Preventive or Reactive Ceramic Printer Maintenance?
I went on a diet last month. I think I’m too old to go on a diet. But, among other things, one consequence of aging (I really hate that word!!) has been living the slow down of my metabolism and the increase of my waist line. Normal I guess but certainly no fun. My wife is more or less constantly offering her advice and encouragement for how to prevent it from getting out of control – which it already is. I think I’m beyond the point of prevention.
Ceramic printers don’t have to worry about an increase in their waist line but they do get old and you do need a plan for the normal consequence of an aging printer. The first question to be answered is, do you perform preventive maintenance or just wait until it breaks? For that one, you’ll have to decide. Industry consensus is that it’s cheaper and less disruptive to perform planned, schedule preventive maintenance but this decision is up to you. Here are some things to consider as your printer gets older.
Color Calibration – It can take a lot of work to create that perfect artistic tile or the porcelain portrait that is so beautiful it will make the customer cry. There isn’t much that a good ICC profile can do for you that can’t also be done in Photoshop. But it can make it easier. At Enduring Images we calibrate our production printers several times per year. That isn’t necessary in all cases but over time you might find that it takes longer to get the decal colors right than it did when your printer was new. That could signal the need for recalibration. If you don’t mind the extra Photoshop work, no worries. It has been more than 5 years for some of you who have never recalibrated your printer. And that’s perfectly fine. But if you would like to see your colors as true as when your printer was new, recalibration can help.
Somewhere around 4000 print cycles you might start fighting a loss of color density. Your developer mixture begins to get old around that time and it is likely time for a replacement, like changing the oil in your car. New developers will do wonders for your colors.
About the same time (around 3000 to 4000 prints) you may (or may not!) notice a decline in the image resolution of your prints. The Photoconductor Units (PCU’s) are the primary wear component in a LASER printer and that is why LASER printer manufacturers, including Ricoh, only offer a 90 day warranty on those parts (likewise on the Image Transfer Belt). As they approach the 4000 print age they are no longer capable of holding the same resolution as when they were new. We just replaced all four on our magenta printer and it made a significant improvement in our image quality. Here is the trick. The image change over time is slow and probably imperceptible. We wouldn’t have noticed it if we hadn’t been preparing for a trade show and had an old wall mural tile sample next to one we just printed. Side by side the difference jumped off the tile. But otherwise we wouldn’t have seen it. If you primarily print artistic tiles or mosaic tiles that don’t require a lot of resolution then you and your customers may be happy, so don’t worry about it. But if you are making wall murals from a photograph for a tile back splash or porcelain portraits for a cemetery marker and you are in the range of 4000 prints on your PCU’s, you may find a new set of PCU’s will make a marked improvement in your image quality.
When was the last time you watched your training DVD? Most people can remember only about 20% of what they hear in a lecture. Of course, experience and the “school of hard knocks” are the most effective teachers but we cover a lot of stuff in the time we spend together during training. There just might be a small kernel of Photoshop knowledge in there that could help. And if not, it’s a sure fire cure for insomnia! We make the video of your training day for a number of reasons and it is a good resource. Why not take advantage of it?
You are in the manufacturing business. You rely on your printer for your livelihood. Worth taking a little time to keep it healthy and fit.
Health and happiness to all …
Ron Manwiller
303-278-8868