Troubleshooting the Texjet ShorTEE Garment Printer

Troubleshooting

GENERAL PROBLEMS

 

Problem:

After you print the image the color looks great, but after you fix it, the print looks dull.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The temperature is set too high on the heat press.

Make sure you test the temperature using heat test strips or a heat gun. If the temperature is too hot, it could scorch the shirts and the ink.

There is too much pressure being applied to the shirt during fixing.

When heat pressing your shirts, make sure you do not apply too much pressure. You should not have to put a lot of pressure to clamp the heat press down.

The wrong type of paper used to protect the shirt when using a Heat Press for final fixation.

Make sure the paper that is used for fixing is either a Teflon pad or Silicone treated paper. We recommend our protective sheets.

 

Prevention:

Get to know your heat press. Frequently test the temperature to make sure that what it is set to be actually the heating temperature.

 

Problem:

The printed colors do not look correct. They do not look like what you see on your monitor.

 

Causes and Solutions:

Your printhead nozzles could be clogged.

Run a nozzle check on a piece of clear film to see how the nozzles are firing. Do a daily maintenance. Run a head cleaning and a nozzle check in repetition to see improvement. Use a powerful cleaning and a nozzle check in repetition to see improvement.

See for Printhead clogging problems.

On the photo, the image has been attached to another ICC Profile from its embedded.

Picking another profile with a smaller gamut, like sRGB, can limit the number of colors you can print. Picking a profile with a larger gamut space like Kodak Pro Photo RGB can lead to false expectations or “neon” like colors on output. For the RGB, CMYK, and Gray photos you need to select always “Preserve Embedded Profiles”. This ensures that Photoshop does not automatically convert or alter your files in any way. The thing to think about here is that the more you “convert” your files to other spaces the progressively more you can “degrade” the image.

You have a vector image with an ICC profile or in RGB mode.

When working with vector images in Corel Draw always work in CMYK mode and while exporting the file into TIFF uncheck the Apply ICC Profile option and save it as CMYK to obtain the given colors from the printer.

 

Prevention:

Usually, when a color prints out wrong it is because a nozzle is clogged. If you are trying to print out an orange image but all that prints out is yellow, then that means the magenta is clogged and that pigment can’t mix to produce the orange. The biggest part of your Texjet ShorTee is to check for, is the capping station. Make sure this ALWAYS stays clean. The print head uses this to the dock when the printer is not in use to ensure the print heads do not dry out. The print head also uses this during a head cleaning. If the capping station is dirty, the printer cannot do a head cleaning properly, thus not working out the nozzle clog.

 

Problem:

The printed image is wiping off, washing out, fading badly or bleeding.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The garment was improperly fixed.

Inks need to be brought up to approx. 150-180 degrees C. for 180 - 240 seconds for white and for darker garments.

Too much or too little pressure applied when heat pressing.

When pressing the garment in the heat press the top of the heat press should gently rest over the silicone paper. This allows the moisture of the inks to escape and properly fix.

The temperature of the heat press is not correct (Either too hot or too cold).

Make sure the heat press is heating up evenly or correctly. (Should be 150-180 degrees C) You can test this with a touch less infrared thermometer or heat testing strips.

Pretreatment improperly applied.

Pretreatment may still be wet. Simply fix longer. Poorly pre-treated? Apply more pretreatment on successive shirts and fix again. Too much pretreatment. Use less pretreatment in the future. See pretreatment on dark and colored textiles.

Type of fabric being printed.

For best results print onto 100% cotton! With 100% colors will look their best. For blends of cotton and polyester ink needs needed to be fixed quickly to reduce possible bleeding.

How the garment is being washed.

Wash at maximum 40ºC inside out preferable with liquid detergents and delicate dryer settings.

 

Prevention:

Make sure heat press is heating up evenly and correctly. Heat press should lightly press the garment. Pre-treat evenly and away from the printer. Fix Pre-treat properly.

