Codeology i100M Montageanleitung
www.codeology.com
Codeology Ltd
Unit 5 Portway Business Centre
Castlegate Business Park
Old Sarum
Salisbury
SP4 6Q
Tel: 01722 322244 Fax: 01722 322324 Email: [email protected]
Registered in England number 5420692 Page 1
i100M Inkjet Printer
Instructions for Operation and Maintenance
Page 2
Safety First
Use goggles when carrying out maintenance of the ink jet. The unit fires ink when the photocell
is triggered by boxes or by operators hands or clothing. Avoid working in front of the print head
with the power switched on unless you need to.
Mains voltages are present within the base unit. Work according to accepted safe practices
whenever the internal power supply modules are exposed.
MEK based ink is flammable. Keep away from sources of heat and ignition. Ink should be stored
in accordance with the regulations appropriate to your factory and environment. Dispose of
used inks according to your local authority regulations; do not dispose of used ink by pouring it
into the drainage network.
The printer incorporates its own air pump and supply. DO NOT CONNECT THIS S STEM TO
THE MAINS AIR AS THERE IS A RISK OF THE INK BOTTLE EXPLODING AT PRESSURES
OVER 15 PSI/1bar.
WAIT TEN SECONDS AFTER SWITCHING THE UNIT OFF BEFORE COMMENCING AN
WORK TO ALLOW THE POWER SUPPL CAPACITORS TO DISCHARGE.
Contents
Safety First .................................................................................................................................2
A tour through the system .......................................................................................................3
Printer Operation Overview.........................................................................................................5
Installation ..................................................................................................................................6
Connecting everything up......................................................................................................10
Cable positioning...................................................................................................................10
Commissioning the print heads .............................................................................................11
Setting up the first print .........................................................................................................11
Running in.............................................................................................................................12
Maintenance.............................................................................................................................13
At the end of each shift..........................................................................................................13
Every 12 months (every 6 months in dusty environments) ....................................................13
Purging .................................................................................................................................13
Advanced Maintenance.........................................................................................................14
Nozzle Plate Cleaning...........................................................................................................14
Head valve adjustment..........................................................................................................14
Warning, Delicate Parts Inside: Incorrect valve adjustment can destroy the print head .........14
Replacing Ink Bottles ............................................................................................................15
Troubleshooting........................................................................................................................16
No print .................................................................................................................................16
Dots missing .........................................................................................................................16
Hand Controller Operation........................................................................................................17
Quick Reference Sheet.............................................................................................................18
Page 3
Print Head
MEK Ink Cap
Air Pump Panel
PSU Panel
5L Ink Bottle
Overview
The i100 ink jet printer is a microprocessor controlled printer for marking cardboard boxes,
timber, concrete blocks, shrink-wrap and similar items. It operates by firing solenoid valves in a
particular sequence in front of a moving product. As the valves open, they release pressurised
ink through a series of tubes and nozzles. The valves open very quickly, so the ink is ejected as
a droplet. By opening the valves in the correct sequence at the correct speed, words are formed
from the droplets on the product as it moves past the print head
A tour through the system
The fluid used to print is ink. The clear fluid used to flush and clean the system is cleaner or
flushing fluid.
The ink is supplied from a base unit. The base unit houses the
power supply PSU Panel (with integral control electronics) and
the air pump in the air panel. The 5 litre ink bottle sits on the
front of the base unit. The air pump pressurises the ink bottle via
the 5 litre ink cap.
The pressurised ink is fed up the ink tube (with quick disconnect
[QD/06M] fitting at each end) to the print head.
Page 4
In the print head, the ink passes through a female QD/05M fitting, through a filter IF/02 and into
the print head.
The valves are controlled from the control unit via a print head cable. The print sequence is
triggered by a photocell detecting the box. The time waited between the photocell triggering
and the print starting is called the print delay. The time that each valve is opened is called the
dot size. How fast each dot follows the previous one is controlled by the speed.
The final print quality is controlled by the speed, the dot size and the air pressure. It is also
greatly affected by how clean the print head chambers and nozzle plates are and how much ink
flow the filter is allowing. It will help to purge the system on a regular basis, and carefully spray
the nozzle plate with cleaner to remove debris. The ink pressure is factory set and is not
adjustable.
There are various other parameters available that control direction or
orientation of print (described on the quick reference sheet) that generally
will not need to be altered after installation.
Print head
cable
QD/05M Ink Connector
Ink Filter Housing
FITTING
Print Head
Buffer Plate
Page 5
Printer Operation Overview
The PSU and Controller Panel houses the microprocessor, memory and real-time clock. Print
head cables plug directly into the panel. The i100 is capable of running one or two lines of print
allowing you to run either one 16 dot twin-line print head on one side of your product, or
alternatively two single lines print heads coding on both sides of your product. If you need to
code more that two lines of print, Codeology have a range of printers to enable you to do this.
The controller holds 101 printing messages of two lines, any of which can be selected from the
hand controller or via ethernet. Messages can contain fixed text or variable time, date,
expiration dates or counts all of which can be updated automatically within the controller.
