This knowledge base will help you understand what a nozzle check is, its importance, and how to resolve an issue if the nozzle check isn’t complete.
What is a nozzle check?
A nozzle check is an easy way to determine the health and status of your printer. This process is done very quickly and is not something that should be forgotten. Take a look at How to Perform A Nozzle Check to understand the process and what to look for.
Why is a nozzle check essential to do daily?
Nozzle checks are essential to do daily to know if the machine is ready for printing or if there is an issue. It is cheaper to run a nozzle check and verify the operating status of the printer. If the printer is in an incorrect operating status, it is easier to resolve the issue before printing on a shirt, only to realize a problem. Now, you are doing maintenance on the machine and have a ruined shirt.
Should you do more than one nozzle check per day? If so, what are the benefits of doing more than one per day?
We should be doing as many nozzle checks as needed per day. There isn’t a magic number. A minimum of at least one to three per day is what we recommend—one in the morning, one after lunch, and one during your printing production. Every few hours, it’s good to run a nozzle check to verify that everything is in working order. As a print production specialist, you may see your print quality degrade. You’ll notice that the opacity starts to get less as you print. If you see these issues occurring, this is a strong indication that you are losing some of your white nozzles. We advise running a nozzle check to see the current operating status and doing whatever cleaning or maintenance processes are required to recover any missing nozzles.
What can a nozzle check tell you?
The nozzle check tells us everything about the health of the print head. Are the colors printing properly? Are we missing nozzles? Are we going to have banding? Will we have a color shift? The nozzle check will allow us to determine precisely what's going on from a tier-one first-step POV.
If the nozzle check is unacceptable, what steps should I take to resolve the issue?
Depending on how bad the nozzle check looks will dictate what you need to do. In most cases, an automatic head cleaning is all that will be required. The printer may need a few automatic head cleanings to get all the nozzles working correctly. Also, you may need to clean the maintenance station and wiper assembly if an automated head cleaning isn’t working. In some scenarios, it may be necessary to do a flush and wet cap to recover those missing nozzles.
What should I do if I cannot resolve the issue of an unacceptable nozzle check?
Please submit a Support Ticket so one of our technicians can reach out and troubleshoot the issue with you.