UV Prints & Scratching

[ScottyDoo]

So it seems that prints off our 9840UV are scratching more than other UV prints. We have a couple other printers in town with UV machines and their prints are VERY durable and don't scratch. Sure you could gouge them with something, but the surface is rather scratch resistant.

So my questions is if anyone else has ever had issues with this. I would imagine that it would be caused by too much ink being laid down, or maybe it's not being cured properly or enough?

Ideas?

[Matt Cuellar]

Scotty,

In my experience with the 9840uv I've found it to be 1 or 2 possible scenarios and you're right on:

1) Overall ink limit of your particular profile is too high not allowing adequate curing of the ink

2) UV light source is running low not allowing proper heat to cure ink fully. Most of the times I've found it's the lamps are running low versus option #1.

When was the last time you replaced the lamps? I must say, I've never had a durability issue with the 9840 outside of what I've just explained. Seems to be very stable in my opinion.

Call me if you have questions

Matt
(425) 774-3136

[Merritt Graphics]

I am willing to bet its the lamps also. What is the running life on those lamps?
Take that #and cut it in half. If you are within those hours a replacement is probably due. Then jack the trailing lamp up and keep printing. That will keep you running until new lamps arrive.

[ScottyDoo]

WE get about 500 hours out of the lamps (claim up to like 800 if they are fired in the morning and never got off till end of the day, which is not ours) and are currently at 275. Here's the deal...the particular job that is the worst, and receiving complaints is solid black and were print right when we had a ton of lamp errors and then finally the lamps gave out and had to get new housings, etc. Not just a bad lamp, so my guess is that they lamp was not running full power and at 100% so it was not curing properly.

We haven't had any issues recently with the scratching, it was mainly all around the same time of all the lamp issues.

[Ron Helliar]

I'm assuming the 72uvr and the 9800 are close to the same hardware. We found a problem with a loss of left lamp startup. Without a top notch operator, that could be even more difficult to catch with hidden lamp housings. We've also found that once an error starts (lamp, software crash or static zap) a hard restart of the printer is in order. Always a good idea to have a set of lamps at the ready. I think we'll be averaging more like 2.5 sets of lamps a year in our volume. Pretty drastic to most folks, but when viewed as the consumable they are, easy to write off when they are up to spec and working properly. Sacrifice a spare child and keep the printer in warranty is your best bet.