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TECHNICAL INFORMATION BULLETIN
Release date: Preliminary
Bulletin #unreleased
Ink Types and Effects forAqueous Printers
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"Ink Type" is an option to optimize performance with a wide variety of dye sublimation and direct to textile ink sets. Ink types are jetting curves created to account for variation in ink formulations and rheology.
Since jetting curves are designed to optimize droplet formation for different ink formulation they will affect the droplet size and placement on the media, so it can be important to properly determine the optimal "Ink Type" prior to setting up printers at customer sites and doing electronic alignments, if possible. One of the symptoms of an incorrect "Ink Type" is inconsistent jetting during electronic alignments. Since the droplet sizes can change depending on the "Ink Type" selected, it may be necessary to reprofile if changes are made.
Mutoh has added additional waveforms to the textile printers starting in firmware version 201H to be able to better jet a wide array of aqueous dye sub ink types in our 1624W and 1638W printers.
RJ-FGINK (Default - A combination of RJ-FG2 and the two Sawgrass ink types.)
RJ-FG2INK (General Water base Head Waveform)
VJ-DTSINK (Sawgrass Sublim Transfer)
VJ-DPSINK (Sawgrass Sublim Direct)
RJ-80DS1 (Manukian Transfer : J-Teck, Sensient S4)
RJ-80DD (Manukian Direct)
In addition to the above 6 waveforms, the following 3 waveforms has ORIGINAL and Type B.
RJ-FG2INK (General Water base Head Waveform)
VJ-DTSINK (Sawgrass Sublim Transfer, Magellan)
VJ-DPSINK (Sawgrass Sublim Direct)
*Type B Increase micro vibration time. Works for nozzle dropout.
Type B is currently recommended in cases where performance is good, but nozzle drop out is present.
These are the recommended starting points for various inks.
You may use these to set up for standard inks and customize for particular applications.
These are selectable in Maintenance Mode - Parameter - Update - Ink Types.
If your ink is not listed in the above description, check with your ink provider for a recommendation, if no recommendation is available one method for determining "Ink Type" for unknown inks is to create 'spot' colors for all colors of ink used and print out each spot color without color correction or mixing of colors, the idea is to print the appropriate image using only the spot color it was designed for. I.e Print "Black" using only the "K" channel in the printer instead of "rich black". Create an image with spot colors for each color used, design for the approximate printer width, with each color approx 12-18" tall. Print this image using the smallestfixed dotand again with the largest fixed dot available for the printer and for all the "Ink Type"s available for the printer. Some ink sets may have issues with small or large droplets, so fixed dot is recommended for evaluation purposes, variable dot tends to mask issue. For some inks issues may show up very quickly in particular colors at one end of the extreme or both, so it may not be necessary to print out the entire image set. Nozzle dropout and inconsistent, uneven printing is an indication of incorrect droplet formation and incorrect Ink Type. Choose the Ink Type or Types that gives the best image performance. Continue testing with the rest of the fixed dots to ensure a good match.Note: there are 3 Dot families with 3 dots each for 9 fixed droplets total.
In the 1638W to insure the best droplet formation possible, all Ink Types other than RJ-FGINK print only with the 320 cps carriage speed. The 460 cps is disabled for all other "Ink Types".
Then choose an appropriate "Effect" (there is the ability to vary the print speed by choosing different Effects).
There are 29 Effects, but you really only need to understand how they affect speed to use them effectively.
The Effects determine which dots get placed when.
So a profile made with an Effect should be able to be used with any Effect below it.
Start out with Fuzz 2, it will be among the fastest and works quite well.
If Fuzz 2 doesn't do the trick, then usually Fog 3 will.
And for very difficult issues going to 'Fine and Fuzz 2' or 'Fine and Fog 3', is usually all it takes.
Here are some of the benefits.
I.e. a profile made with Fuzz2
A change occurs in the environment where a small amount of additional drying is needed or a profile created elsewhere.
An Effect below Fuzz2 will print slower, some very slightly, some as much as half speed, will allow additional drying time without the need for a new profile.
Effects have even more power.
Customer has plugged nozzles primarily in one channel of the head.
The Effect "A Superfine" will only use nozzles from the 'A' channel of the heads. "B Superfine" will only use nozzles from the "B" channel of the heads.
This is great for those Friday afternoon calls where the customer has work that is needed over the weekend, BEFORE a tech can arrive.
It is half speed, but the same quality, the same profile.
Take this one step more for 1638W which is a dual head machine.
If there is a problem with one head, the printer can print using one head only.
Combine with the "Superfine" Effects and even if one head has serious problems and the other has half the nozzles out, printing may still be possible.
It may be quarter speed, but it will still allow quality output until a tech can arrive.
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