The i100M is controlled by either a k100 Hand Held Controller, or via a serial or Ethernet cable
from a PC running Codeology iText control software. Hand Controller operation is covered in
more detail towards the end of the manual. A quick reference sheet is also included in the
manual for easy navigating around the keyboard. It is useful to laminate the quick reference
sheet and keep it near the machine for the first few weeks until operators get used to the
keyboard commands.
For operation using the iText software, refer to the iText instruction manual
Page 6
Installation
Decide on an installation point for the printer and head.
The head is mounted using the separate MF/01 mount bracket.
For installations with two print heads, one each side of your product, you will need two MF/01
mount brackets.
The print head to printer cables, photocell cables and ink lines are 1 or 2 metres as standard.
Ensure that the cables will reach from the base unit to the print head(s) without strain.
Aim to place the printer base near to the head and slightly below it with the top of the ink bottle
ideally no more than 0.5m below the top of the print head (as shown by the picture on the left). If
the ink bottle is too low it will reduce the effective ink pressure at the head which can affect the
print quality.
The print head should be mounted so that it rubs gently along the face of your product.
Standard brackets are supplied to allow you to print on a vertical face, if you wish to print on a
horizontal face (the top or bottom of timber sheets for example) special brackets are available
from Codeology.
MF/01 Mount Bracket
I100m head mounted on an
MF/01 bracket
Page 7
Place the print head on a section of conveyor that adheres to the following rules (in order of
importance):
• Ensure the product is guided so that it just brushes the head.
• Allow for broken or misaligned products - the guiding should deflect these from the head
rather than allowing them to crash into it.
• Products should not stop in front of the head.
• Products should have a gap between them of at least 25mm.
• Conveyor speed is no more than 28 m/min (the slower the speed the easier to maintain
good print quality).
• Conveyor speed is fixed, not accelerating or decelerating.
• Pick a flat section of conveyor. Any deviations in the conveyor bed will transfer to the
print, giving wavy and uneven print.
• Driven belts (i.e. case tapers) are preferable to roller conveyors to ensure smooth
product drive and maintain optimum print quality.
Decide on a position to mount the photocell product detector. The standard photocell is a
diffuse reflective type (that is it ‘sees’ reflections from a product appearing in front of it). A retro-
reflective type that uses a reflector as a mirror (that sees a product as an interruption between it
and the reflector) is available from Codeology where diffuse reflective will not work.
The photocell bracket fits to the ink filter assembly which can be assembled on either the left or
right hand side of the print head mounting brackets. Place it on the leading edge of the print
head so that the photocell ‘sees’ the product before it reaches the head.
Place the photocell so that it adheres to the following rules:
• The photocell face is at least 25mm from your product
• It should face plain, unprinted, unbroken areas of the product. Holes in cardboard boxes,
large areas of pre-print, and spaces between yoghurt pots or bottles will all be seen as
gaps between products.
• Do not place it so that it looks directly across the conveyor at any other photocell (of any
type) as they may trigger each other.
Ensure that the buffer plate is positioned on the leading edge of the print head. If it is on the
trailing edge you will need to dismantle the ink filter and head mounting bracket and re-
assemble as a mirror image.
Page 8
Page 9
i100 Mounting Bracket Dimensions and Hole Centres
Page 10
Connecting everything up.
Connect the photocell to the control unit.
If any cables have ferrite beads fitted, fit the cables so that
the ferrites are at the printer base end.
Remove the transit cap and the inductive seal from the ink
bottle. Screw the ink cap firmly onto the bottle but do not
overtighten. The cap O-ring will maintain a tight seal with the
cap hand-tight. Secure the bottle on the printer unit by
hooking the bottle handle over the lip on the top of the base.
For a single line print head,
connect the print head
cable to the PSU Panel,
using the connector shown
here as Head/Line 1.
Connect the other end to
the print head.
For two single line print heads, connect the first print head cable to the Head/Line 1 on the
control unit. Connect the other end to one print head, this will be head 1. Connect the second
print head cable to the Head/Line 2 connector on the control unit. Connect the other end to the
second print head, this will be head 2. Either head can be positioned on either side of the
conveyor.
If you have a hand controller or PC with serial cable, connect the serial cable to the top
connector on the printer base.
Connect the air line on the printer base to the air connector on the ink bottle. DO NOT
CONNECT THIS S STEM TO THE MAINS AIR AS THERE IS A RISK OF THE INK BOTTLE
EXPLODING AT PRESSURES OVER 15 PSI/1bar.
Connect the ink line to the ink cap but DO NOT connect it to the print head yet. If you have two
print heads you will have a y-piece in your ink line. The single section of the ink tube connects
to the bottle, the two identical lengths go to the print heads.
Finally connect the mains power cable. The unit will always be supplied for 240V 50Hz
operation unless you have specified otherwise at the time of order. There is a jumper setting
internally on the power supply to allow you to change this if necessary.
Cable positioning
Strap cables and ink lines out of the way
of passing pedestrians or pallet trolleys.
Do not leave loops of cables dangling
where brooms can catch them during
cleaning. Cable tie the photocell, head
cables and ink lines together.
DO NOT coil any excess mains, photocell
or print head cables. This makes an aerial
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