How Preventative Maintenance on Wide Format Printers Can ... Pr… · Mutoh, Mimaki & others in the 64” ... 4 common tips & tricks to keep printers maintained ... in proper training

How Preventative Maintenance on Wide Format Printers Can SAVE You Costly Repairs or Replacement

How Preventative Maintenance on Wide Format Printers

Can SAVE $$$You Costly Repairs

or Replacement


DENNIS HALLEYDigital Technology & Learning Center – Denver, CO

Dennis Halley is a veteran of 40 year printing industry skills with a diverse background in experience, knowledge and broad network of relationships within the

printing field. He writes and speaks with solid practical experience and is one of the top value added resources to the industry. He has managed several production facilities and worked for major manufacturers.

Dennis runs Photo-Imaging Consultants, Digital2You.cc and USAheatpress.com, owns & operates the Denver Digital Technology & Learning Center. Dennis has spoken and written on many topics related to digital printing and finishing technologies for the industry. His blogs and articles are practical, down to earth and have

been recognized in the field to be spot-on.

The Denver Digital Technology & Learning Center is a 4,500 square foot experience with many types of printing technologies actually working for a hands on

practical learning resource. Many industry manufacturers, trainers and professionals have taught classes in the DTLC with this “hands on“ training concept. Color Management, Dye Sublimation, Textile Printing, Fine Art & Photo Reproduction classes are some of the frequent classes held in the Denver DTLC.

Major corporate marketing and printing centers, print professionals, dye sublimation apparel factories, and industry color consultants from the US and neighboring

countries have all attended classes in the DTLC and praise the level of quality training with hands on practical experiences.

Dennis also sits on several academic advisory boards and is an early adopter of the Tech Lab and Makers Space growing trends. He also assists businesses and

incubates early start ups of dye sublimation apparel emerging businesses. Dennis and his team consults to the trade and industry on many aspects of digital print & finishing production, color management, quality processes and technical systems.



Anybody ever try to learn how to

ski when they were

young?



Everyone wants and needs to save money in their printing operation,

so how often can you afford to waste time, materials, labor and

have costly repairs on your printing equipment?


Most important to remember; Maintenance Pays, It does not cost!

….First, how about a show of hands on what type of printers you have or operate?


Stand up please !

Here is a group survey for us to learn from


Raise your left hands and keep them up if you have wide format Aqueous ink jet printers.

(This includes all of you with Dye Sublimation, DTG or Direct to Fabric up to 64”)


Now, raise your right hands up & keep them up if you have any type of Solventwide format.

(This means most of the Roland, Epson, Mutoh, Mimaki & others in the 64” range)


Next, stand up on one leg if any of your printers are Grand Format, greater than 64”keep standing if you can.

This goes for most of the Latex, UV and really big solvent units up to 2.5, 3.2 and 5 meter.

Not a very good position to be in, huh?


So, out of everyone standing in this room with hands up and a vested interest in preserving their printer investments, all of you with trained operators or technicians that are performing routine preventative maintenance or engaged in manufacturer service contracts doing preventative maintenance can sit down & relax! as you are on the best road to travel.


The rest of you standing (if you can still stand) should just take out your wallets and dump money on the floor, because essentially, you will keep doing this more and more by neglecting your printers routine maintenance.

Hard to stand on one leg, holding both arms and hands up, huh?



Point is, you all have a lot of money tied up in equipment and if any of the printers are not working, it is costing you more than money, so it is important to make sure your printers are working properly & producing to keep making money.




Every printer needs a cleaning now & then


Follow your published preventative maintenance guidelines, charts or check lists

provided!

Every one of the major printer manufacturers has published preventative maintenance

guidelines, charts or check lists that you can use to keep your printer performing.



Training your staff on how to maintain these printers is very important and will pay good dividends to your company by keeping waste down, saving labor, reducing costs of repairs.

Not training your staff on how to maintain equipment will just result in your increased costs of operation, outside

break-fix repairs and many other associated costs of defective production.

This issue also results eventually into customer complaints and lost business.


Preventative Maintenance Training Pays, It does not cost!

Let’s look at a few examples of how much it costs to repair or replace wide format

ink jet printers that have not been properly maintained…





Aqueous 44”-64” Break Fix on site diagnosis & replacement of pump cap station, damper and 10 channel print head

with labor can run from $2,800 up to $3,500.

