Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials? ARTJET 2025

Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

 

I’m summarizing UV printer problems and solutions.

The link below is a compilation of all the problems and causes and solutions that occurred over the past 5 years, totaling 24 episodes. If you have a printer that uses the damper method, you can solve most problems by just clicking the link below.

Ink supply issue and solution summary

 

Now, I’m organizing the problems and symptoms related to UV Printer heads.

Before dealing with the actual problems and solutions, there are many misconceptions about heads, so I’ll explain the basic knowledge first.

If you understand only the sessions explained here, you will be able to see that you know more about inkjet heads than inkjet manufacturer salespeople or equipment distributor engineers.

Head Basics Summary

 

Last time, I explained why the following problem occurred.

1. Banding appears on the Y axis instead of the X axis. Click here for more details.

2.”Can I clean the XP600 head, which is an Epson series head, with alcohol?”

3. Problem symptoms that occur when the print head data cable connection part is contaminated with ink

4. “It was printing fine until yesterday, but suddenly a certain color is flying away.”

 

Today we’ll explain why printing on reflective materials is dangerous and how to print despite these risks.

 

I. Two major accidents _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

1. JETRIX UV Printer Development Manufacturer Employment _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

Ink Tech Co., Ltd. developed the JETRIX UV Printer in 2008 and started selling it in 2009.
I joined the company in 2008 when the UV Printer business division started, and I left the company after working there for 11 years.
The model sold in 2015 was a 2.5 x 3.2 meter large UV printer equipped with 16 KM1024 heads.
The price of 16 heads alone is about 30 million won.

While I was working in the office, my friend who does AS suddenly came to me with a surprised face.

 

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“Team leader, during the QC of the printer in production, all 16 heads were blocked.”

“How much does one head cost? What did they do to get that?”

“They said they were testing the head carriage transfer, so they made it move for 3 hours in test mode, with the lamp on, and the head height set to 50mm.”

“If someone had seen it, they would have said there would be a problem,”

“They said they did it, but they said there was no problem the last time they did it for about 2 hours,,,, and they just did it.”

“When a certain critical point is reached, the head nozzle suddenly gets blocked,, so that’s how it happened,”

 

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The problem was not caused by glass or reflective materials, but by the high head height.

2. After ARTJET delivery in early 2020 _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

Less than a week after delivery, we received a problem where all three heads were not inkloading (pumping) and ink was not coming out.
We checked various things, thinking it was an inkload problem, but no matter how many times we tried, inkloading (pumping) did not work.
Just in case, we replaced only one head first, and it started inkloading (pumping) right away.
When we asked the customer, he said that he had been printing 70 mm high material all day, and that was when the print head problem occurred.

The material is 70 mm, but when printing, the head carriage goes back and forth past the material, so there is a 70 mm gap where the material ends on the X-axis.

II. Konica Minolta Printhead Manufacturer Advice _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

1. Head Division _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

My first job was at a UV printer development company. At that time, industrial UV heads and UV inks were very long-term.

The head used in the first development model in 2004 was Konica Minolta, and I often had meetings with Konica engineers on technical issues.

One of the topics during the technical meetings was the print head UV lamp curing issue.

Although Konica does not manufacture UV printers directly,

I met UV printer manufacturers in various countries through print head sales, and they gave me various advice on head issues.

 

2. Konica Minolta Advice on UV(LED) Lamp Curing Issues _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

 

“When making a printer, do not use materials that reflect light in the head carriage transport section mechanism.”

• Do not use SUS metal, i.e. materials that reflect light strongly, in the head carriage transport section. If used, paint it black so that UV light does not reflect.
• One UV printer manufacturer had a problem where only certain parts of the nozzle kept getting clogged.
• The cause was that they used silver round bolts in the head carriage transport section, and the silver round bolts reflected UV light, which continued to reflect on a specific head nozzle.
• As time went by, the problem of the nozzle getting clogged occurred.

“The farther away the UV(LED) lamp is mounted from the head, the better”

• During the printing process, as the head carriage moves, the UV(LED) light is reflected through the flatbed, and if the head is right next to the lamp, this reflected light reaches the print head.
• For this reason, the farther the UV(LED) lamp is from the head, the less likely it is that the reflected UV(LED) light will reach the head.

“UV(LED) lamp should be tilted outward from the print head”

• It is better to tilt the UV(LED) lamp slightly outward from the print head rather than vertically.
• Since the light is reflected outward, it reduces the probability of UV light hitting the head during printing.

 

“Konica’s Advice on Printing Avoid reflective materials such as glass and metal plates if possible, but if you must print”

• Print head cleaning should be performed periodically after printing.
• To minimize UV(LED) lamp light reflection, when printing on tall materials, place a dummy material of the same height or slightly lower height next to the material to minimize UV(LED) light reflection.
• If used higher than the stand-off (the gap between the material and the print head, usually 1.2mm), ink will fly during printing, and the flying fine ink will stick to the head nozzle. If these fine inks are continuously exposed to UV(LED) light, they will partially block the nozzle surface, and ultimately completely block the nozzle. If the stand-off must be used high, print head cleaning should be performed periodically.

III. Applying Konica’s advice to ARTJET _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

1. Head area _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

 

There is no SUS Metal material around the print head carriage that can reflect UV (LED) light.

There is a print head collision prevention device between the LED lamp and the print head, so the gap between the LED lamp and the print head is okay.

The lamp itself is also tilted about 20 degrees away from the print head.