 

Problem:

You got the message You need to replace the following ink cartridges.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The cartridge chips need to be reset.

Remove the cartridge indicated with the failure and put it back in the slot of the printer. Close the cartridge cover and accept the non-genuine message. For more information read the instructions for resetting the chips in the manual Prevention: Don’t let the maintenance tank to fall below 50%.

 

Problem:

Lights are flashing on the Keypad.

Causes and Solutions:

Green power light flashes.

The printer is receiving data, charging ink, or cleaning the printer head. This is a normal function.

Red limit light is flashing.

The height limit has been reached. Lower the table and press the home button on the keypad to continue operation.

Red error light is flashing.

The printer did a fatal operation. Switch off the printer and start it again. If this happens again at the startup see for problem-solving at startup.

 

Problem:

Empty the maintenance bottle and press any key.

Causes and Solutions:

The maintenance bottle is full of ink.

Empty the maintenance bottle, place it back empty and press any key on the keypad.

 

Problem:

You got the message “close the printer cover”

Causes and Solutions:

There is a pending print job and the printer is not ready to print.

Check that your table (platen) is in the home position. Press the Home button to send the table to home position

 

Prevention:

Before sending the print job to ensure that the table platen is always in home position

 

PRINTING PROBLEMS

Problem:

When sending a print command to the Texjet ShorTee printer the Print Head moves like it is printing but no ink sprays out.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The printer needs head cleaning.

Do head cleaning and printing nozzle checks until a decent nozzle check is achieved. Perform a powerful cleaning circle and check if a decent nozzle check is achieved. If not, see Print head clogging problems.

The dampers are faulty or exceeded their period of time.

Order replacement dampers Please contact service personnel.

Capping Station Clogged.

The capping station may need cleaning. If the printing head did not seat properly, all of the print heads could be clogged. Please contact service personnel.

Ink is not flowing from the Cartridge.

The Print Head move like it is printing but no ink sprays out. This is caused by a vacuum is being created in the Cartridge. Remove the cartridges and clean it, or order a cartridge replacement. Please contact service personnel.

Ribbon cable to the print head is burnt or not connected.

This can happen if you replaced a print head and did not make sure the cable was attached properly. Please contact service personnel.

Main Board is bad.

There is a chance the main board in the printer is bad. The board could have a defect. Please contact service personnel.

 

Problem:

The printer is not responding to a print job.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The printer is not ready to print the job.

Check at your printers display if you get the message ready.

There is a connection problem.

Check your USB connection. Remove the USB cable and put it again.

There is a communication error between your Texjet ShorTee and your computer.

Restart the printer and the computer to ensure that all pending jobs have been deleted.

 

Prevention:

Never use a long USB cable or switch boxes or hubs with big loads of traffic. Make sure always to stop your print job in the correct way without leaving any print jobs in the spooler.

 

Problem:

There is horizontal banding across print (in one or all colors).

 

Causes and Solutions:

You are using a low (360 dpi) Print Mode.

Use a default (720dpi) Print Mode. A 360 dpi Print Mode is the fastest but lowest quality where head clogs or misalignment will show as banding.

The capping station is dirty and either not cleaning the print head completely or adding more debris to the print head and causing the print head to become clogged.

Thoroughly clean the capping station. It can be cleaned with swabs and cleaner. Be sure to clean the plastic around the foam pad as this is where the print head will rest when the printer is not in use. Also be sure to clean the rubber wiper blades as these wipe excess ink and debris off the print head and will accumulate said ink and debris.

Ink in the nozzle opening has dried out from exposure to air for an extended period.

Do head cleaning and printing nozzle checks until a decent nozzle check is achieved. Perform a powerful cleaning circle and check if a decent nozzle check is achieved. A serious or permanent clog of the head may require replacing the print head. Please contact service personnel.