Replacing your pump cap station after 2-3 years and with periodic cleaning is much less, around $250 in parts and labor is already on site. Plus, you get to clean out the fuzz and lint

from a dirty printer, as it should be done.

Replacement of a dead 44” printer is around $4,000 or on a 64” printer is around $9,000


In this case the solution for most Aqueous Printers is pretty simple and very easy to implement, thus,

cheap insurance to do all the things correctly to keep these simple

systems clean with these 4 common tips…


4 common tips & tricks to keep printers maintained

• Exercise your printer on a regular basis and run production and ink through the system!

• Aqueous ink jet printers like 35-45% humidity, use a humidor or humidified print room area!

• Keep lint, paper dust, room dust and foreign material out of your printer, vacume the beast! Every so often, inspect the pump cap cleaning stationand clean regularly, change cap station!

• After a couple of years, expect that you should change out printer capping cleaning station and any wear parts as needed. Failure to do so, will kill a print head for sure.


Simple cleaning tools: Pink, Swabs, Lint Free, Syringe, etc.

These can be found in the Reference appendix on several articles written for Preventative Maintenance in trade publications over the years.

These are some of the sections from our Digital Technology & Learning Center programs.




As your printer cost increases, so does the need for maintenance and the cost of repairs.

$20K-$30K-$50K printers need more attention to periodic maintenance & upkeep.

Grand Format Printers run from $250k up to $750k.

Depending upon the model and type of head, these heads if clogged or ruined run from $2,500 up to

$7,500 to replace.



On the larger, Grand Format flatbeds, 2.5 meter, 3.2 meter and 5 meter printers, the heads can run up and over $10,000each and you might have up to 24 heads or more on the jet

plate area on the gantry! This is really where it pays to invest in proper training in the care and upkeep of the printer, print heads and the fluid ink delivery systems. Often in shops with

many of these larger units, they will invest in an ultrasonic head cleaning unit that each head is periodically rotated

through and cleaned.This all applies to any flatbed or large hybrid.



Don’t wait until the problem is evident and damage is done, get on top of this prior to

these situations to be in front of any issues. This is especially important with systems running the gummy white inks.

White ink can be a real print head killer if left unchecked and not properly maintained.


Filters for Large Format & Grand Format

When it comes to most any type of ink, changing primary and final filters is a must and should be done

as often as needed.

Filters are cheap compared to dead heads!




Areas of the wide format ink jet printer systems that need paid attention to;

Fluid ink delivery systems, tanks, pumps, filters, lines and most importantly….the

PRINT HEADS! Don’t forget the white ink recirculating systems!

That is why everyone has cleaning solutions, wipes, swabs, flushing solutions, ultrasonic cleaning units and trained staff to stay on

top of these maintenance intensive & costly grand format print heads.


Most any part of the Print Head Gantry System (print heads and cleaning station)

Fluid tanks, pumps, filters and capillary delivery tubes (plumbing 101)

Don’t forget, that you also have other systems in this operation other than fluid dynamics;

Paper handling, feed, suction, filters and printer mechanics to handle X-Y-Z axis

All electronics from input power to every board, computers and controllers

Any proprietary systems involved


Owners:

Preventative Maintenace Training Pays

in the long run,

It does not cost !


Where do you get the Proper Training for your operators?

The Best of All Worlds;OJT On the Job Training & the benefits of having an in

house tech that knows the history of the printers and is operating them frequently or performing preventative

maintenance on a routine basis.

Manufacturer Sponsored technical training to supplement the in house tech, very good!

Everybody wins in this type of relationship


Where do you get Service Support and Maintenance outside of this:

Manufacturer Programs with Structured Service and Maintenance Agreements

Upside of this type of program / Downside perspective

3rd Party Service groupsUpside of this type of program / Downside perspective

Hands down, these two options cost more, but are always available if needed.


Moral of the story;

Preventative Maintenace Pays, It does not cost !

It also nurtures value in your employees and they have a vested interest in seeing that

everything is properly operating.

And ultimately...


Preventative Maintenance on Wide Format Printers

Can SAVE $$$

You Costly Repairs

or Replacement


If you don’t learn how to properly

maintain your

equipment,

You are going to have

A bad experience !


Q & A


Thank you for attending and considering these options!

Questions? Contact Dennis Halley at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

How Preventative Maintenance on Wide Format Printers Can ... Pr… · Mutoh, Mimaki & others in the 64” ... 4 common tips & tricks to keep printers maintained ... in proper training