Operator Guidelines For White Ink And Varnish - Oce Arizona 640 GT User Manual

Operator Guidelines for White Ink and Varnish

Operator Guidelines for White Ink and Varnish
Introduction
This chapter is necessary only if you have the Océ Arizona 660 GT/XT printer with the white ink or
varnish option (the 640 GT/XT does not support varnish or white ink).
Managing White Ink and Varnish
Varnish does not require any special handling and regular printhead maintenance is adequate.
White ink is re-circulated in the system to limit any settling of the ink. For this to take place, the
printer must be left powered on at all times. Regular maintenance is required to keep the white
printheads functioning properly.
Note that white ink may require additional purges.
Before you begin
If your printer includes the white ink or varnish option, all ink bags must be present and all must
contain ink or varnish in order for the printer to function properly.
IMPORTANT
Daily maintenance is important even when white ink or varnish are not being actively used.
Failure to perform daily maintenance can result in nozzle dropouts or even printhead damage.
The purpose of maintenance is to clean the nozzles of the printheads and thus ensure better
image quality and avoid banding and other print quality issues.
More maintenance is required in dusty environments, or when there are fibers protruding from
the media, or when printing on reflective media such as glass or metal (more reflected UV light
hits the printheads). A dirty or dusty environment is harmful to the printheads because particles
can plug the nozzles and result in poor image quality. Avoid close proximity to routers and other
sources of dust and debris. Also avoid placing your printer close to solvent printers as the fumes
can have a negative effect on the printheads.
Procedure
1.
Agitate the white ink bag gently as described on the bag label at least once a week.
2.
Perform Printhead Maintenance at least one time every workday and more often, if required. Do
this even if the printer is not used that day.
NOTE
Refer to the Printhead Maintenance section of the Maintenance chapter for an explanation of
how to properly perform daily maintenance. Also, the complete Printhead Maintenance
procedure is documented in a video that illustrates all of the steps involved and also explains
why it is important to perform regular maintenance. The video can be viewed from the Customer
Support page and is also available to download: http://dgs.oce.com/. Note that the video
discusses the Océ Arizona 550, but the procedure is the same for the Océ Arizona 600 series
printers.
120 Chapter 9 - How to Work With White Ink and Varnish
Océ Arizona 600 Series