Cleaning Clogged Ink Jets

Purge-n-WipeManual Cloth Wipe

All printers that use solvent-based inks are susceptible to print- head clogging. This is caused by the solvent evaporating and leaving behind the pigments, which is desirable on printed output but not in the printheads!

The printer incorporates many automatic features and manual procedures for preventing clogs from occurring, and for recovering ink jets that do become clogged:

◆Purge-n-Wipe

◆Manual Cloth Wipe

◆Cleaning Solvent Soak

◆Cleaning the Service Station Doctor Blade

All sixteen heads can be purged at once, or one color set (four heads) can be purged for increased pressure. See “Checking Jet Health” on page 3-7for instructions.

If repeated Purge-n-Wipes fail to recover enough jets, you can wipe them manually with a 100% polyester, Class 100 clean- room cloth soaked with SolaChrome-HR cleaning solvent. A manual wipe is also recommended after uncapping the print- heads (see “Uncap the Printheads” on page 3-14for instructions).

DO NOT USE ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL ON THE PRINTHEADS.

1.To access the heads for cleaning, select Access Heads from the control panel Front Page.

2.After the carriage has moved over the capping station, remove the capping station pad by pulling it forward and out of the printer.

3.Wipe the printheads and any areas of the carriage that have collected ink.

4.Press Proceed on the control panel to return the carriage to the service station.

5.Replace the capping station pad.

If it appears that the service station is not wiping the printhead properly, it may be misaligned or too low (see “Calibrate the Service Station” on page 5-17).

Cleaning Clogged Ink Jets

5-9