite a lot with CMYK..

We always keep one of those cheap digital kitchen (or postal) scales, by each printer. along with a clipboard to record ink usage in ml.

 

[dinomaskot]

We always keep one of those cheap digital kitchen (or postal) scales, by each printer. along with a clipboard to record ink usage in ml.

Great idea. Do you happen to know the weight of empty bottle with the cap on?

 

[netsol]

depends on whose ink you use
my mutoh uses mylar bags

 

[dinomaskot]

Smoke_Jaguar i've noticed that levers for white ink are getting harder to do/undo.. i guess its because of the often shaking.. anything to make it smooth again? clean the oring or something?

 

[Goatshaver]

Smoke_Jaguar i've noticed that levers for white ink are getting harder to do/undo.. i guess its because of the often shaking.. anything to make it smooth again? clean the oring or something?

Use can either use maintenance fluid or a little bit of ink to lube the o-rings on the caps. I've found a little ink works best since the maintenance fluid dries up.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

I use silicone grease, also comes in handy for circulation pumps.

 

[Goatshaver]

Just had a thought yesterday when I was doing some maintenance. Have you checked the cleaning cycles settings on your machine? Could just be that it's cleaning and wasting the white possibly....?

 

[dinomaskot]

Its now at 16/24% and the bottles feel like there is barely anything left in them. I'll get the kitchen scale and keep track more precisely when i change the bottles