There are four types of print head maintenance as follows.

  • User Maintenance
  • Automatic Cleaning during Printing
  • Automatic Cleaning after Printing
  • Automatic Cleaning during Standby
User Maintenance

Various maintenance procedures are performed by user operation.

  • Nozzle Cleaning: Low
    Perform when lines are bent or missing in the test print.
  • Nozzle Cleaning: High
    Perform when lines are missing or colors are mixing.
  • Refreshing
    Ejects ink from the ink supply path of each print head individually. This is to be used when clogging cannot be resolved by head cleaning and nozzle maintenance.
  • Air purge
    Purges air in the damper of each print head individually.
  • Waste ink path maintenance
    Uses cleaning liquid to clean the waste ink path to prevent clogging.
  • Nozzle maintenance
    Dips the print heads in the caps filled with cleaning liquid for a specified time to clean the nozzles. This is to be done when clogging cannot be resolved by head cleaning.
  • Ink replacement
    Replaces the white ink with the replacement ink.
  • Ink circulation
    Circulates white ink inside the machine to prevent sedimentation of white ink in the ink supply path.
Automatic Cleaning during Printing

During printing, the machine performs flushing, automatic cleaning, negative pressure diagnosis, and ink circulation periodically.

All maintenance procedures except ink circulation are done when the maintenance execution conditions are met and the carriage has completed return path print operation. Ink circulation is done when the maintenance execution conditions are met and the machine has completed printing a page.

Flushing during printing

When the carriage has completed return-path printing, ink is flushed inside the cap in each print head simultaneously

Automatic cleaning

The machine does the following kinds of cleaning during printing. The frequency can be changed in SP mode.

  • Nozzle surface wiping
    Wiping is done every 540 seconds.

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-514-004AutoCleaning Start Threshold: Nozzle Surface Cleaning540 sec.0 - 64800 sec.

  • Cleaning
    Head cleaning is done every 1080 seconds.

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-514-006AutoCleaning Start Threshold: Cleaning1080 sec.0 - 64800 sec.

  • Refreshing
    Ejects ink from the ink supply path every 7800 seconds.

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-514-007AutoCleaning Start Threshold: Refreshing7800 sec.0 - 64800 sec.

Negative pressure diagnosis

When detecting the damper feeler, the machine checks for abnormal negative pressure. If the machine determines the negative pressure is abnormal, the machine attempts to correct it.

Ink circulation

Circulates white ink inside the machine to prevent sedimentation of white ink in the ink supply path. (For details, see Ink Supply Unit.)

Automatic Cleaning after Printing

After printing, the machine performs automatic cleaning and negative pressure diagnosis.

Automatic Cleaning during Standby

To prevent various problems including increased viscosity of ink in the nozzle caused by dehydration, the machine periodically performs flushing, head cleaning, ink ejection, and ink circulation during standby.

  • Flushing during standby
    When the current time minus last flushing time exceeds the threshold, the machine performs flushing inside the cap to eject dried ink in the nozzle. The threshold level can be changed in SP mode (default: Level 1 [30 min.]).
    Threshold level

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-512-001Mainten. duringStandby Freq.: Flushing duringStandby11 - 10

    Threshold value of each level

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-513-001Mainten. duringStandby Thresh.: Flushing duringStandby Lv130 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-002Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Flushing duringStandby Lv220 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-003Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning duringStandby Lv110 min.1 - 10080 min.

  • Head cleaning
    When the current time minus last cleaning time exceeds the threshold, the machine performs head cleaning. The threshold level can be changed in SP mode (default: Level 1 [360 min.]).
    Threshold level

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-512-002Mainten. duringStandby Freq.: Cleaning duringStandby11 - 10
    SP2-512-004 *1Mainten. duringStandby Freq.: Cleaning (Wh) duringStandby11 - 10

    *1 Only when white ink is used.
    Threshold value of each level

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-513-003Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning duringStandby Lv1720 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-005Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning duringStandby Lv2360 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-008Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning duringStandby Lv3180 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-012 *1Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning (Wh) duringStandby Lv1240 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-013 *1Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning (Wh) duringStandby Lv2120 min.1 - 10080 min.
    SP2-513-014 *1Mainten. afterLeftover Thresh.: Cleaning (Wh) duringStandby Lv360 min.1 - 10080 min.

    *1 Only when white ink is used.

  • Ink ejection
    When the current time minus last cleaning time exceeds the threshold, the machine performs ink ejection. This ejects the viscosified ink in the supply path which appears when the machine has not printed for a long time. The threshold can be changed in SP mode (default: 7 days).

    SP No.NameDefaultRange
    SP2-513-018Mainten. duringStandby Thresh.: Ink Supply Seq. duringStandby7 days1 - 2047 days

  • Ink circulation

    Circulates white ink inside the machine to prevent sedimentation of white ink in the ink supply path. (For details, see Ink Supply Unit.)