Ricoh Ri 3000 - 2: Maintenance of White Ink

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added procedures. Refer to the basic white garment printing process prior to learning the black garment
printing process. This chapter addresses only those features unique to black garment printing. The basic
process is as follows:
 Pre-treat the garment with Ricoh authorized Pre-treatment Liquid. You only need to pretreat the
area you will print on.
 Allow the pre-treatment to dry.
 Before printing press garment for 5 seconds to flatten and stray fibers and remove wrinkles.
 Place the dark garment on the Print Table.
 Send the print job from the PC, using the Ri 3000 or Ri 6000 AnaRIP program or load the print job
from a USB drive.
 Press the <PRINT> button when the blue Print Ready LED lights up to print the white ink
Undercoating.
 When white ink undercoating is completed the printer will then automatically print the color
layer.
 Upon completion of the print, fix the ink onto the garment with a heat press or conveyer dryer.
Dark garment printing with white ink is a more involved process than light garment printing. This is
particularly true with the print image preparation and print settings. It is very desirable for the operator
to practice printing dark garments before he starts using the system for commercial printing of dark
garments.
2: Maintenance of White Ink
Although Ricoh authorized white ink performs better than any other competitive products for printing
dark shirts and the Ri 3000 and Ri 6000 printers require less maintenance compared to other printers,
today’s direct to garment white inks still require a fair amount of maintenance. (See the Technical Notes
in Section 3 below.)
The garments should never touch the Print Head or Nozzle Plate as it can scratch the Nozzle Plate
Coating or cause clogging of the nozzles. This is particularly true when printing with black garments
sprayed with Pre- treatment Liquid. Before printing, check the Print Table Height to ensure that the
garments will not touch the Print Head Nozzle Plates.
Printer maintenance takes on added importance when the printer is used for dark garment printing. The
white ink contains a higher percentage of solids than colored inks, resulting in more ink residues
accumulating on and around the Print Head, Wiper Blade and Maintenance Station. When white ink is
used, the white residues accumulating around the Maintenance Station and Nozzle Plate may cause the
Maintenance Station not to seal properly during cleaning cycles. This accumulation of foreign materials
will tend to clog the Print Head and shorten its life unless they are maintained regularly.