Maintenance Prints
We are in the 3rd generation of heads and inks for Roland EcoSol printers (possibly 4th or 5th if you count early attempts and resin foil, but I’m not talking about those.) Each generation had its own foibles with the head/ink interaction. The early DX4 machines (SPv, SPi, VP, XC) all seemed to eat the black channel after a few years. Changing the head that had black ink was like changing tires in your car. It was going to happen. The next generation used DX7 heads (VS, XR) and could be inked up with the added light components to the CMYK standard. These machines tended to eat the Light Cyan channel – and required the whole head to be changed. Again, the time period was in the the range of 3-5 years. With the new FlexFire heads on VG models I am seeing the cyan as problematic. I find I can repeatedly change the head with the Cyan channel even more often. Most of the changed are within the warranty window, but now that these machines are 7 years in the field – customers are on the line for the cost of the repair.
What can you do to help keep head change costs down? My answer (mostly unproven) is that the channels causing the problems are underutilized – so I suggest “Maintenance Prints.” What is a “Maintenance Print” and why do I theorize that these prints help? A maintenance print is a print that uses a file that activates equally all channels in the machine. My theory is that the problem channels are not being used as much as the other channels.
When I worked in a sign shop, we used an SPv. We changed the head two or three times in my 10 years with this machine. At some point I found it helpful to chart ink usage. What I found over the years was that the ink consumption of C, M, and Y was three times that of the K. We were not using black nearly as much. Keep in mind that some people say the “K” moniker is to avoid confusion if using “B” for black with “B” in Blue. I have also read that the “K” really is for “Key color” which was used for alignment. If you want the real story read here. Others say the black had some particulates that were harsh on the head. While it is true that the Max ink was worse than the Max2 ink in regard to failure, printers that printed more seemed to have fewer problems – which is exactly the opposite of reports of difficult ink – more ink going through the head should see a shorter life span. I see the exact opposite throughout the head and ink combinations. Some techs in the field have suggested these old machines use the Max2 black by swapping the chips. I cannot report on this other than what I hear.
Fast forward to my life as a tech. I have changed a lot of heads on the newer DX7 machines and almost all heads are failing with the light cyan channel. In fact – the XC, which was the first widely accepted Roland model to use Light Cyan in a DX4 head also has this problem. Why is Light Cyan the new Black on DX7 machines. My theory is lack of use. Light Blue is a less common color used by the typical sign shop.
The new Flexfire heads fail predominantly on the cyan channel (followed by the Green and the Orange – which I will address why later.) There is no doubt that the ink can be contributing, but almost without exception the machines that have head problems (with Flexfire the problem is dropout) have very low hours. These customers can be printing as little as an hour a week dividing total hours over the length of time.
Let’s take a moment to talk about printing hours and try to put some data down. When I finish service calls I write total print hours and total pages on our maintenance log book that I attach to side of the printer at install. This data allows me to assess usage between visits. Of the hundreds of machines I service most shops average 4-5 hours a week. This may shock you, and most customers respond with disbelief. Everyone thinks they print all day every day. Roland firmware clocks the amount of time that the printer is printing, cutting, cleaning, etc. I can read it there right in black and white, so to speak. In defense of the customer, the machine is probably printing all day every day (perhaps 4 hours, really), but then sits for a whole week or two while all that printed vinyl is applied. The data listed in the machine is over time taking into account the idle time as well. Simply put, under 4 hours a week can cause problems. Under two hours a week WILL cause problems. One side note is that the CMYK only machines from the DX7 era on have fewer issues – SGs, VS Duals, VG Duals – have fewer issues with head problems overall.
Enter the Maintenance Print: I provide maintenance prints that I suggest customers load into the queue and print every Monday morning. If you are printing alot – perhaps you only print 6 inches. If you are going on vacation print a foot or two before you leave and again when you return. The idea of the maintenance print is to print every channel an equal amount so you are exercising all channels.
Let me address why Green an Orange have problems. Many of my customers have learned to use the Roland Color System Library in their workflow. This was indeed the best way to get great, bright, saturated colors. The problem is that the library only uses CMYK – and by extension Light Cyan, Light Magenta, and Light Black. If the shop has 10 years of files using those colors, and they continue that practice – Green and Orange is not being used. I’d suggest you make sure you are using the new Green and Orange library additions. Also, the Maintenance print can help as well. The need to use the Roland Color System Library may no longer be needed as well.
Here are a few Maintenance prints to download. Make sure you download the maintenance print that matches your inktype (one stripe for each cartridge color) and that the stripes are oriented so that the stripes run in the feed direction. This orientation allows you to gauge how much to print while assuring you give the benefits to each color. If you want to save media you can set VersaWorks to double or triple strike each pass in the quality tab. Also, set the Color Management at the bottom of that page to Density Control Only in order to force the Black ink to be used instead of a rich color substitute (which is why so little black is used in the first place.)
CMYK – This file will work for SPv, SPi, VS Dual, and VSi Dual and RF SolJet Models
CMYKcm – This file will work for SC & XC SolJet Models (use the files below if you have White or Metallic)
CMYKcmk – This file will work with VSi, and XR, XT, EJ SolJet Models (use the files below if you have White or Metallic)
CMYKcmkOr – This file will work with VG Models with this inktype
CMYKcmOrGr – This file will work with VG Models with this inktype
CMYKkOrGrWh– This file will work with VG Models with this inktype (use the White below.)
Metallic & White for those machines who need to keep these channels printing.