How to safely shut down your DTG machine

Looking after your investment and ensuring excellent print quality is high on every printers list. When the print shop has to close for any reason, including during this challenging Coronavirus lockdown, we have put together a few guidelines to help retain your machine performance.

Firstly, I would recommend starting the machine at least once every three days to ensure 100% nozzle test and movement of ink in the system.  If this is not possible to start the machine every three days, I would recommend removing all the ink from the system (colours and whites) by flushing the ink.  Then put in place priming fluid to preserve the print heads following the manufacturer recommendations and technical guides.

NOTE: Before flushing ink out of the machine produce a nozzle test to keep as a record when reintroducing ink.

On the side of this I would also recommend cleaning the entire machine of lint, dirt, grease and ink etc.  Flush and clean ink from the maintenance tray, wiper blades and orifice plate, remove any waste ink and clean then grease all axis rails. Basically make sure that the machine is nice and clean before being left unattended.  This is well worth doing and will pay dividends when your next up and running.

Once the above procedures has been performed, the machine can effectively be left alone until normal operations resume.

You will need the following consumables;

• Anti-static lint free wipes
• Nozzle test sheets
• Flushing fluid (Part number and quantity depends on machine in question)
• Wiping fluid (Part number and quantity depends on machine in question
• IPA (isopropanol alcohol) 99%
• Rail Oil
• Rail Grease

Upon restarting the machine, ink will need to be introduced according to manufacturer recommendations and instructions. A nozzle test then needs to be produced to confirm 100% nozzles and operation.

The machine is now ready to be used again. 

We have the technical documents regarding the flushing and shutdown of the Kornit DTG range of machines, please email: sales@adelco.co.uk and we would be happy to email you the relevant one for your machine.

Rob Gray - Adelco Service Manager