# Fading white ink... on t-jet 2



## skegrie431 (Oct 31, 2007)

Hi everyone!

I have some problems with one of my T-Jet 2. A couple of times a day my printer starts fading the white ink while printing. Like it´s running low on ink. Then I do a cleaning and the white very strong again. Then it does the same thing after 10-15 shirts...

Any ideas?

/peo


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

This is usually referred to as "ink starvation". It is most often caused by the ink system losing its prime. I would make sure that your capping station is very clean, and is performing properly. I would also make sure that your white ink lines are "kink free" and not partially obstructed. Also, make sure that the breather on your white ink supply is open. If all of these are okay, try lifting your white ink supply bottle a half inch or so, if it helps but is not perfect go up another half inch.

Hope this helps!


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## YoDan (May 4, 2007)

Chances if you have dampers, that they may need cleaning or replacing  
OK I was wrong!
Dan


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

I'm not a full fledged direct to garment guru, but, I'm pretty certain that the T-Jet 2 never came with dampers - only with a cartridge based CISS. It is possible that the cartridges on the CISS may be in need of replacement, but I have not seen this very frequently. Most typically ink starvation comes from a poorly established syphon when using a CISS. The 2200, 1800 and 2400 based systems do not use a pressurized system like the LF models, so they depend on gravity and a syphon to keep a steady supply of ink to the printhead.


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## AaronM (Mar 28, 2007)

It does sound like ink flow issues. I would suggest that you agitate the white ink and raise the bottle up a quarter of a inch. This might have to be adjusted up again depending on the pressure inside your shop.

I do agree with what Don is saying. Your white ink comes back after you do a head cleaning because the 
capping station/pump pulls the ink when a cleaning is done. After that the ink is backflowing into the bottles and up the tubes. 

Once you adjust the bulk system up a little bit and reprime the lines, you should be back to happy printing. Please don't hesitate to contact our support department at [email protected] for further help.


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

Thanks for the correction Aaron, a half inch was a bit zealous. Good to see you up here again. Hope all is well.


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## Peta (Jan 25, 2007)

Hi Peo!

Is the T2 up´n´running again?

Anyway here is some tip regarding starvation or things that can look as it.

Order made as cheapest first ;-)

1. Clean your encoderstrip (minor encoder reading errors cause nozzles to shut down while printing and it can look as starvation).

2. Unplug printer for at least a minute (both power and usb). Restart computer. Then start printer without usb connected. When printer is ready and computer restarted re-attach the usb-cord. (In some rare cases we had a problem with the printer "memory" all bad encoder reading and caused nozzle shut down).

3. Check your pump and Capstation. Flood it with windex and hold down ink button to do a cleaning cycle. It should suck down the windex pretty fast. If not, exchange both pump and cap. Don´t try to clean them, they are so cheap and in a couple of weeks you will have the same problem again.

4. Do the tip Aaron and other people have mentioned with ink levels etc.

If it still does not work I would exchange the cartidges, if you don´t have any new ones you could clean by running HD-cleaner thru them.

Good luck!


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

From our service department experience, your problem is probably the capping assembly. We recommend changing the capping assembly on the T-Jet 1 and T-Jet 2 once a year as a regular maintenance routine. It is a relatively inexpensive part (around $59) and fairly easy to change. Think of it as you would an oil change for your car; just helps insure it runs well. The capping assembly is, in effect, a vacuum cleaner, sucking the ink through the print head. It is a wear part and if its performance is compromised you will get symptoms like you describe. Make sure you change out the entire assembly (capping station, pump, and wipers), not just an individual component. I also recommend that you make sure it's sent to you put together so that there is no chance of you assembling it wrong.

Harry


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## skegrie431 (Oct 31, 2007)

Thanks for all the answers, Will do a major cleaning of the whole printer tomorrow and hopefully it will work correct again. Otherwise, you will have a call soon Peta...


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

> Clean your encoderstrip (minor encoder reading errors cause nozzles to shut down while printing and it can look as starvation).


I've never heard this one before - can anyone else confirm that this is indeed correct?  (Not to question your reliability Peta, just wanted top be sure about this one!)


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## Peta (Jan 25, 2007)

Don-SWF East said:


> I've never heard this one before - can anyone else confirm that this is indeed correct? (Not to question your reliability Peta, just wanted top be sure about this one!)


I can confirm myself ;-) 

We got this problem on a 100-shirt order when we had done 30-35 shirts.

If you look at the printing it looks like thin stripes, almost as the head is ruined or clogged. And when printing a nozzlecheck (without doing a headcleaning first) sevaral nozzles have been shutdown.

Then I´ve tried to change pump, cap and even printhead. It worked for 8-10 shirts then "starvation" againg. Did a headclean by pressing down "INK". Then it worked for 6-8 shirts and so on until we could do 2-3-4 shirts before headcleaning. Also tried to restart printer and unplug it for several minutes. And then I cleaned the encoderstrip with windex..... VOILA! Printed another 50 shirts without any problems.

Why didn´t we cleaned the strip before changing head?? Now we would do that, back then we had alot to learn in this industry.


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## davitos (Sep 5, 2007)

i can confirm that too.
we printed 60 shirts today and got problems with underbase after 50 shirts. doing headcleanings "solved" the problem temporarily. we cleaned capping etc did nozzle checks - same fading white (seemed there were likke gaps between the white lines printed). then we cleaned encoder strip and indeed - all whites were fireing properly.


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## rom3ro (May 7, 2018)

Somebody can tell me what part of the printer are the encoder strip??


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