 

Prevention:

Perform the basic and weekly maintenance task according to the intervals given in the description Run head cleanings before printing in the morning as well as printing nozzle checks to gauge the status of printhead prior to printing onto garments.

 

Problem:

The quality of the printed output is unacceptable when printing images. The images seem soft and are not clean and sharp. The resolution at the final size is in 72dpi.

Causes and Solutions:

The resolution of the image is too low.

Resolution at 72dpi is for viewing the image on a computer monitor only. Images which are intended for printing need to be a high resolution. If the image is not at a resolution between 120dpi and 300 dpi this causes the image not to have a good number of pixels, therefore, losing detail when the image is printed out. You can try upsampling the image to a larger resolution but the image still will be “soft” when printed.

 

Problem:

The print head is leaking ink and dripping ink all over the garments.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The print head was damaged by crashing into shirt plate, print bed etc.

Order replacement print head.

The capping station is dirty and either not cleaning the print head completely or adding more debris to the print head and causing fibers and debris to collect ink and ooze or drip ink.

Thoroughly clean the capping station.

Debris or shirt fibers collected on printhead as well as printhead carriage.

Using the reflection from the print bed gently clean the bottom of the print head and remove any debris, dried ink and fibers.

Too much ink in the cartridges.

If your cartridges are filled too much with ink, there could be too much pressure in the cartridge ink lines and the ink is forced out of the print head. The cartridges should be filled below the maximum ink limit.

Altitude can have an effect.

High altitudes can also have an effect on the “pressure” in the system. If you are having an unusual amount of problems and are in high altitudes, don’t fill the system too full and try adjusting the height of the system.

The printer is not level

A not leveled printer has as result not leveled cartridges. This can also have an effect on the “pressure” in the system. Check your printer if it is well leveled.

Faulty cartridges

Change cartridges Please contact service personnel.

The dampers are faulty or exceeded their period of time. Order replacement dampers Please contact service personnel.

Prevention:

Always check the height of printhead prior to printing. Clean the capping station on a regular basis. Clean debris from print head daily. Keep your printer leveled. Don’t fill too much the ink cartridges.

 

Problem:

Printhead clogging problems.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The capping station is dirty and either not cleaning the print head completely or adding more debris to the print head and causing the printhead to become clogged.

Thoroughly clean the capping station. It can be cleaned with swabs and cleaner. Be sure to clean the plastic around the foam pad as this is where the print head will rest when the printer is not in use. Also be sure to clean the rubber wiper blades as these wipe excess ink and debris off the print head and will accumulate said ink and debris.

Ink in the nozzle opening has dried out from exposure to air for an extended period.

Do head cleaning and printing nozzle checks until a decent nozzle check is achieved. Perform a powerful cleaning circle and check if a decent nozzle check is achieved. A serious or permanent clog of the head may require replacing the print head. Please contact service personnel.

The print head was damaged by crashing into shirt plate, print plate or pre-treated shirt etc.

Order replacement print head. Please contact service personnel.

 

Prevention:

Perform the basic maintenance task according to the intervals given in the description Run head cleanings before printing in the morning as well as printing nozzle checks to gauge the status of the printhead prior to printing onto garments. The pre-treated fabric must not touch the printer head, as the ink and pre-treatment will react upon the head surface, potentially blocking nozzles. If this happens clean the Printhead immediately with alcohol. In the daily operation of your printer, observe the correct procedures for the loading of material onto your printer.

Problem:

You decided to stop the print, but don’t know how.

 

Causes and Solutions:

Immediate to stop the printing.

Switch off the printer from the green switch

To cancel the printing.

Press cancel printing on the touch panel of the printer Cancel the job and all other pending jobs from the printer spooler in the windows control panel. Check that the jobs are deleted.

 

STARTUP PROBLEMS

 

Problem:

The plate moves and stops. The red limit light is on.

 

Causes and Solutions:

The plate height has exceeded its maximum. Lower the table until the red light switches off and press any key on the keyboard.