When printer is not being used

[Team Valhalla]

Okay, I hope I don't get flamed too bad for this question...

When I'm done printing for the day, does it matter if I leave media in the machine and "clamped down" by the rollers? Or... is that putting undue stess on the rollers while it's just sitting there overnight? Is it okay to have it shut down with no media in it?

I've had the printer for for over 4 years and always left it "clamped down", but was just wondering about that today.

SP

 

[Solventinkjet]

You don't want to leave the clamp down for two reasons. 1. The pinch rollers do get flattened out on one side when you leave them down and not rolling. 2. It leaves marks in the vinyl so you lose that part of the vinyl. It will still run cleaning cycles without any media in it.

 

[Mosh]

I leave material in my printers and never had an issue...but I could see the point of why not to.

 

[kanini]

I've heard about someone (or did I read it here somewhere) leaving media in when going on a weeks vacation and the vinyl somehow wrinkled and came loose resulting in a head crash when the printer did it's cleaning, and the head was drying up. After that story I always lift the rollers at the end of the day if it's not printing...

 

[nate]

It depends on the printer. Some machines will not do their own cleaning without media loaded. If you do take it out, make sure your machine will clean without it.

 

[Team Valhalla]

Being blonde... and now gray, I don't know why it didn't it didn't sink in earlier. I've often wondered about flat spotting the rollers by leaving them clamped down. This morning was just one of those "duh" moments.

I've apologized to my printer for the past abuse and told her I'd be more considerate in the future.

VanderJ, you said something that made me wonder about another question... "It leaves marks in the vinyl so you lose that part of the vinyl." I was of the impression from the Roland tech that came out and initially set up the machine, that it wasn't possible to print all the way out to the edges of the material. The rollers basically set the parameters of the print margins.

VanderJ... do you have a Roland that you leave the material out of - and it still performs the auto clean?

SP

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I know our Mutoh won't run the entire cleaning cycle if the media lever isn't down, but I always leave it in the "middle" position so it's loose, though I do take the media out because it will​ do the entire cleaning cycle without media loaded.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Being blonde... and now gray, I don't know why it didn't it didn't sink in earlier. I've often wondered about flat spotting the rollers by leaving them clamped down. This morning was just one of those "duh" moments.

I've apologized to my printer for the past abuse and told her I'd be more considerate in the future.

VanderJ, you said something that made me wonder about another question... "It leaves marks in the vinyl so you lose that part of the vinyl." I was of the impression from the Roland tech that came out and initially set up the machine, that it wasn't possible to print all the way out to the edges of the material. The rollers basically set the parameters of the print margins.

VanderJ... do you have a Roland that you leave the material out of - and it still performs the auto clean?

SP

If you are only using 2 pinch rollers that is true. If you use a third in the middle, that is where you lose some material. If your machine does not run cleaning cycles without media in it, there is something wrong with the machine. Take your media out and try to run a cleaning cycle. It should run no matter what is in there.