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Clean Carriage Underside

Introduction

The underside of the carriage must be cleaned daily. It may be necessary to clean it more frequently if any of the following conditions exist:

  • media has a high level of static charge

  • full bleed printing

  • media thickness value is incorrect (carriage is too high)

CAUTION

For cleaning areas of the printer that have uncured ink contamination use the following safety equipment - nitrile gloves, a lab coat, and safety glasses with side shields to protect your eyes.

If a nitrile glove is contaminated with ink, discard it within a few minutes. The penetrating chemicals have no pigment so they are not visible; therefore just because you don’t see pigment on the glove or your skin doesn’t mean that exposure has not occurred. Do not re-use gloves.

Equipment

  • Poly Wipe cloths

  • 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol

IMPORTANT

When you clean the carriage or printheads you may need a light to evaluate their condition. All light sources emit varying amounts of UV (ultraviolet) light. UV light cures the UV-based ink used in your printer. If the underside of the carriage is dark when examining the printheads or the carriage underside, consider the kind of light source you use for the inspection. LED flashlights and halogen lamps emit the most UV light, while tungsten and fluorescent produce the least. Most Smart phones with a light source use LED lights. Regardless of the light source used, always limit exposure of the printheads to the minimal time required (refer to Customer Application Bulletin 55, " Minimize Exposure to UV Light When Inspecting Printhead Nozzles" for more details).

Procedure

  1. Slide the maintenance station drawer out from under the carriage.
  2. Press the middle switch to raise the carriage to its maximum height.
  3. Prepare a clean poly wipe cloth as shown here.
  4. Dip the cloth in 99.9 % isopropyl alcohol.
  5. IMPORTANT

    In the next step, make sure that you do not touch the nozzles of the printheads. If you happen to touch one with the cloth, you must perform printhead maintenance. Note that contact with a printhead by any object other than the suction-head used for maintenance can cause damage to the nozzles and result in poor image quality or possibly require a printhead replacement.

    Slide the cloth along the metal plate between the printheads to remove any ink that has accumulated.
    Cleaning the metal plate between printheads
  6. Reposition the wipe so that a clean area is exposed.
  7. Proceed to the next space between printheads and slide the clean area of cloth along the metal plate.
  8. Repeat steps 3 to 6 until all ink is removed from the spaces between printheads. Use a new cloth wipe, if necessary.
    NOTE

    Check for ink accumulation on the underside at the end of each day. If ink is left to long it will dry and be very difficult to remove.

  9. Slide the maintenance station drawer to the closed position (unless you are going to also perform manual printhead maintenance).
Parent topic:
Maintenance Procedures
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