UV Printing Maintenance 101 - Mimaki 6042

So you bought a UV printer because, well DUH! It goes great with your laser business! But now you aren't quite sure where to go from here? I got you! 

When I got my first UV printer I dove right in and made a lot of mistakes! I'm here to help you make sure you don't! 

On of the biggest hurdles IMO was figuring out the maintenance. Sure, there's a checklist in your manual (usually), but let's be honest it's not as cut and dry as I'd prefer. Plus, if you grow like me you may one day have an employee running your machine- a checklist for them to follow would make that so much easier! 

A couple of other things I would maybe add to my list but I didn't- wipe down your machine outside/inside of dust/debris. I also would use a shopvac on the inside of my 6042 to clean up all the debris in there weekly.

I'll be working on videos for all of this soon!  

Agitate white ink- pretty self explanatory, however, make sure you're not shaking, but actually just agitating to move the ink around. Shaking could cause air bubbles. 

Clean Capping Station- another pretty simple process but it took a long time for me to realize what the actual capping station was. 

Clean & Inspect Heads- I added the inspect part because it's important to keep an eye on them, especially on machines without auto adjusting beds like our JFX200

Nozzle Wash- I've heard a lot of different things in regards to this by a lot of different techs. The manual says every few days, but I've heard that daily is a safe bet as well.  If you are doing daily washes you may want to use a less concentrated cleaner to eliminate any possible corrosion issues. I suggest 007.

Test Print- I always like to do test prints after nozzle washes because sometimes you need a good cleaning after a nozzle wash and a test print will tell you that before you ruin something.

Check Filters- this is only on my Mimaki 6042, and is a weekly task. The long filter likely needs to be replaced every 1-4 weeks depending on your usage. The square filter could probably go 6 months if you wanted. 

Replace Wiper- this is only on my JFX200, and generally the machine will prompt you to change this out if you don't want to put it on your list! 

Replace Flushing Filter- this is also only on my JFX200, and generally the machine will prompt you to change this out if you don't want to put it on your list!