2. Advice from myself who has been selling UV printers for 20 years _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

 

When printing on materials with strong light reflection such as glass, please clean periodically (once every 30 minutes or 1 hour).

• UV Ink is an ink that hardens under UV (ultraviolet) light.
• However, the ink does not harden with a small amount of exposure, but rather, the ink starts to harden when there is a certain amount of accumulated light.
• If printing is repeated without cleaning, the accumulated amount of UV light that hardens the ink occurs, and the ink remaining in the nozzle starts to harden.
• The problem is that UV ink itself contains a substance called a photoactivator, and once the ink hardens, it continues to harden the ink by itself even without UV light.
• Once the hardening begins, the ink hardens all the way to the nozzles inside the head, making the head unusable.

In particular, assuming that only Color is printed,

• Color is relatively less dangerous because ink is continuously jetted.
• However, unprinted Varnish or White does not jet ink, so UV light that reflects continuously hits the ink that is formed in the nozzle.
• Unused Varnish and White are more dangerous than Color, so you should clean all heads periodically during cleaning.

3. More dangerous than reflective material _Will the nozzle get clogged when printing on reflective materials?

More dangerous than reflective materials is printing on tall materials.

If you print on a 70mm high wooden box, when the head carriage passes the printing surface, the head is floating about 70mm from the floor.

The 70mm height difference makes the light reflection angle large, causing the LED light to continuously hit the bottom of the print head.

Both major accidents I have seen were caused by high gaps rather than reflective materials such as glass or SUS metal.

When printing on tall materials, please make sure to place the materials that are the same height or slightly lower than the printing material next to the printing material. 

 

IV. This is how ARTJET supports our customers.

One thing I feel while selling and maintaining ARTJET UV Printers for 5 years is that the next most important thing after product stability is Troubleshooting DATA.

All products have problems, whether they are actual equipment problems or consumer errors, and product stability is how easily and quickly you solve those problems.

We are organizing all the troubleshooting DATA as follows.

You can see the product print quality by clicking here.

 

1. Complete Guide to Printhead Problems and Solutions

ARTJET UV Printer Problems and Solution _Printhead Problems Summary

Additional issue and solution
The red color does not appear at first, then appears during printing, and then does not appear again
Printhead replacement video and precautions

2. Complete Guide to Ink Supply Problems and Solutions

Previously sorted, ink supply problem summary
Updated ink supply problem summary

 

3. Mechanical problem and Solutions 

1. How to align the print head in a straight line
2. There is a clicking noise from the X-axis
3. Banding problem in specific section
4. The Importance of Head Height in Bidirectional Printing
5. Problems that occur when the wiper height is high
6. When the cleaning belt screw is loose
7. When the capping fixing plate does not fit
8. How do I prepare the ARTJET electricity?
9.When Anti-crash becomes a jam in captop
10. Print head Anti crash system 

 

4. Electron board and Software problem is hereunder. 

1. The printer works but printing does not work
2. Resetting to default settings
3. Touch panel does not turn on
4. The printer is printing, but nothing is printed
5. Software closes when I just press the print button
6. Printing in the wrong place
7. Positioning misalignment in X-axis direction
8. How to make the Offset fine tune
9. Vertical offset is not correct only for the right section of white
10. Software turn off when click print button

 

5. Sai Flexi Rip software  

1. How to make the Spot Color & several mistakes
2. Color is strange after applying Spot color
3. White is sticking out
4. Installation and Dongle Key Recognition Failure Measures
5. Dongle Key Recognition Failure
6. White lines appear when printing only color
7. Color Adjustment through Graph
8. Print size compensation
9. Ink Consumption Calculation
10. What is ICC profile & menu board UV Printing
11. Dongle Key recognition Failure from USB port

 

6. Problems and solutions from actual consumer sites

1. Paper that absorbs ink
2. A line-like thing appears at the end of the white print surface
3.Can varnish banding be reduced?
4. Are there many problems with China’s UV Printer?

7. UV Printer Application 

we are explaining not only UV printer problems and solutions, but also what products are produced with UV printers.

1. Braille printing
2. Flip the material and align it
3. 2.5D UV print
4. ARTJET UV Printer Application 6 _아크릴 본딩 장비
5. I phone 14 print limitation 
6. Mask printing not recommend
7. Leather Cigarette Case UV Printing
8. Round soccer strategy board UV printing
9. Primer  performance & limitation 
10. UV Print & Laser crop mark cutting
11. Mobil case UV print profit
12. Screen vs Digital Comparison and UV Printing on Hand Sanitizer Cases
13. Bottle zig & print
14. Canvas UV Printing
15. Applying epoxy effect with varnish
16. Making a light frame with UV Printer & Laser cutter
17. UV Printer & Laser Cutting Equipment Button Name Tag Making
18. UV Printer & Laser Cutting Making a Cell Phone GripTok
19. Making an Acrylic Keychain with UV Printer & Laser Cutter
20. UV Print with Zig
21. How to make RD WORKS CCD camera cutting Video manual
22. Acrylic bonding equipment
23. All the steps to create UVDTF
24. UVDTF TEST Result on various material
25. ARTJET CW+C Print time & Ink Cost
26. Create a white shield with different images on the front and back of the keyring
27. Keyring Business Required Equipment and Investment Costs
29. Acrylic Lighting Goods
30. Ballpoint pen jig printing
31. Staining occurs when printing on coated leather

 

 

That’s it for today.