Printhead Nozzle Maintenance
Printhead Nozzle Maintenance
Checking Nozzle Performance
Introduction
It is important that nozzle performance is evaluated to determine if the printer is ready for
production. To evaluate the nozzle jetting performance of each printhead the nozzle check print
must be printed.
The nozzle check print shows the performance of each individual nozzle in each color channel.
This information is critical in determining how to proceed in recovering nozzles with the
automatic maintenance system (AMS).
[19] A Section of the Nozzle Check print that shows the condition of the Cyan and Black printheads
A single color channel is made up of 6 rows of separate printheads. Each printhead is divided in
to 2 jetting packages (A&B). Each jetting package has a total of 318 active nozzles. This is why in
the nozzle check print there are 12 separately labeled jetting areas in each color channels.
Procedure
1. Place a piece of clean media on the vacuum table.
2. Select the Nozzle Check print icon from the user interface. Input the appropriate settings for
printing (offsets, media thickness, lamp power, etc).
3. Print and evaluate the Nozzle Check Print.
The typical procedure for evaluating the nozzle check print is to closely examine the jetting
performance in each jetting package.
NOTE
Tip:
performance.
Each color channel is comprised of 3816 active nozzles. The printer has been designed to produce
good quality prints even with a number of nozzle outs. To help determine when to do an AMS on
a specific color channel the following guidelines are provided.
Do Automatic Maintenance on the required color channel if:
154
Chapter 9 - Printer Maintenance
Circle nozzle outs in each jetting package with a marker to better evaluate overall