A Strategy for Minimal Care of DTF Printers - No Daily Maintenance for DTF Printers with Infrequent Orders

The Premise: Low Maintenance, No Clogs 

In a world of frequent printer usage, maintaining the condition of a print head often becomes an uphill task. This is especially true for Direct to Film (DTF) printers. But what if I told you there's a unique, tested strategy that eliminates the need for daily maintenance, yet ensures your print head never clogs? Yes, that's right. This strategy works best for those who don't receive daily orders and is an excellent way to optimize your workflow and minimize printer-related headaches.

Benefiting from Dual Printer Utilization 

At the heart of this revolutionary method is an L1800 printer, used with dye ink for printing packing slips. By using this printer regularly, you can ensure the printhead never clogs. However, the true magic lies in leveraging this printer as your daily sublimation printer when you receive a DTF order. In essence, you have two machines - a DTF printer and a sublimation printer (or regular printer), which share the same printhead. Although it might sound unconventional, this strategy is a practical way of ensuring your printer is in use regularly, thus preventing clogs.

Making an Economical Investment 

Considering the expenses of owning a printer, the investment for this method is fairly reasonable. When you purchase an L1800 DTF printer from BCH Technologies, you might also want to invest an additional amount on spare parts. This way, if anything breaks in your printer, you have a spare to use immediately. Plus, the printer comes with a brand new printhead and mainboard, which are typically the costliest parts of the printer. So in a way, you're getting the rest of the printer parts almost for free!

Printhead Transition: A Careful Process 

When it comes to transitioning the printhead to your DTF machine, you'll need to first print a nozzle check page. It’s essential to handle the printhead carefully while removing it. You can watch our step-by-step video tutorial below to learn how to do it without causing any damage to the printer or printhead. Also, make sure to temporarily store the dampers in a plastic bag to prevent ink drips.

Optimizing Ink Usage with Modified Systems 

Another critical aspect of this strategy involves modifying the ink system. For instance, using a smaller 75 ml ink tank with an extender can prevent too much ink exposure to the air when not in use. Similarly, ensuring the ink supply line is short and is connected with an extender makes it easier to turn the supply on and off as needed.

Converting to a New Ink System 

When it's time to convert to a new ink system, you need to cut off the KCMY color tubes and connect them to the small white tank. Make sure to understand the flow direction of the tubes. The tube that takes the ink to the printer should be a bit longer, ensuring it doesn't touch the bottom of the tank. This prevents any debris from getting sucked up along with the ink. The other tube, which dumps the ink back into the bottle, can just be inside the bottle. As long as it can dump the ink into the bottle, it's all good.

Securing a Guaranteed Working Printhead 

Once you’ve reconnected everything correctly, the automatic script can be used to clean the printhead. After the cleanup process, your printhead should be as good as new and ready to churn out those perfect white lines. Essentially, with a guaranteed working printhead, you can immediately start making money back from your new printer.

The Cleanup Process: 

Distilled Water is Your Friend Cleaning up after printing is made easy with the use of distilled water. You can find distilled water at your local grocery store for about a dollar a gallon. When you're done printing, simply remove the tubes from the tank and connect them to your distilled water bottle. When the printer sucks, it will draw from the distilled water bottle, thus cleaning out any remaining ink. For the white ink, connect one tube to the distilled water and the other tube to another bottle. Then, fire up the macro on your computer and let it keep cleaning. You can let it run overnight.

Wake up to a Clog-Free Printhead 

When you come in the next day, you'll see a clear bottle full of the white ink. The distilled water will have cleaned out any white ink from the tubes, printer, and cap station, ensuring a clog-free system. Your printhead can now be mounted back to your regular printer, ready to print perfectly again.

Keeping your Equipment in Top Condition 

In conclusion, the above strategy for printer maintenance is a well-rounded approach to prolonging the life of your printer and printhead. Not only does it streamline your operations, but it also keeps your equipment in top condition with little to no daily maintenance. With this guide and the supporting video, you now have a blueprint for a simplified printing process that saves time and money. So, why not give it a try?