It is important that nozzle performance is evaluated to determine if the printer is ready for production. To evaluate the nozzle jetting performance of each printhead the nozzle check print must be printed.
The nozzle check print shows the performance of each individual nozzle in each color channel. This information is critical in determining how to proceed in recovering nozzles with the automatic maintenance system (AMS).
A Section of the Nozzle Check print that shows the condition of the Cyan and Black printheadsA single color channel is made up of 6 rows of separate printheads. Each printhead is divided in to 2 jetting packages (A&B). Each jetting package has a total of 318 active nozzles. This is why in the nozzle check print there are 12 separately labeled jetting areas in each color channels.
The typical procedure for evaluating the nozzle check print is to closely examine the jetting performance in each jetting package.
NOTE
Tip: Circle nozzle outs in each jetting package with a marker to better evaluate overall performance.
Each color channel is comprised of 3816 active nozzles. The printer has been designed to produce good quality prints even with a number of nozzle outs. To help determine when to do an AMS on a specific color channel the following guidelines are provided.
Do Automatic Maintenance on the required color channel if:
more than 2 nozzles outs exist in a single printhead
2 or more adjacent nozzle outs exist in a single printhead
more than 4 nozzle outs exist in a single color