Ceramic Printer Advise

[felix3232]

Hi,

 

Newbie @ the forum but excited to be learning from you all.

I am after a ceramic water-slide decal printer.  I have just opened up a shop and want to be making my own china sets that would be sold as wholesale to country clubs, hotels, ...

I do have a fairly large facility and the staff to support an operation to produce 2-5,000 custom plates per week.

I have bought enduring images largest printer and it has been a nightmare to say the least.

This week I am traveling to Tampa to look into cerprint.

Any other printers/companies that you might be aware of that I should look into?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

[Min]

Hi Felix and welcome to the forum.

I moved your question over to this section. Hopefully someone will chime in but it’s a subject that I can’t recall coming up before. You could try doing a search from the home page though.

I am going to delete your duplicate post.

[felix3232]

sounds great, thank you

i did search and no solid conversations/details came up

 

 

[PeterH]

15 hours ago, felix3232 said:

I have bought enduring images largest printer and it has been a nightmare to say the least.

Can you say where in the process you are having problems?

Digital ceramic print and decal process https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=455272361928046

[felix3232]

7 minutes ago, PeterH said:

Can you say where in the process you are having problems?

Digital ceramic print and decal process https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=455272361928046

my problem is in getting the drums to "talk" to the printer properly, I am 6 months into it and yet to print 1 successful plate

I am familiar with the video you shared, enduring images is a great company

 

[oldlady]

since you appear to have spent a lot of time doing it one way, would it be worth a trip to the manufacturer or to pay for one of their experts to fly to you and get a hands on lesson?

[felix3232]

4 minutes ago, oldlady said:

since you appear to have spent a lot of time doing it one way, would it be worth a trip to the manufacturer or to pay for one of their experts to fly to you and get a hands on lesson?

true, will do thanks

[PeterH]

@oldlady+

Not saying it's your problem, but damage/misalignment during transit can  result in hard to diagnose problems. As I found out with my last (non ceramic) laser printer purchase.

PS Eventually found the solution in user feedback on an amazon page of all places. You may find it interesting/amusing.
look for Unstoppable Paper Jam notification on first run!!!! >>>>Here is the Solution<<<< in
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xerox-6510-DNI-Phaser/product-reviews/B01N012SZM

[PeterH]

@felix3232 My interpretation of  your problem is that the decals aren't getting printed right, rather than aren't firing well. Can you confirm this?

20 hours ago, oldlady said:

since you appear to have spent a lot of time doing it one way, would it be worth a trip to the manufacturer or to pay for one of their experts to fly to you and get a hands on lesson?

It may be simpler/more-local than that.

Enduring Image printers seem to be re-badged Ricoh printers.

The Enduring Image help-desk seems to only handle problems specific to the ceramic pigments used (e.g. firing advice?).

They recommend/will-pass-you-over-to  the Rocoh help-desk for printer-related support. Which seems to be what the OP might need. And surely Ricoh will have more locally based support staff (if their help-desk cannot resolve the issue). 

See Preventive or Reactive Ceramic Printer Maintenance? – Part 2 in https://www.ceramicprinting.com/blog/

[felix3232]

5 minutes ago, PeterH said:

@felix3232 My interpretation of  your problem is that the decals aren't getting printed right, rather than aren't firing well. Can you confirm this?

It may be simpler/more-local than that.

Enduring Image printers seem to be re-badged Ricoh printers.

The Enduring Image help-desk seems to only handle problems specific to the ceramic pigments used (e.g. firing advice?).

They recommend/will-pass-you-over-to  the Rocoh help-desk for printer-related support. Which seems to be what the OP might need. And surely Ricoh will have more locally based support staff (if their help-desk cannot resolve the issue). 

See Preventive or Reactive Ceramic Printer Maintenance? – Part 2 in https://www.ceramicprinting.com/blog/

Hi,

You are correct, the decals are not printing.

Support at enduring images has been helpful but still no results so I am shipping my printer to them to analyze.

I am really interested in other ceramic printers, do you have a recommendation?

 

 

[PeterH]

7 minutes ago, felix3232 said:

Hi,

You are correct, the decals are not printing.

Support at enduring images has been helpful but still no results so I am shipping my printer to them to analyze.

I am really interested in other ceramic printers, do you have a recommendation?

Sorry I have no experience with ceramic printers.

But if you have only been in contact with enduring images so far sending the printer back to them may not be the optimum move ...

Here is the official Ricoh policy on servicing Enduring Images ceramic printers:

“The full Ricoh warranty can be found on the Ricoh web site at www.ricoh-usa.com. In summary, Ricoh printers include a standard one year Ricoh warranty including parts and labor. There are 2 exceptions. The Photoconductor Units (PCUs) and the Intermediate Transfer Unit (ITU) are limited to 90 days. For Ricoh printers sold by Enduring Images, the standard Ricoh warranty applies except that there is no warranty at all on the PCUs and ITU. So, within the first year of ownership, Enduring Images customers can expect full warranty repairs on the printer except for any failure of the PCUs and ITU. Those devices will be replaced at the customers expense, or covered by Enduring Images, but there is no Ricoh Warranty of any kind on those components in an Enduring Images ceramic printing system.

After the expiration of the one year warranty period, any Ricoh service office or 3rd party Ricoh Authorized Service Provider can repair Enduring Images printers on a T&M basis (at standard rates). Because they are not modified in any way (except the toner) all standard Ricoh repair procedures are applicable.” Sounds simple. The underlying premise is that any part of the printer that contacts ceramic toner cannot be warranted because the result of that contact has not been studied and is unpredictable.

For reference, the components that contact the toner are: toner cylinders, toner feed system, photoconductor units (PCUs), image transfer unit (ITU), and fuser assembly. The PCUs and the ITU only get a 90 day warranty from Ricoh, so they are essentially exempt from Ricoh’s warranty too. This is because statistically those are the components that break. But there are some techs and field service offices that will simply walk away from making any repairs if they learn ceramic toner and not Ricoh toner is in the device. Again, rare but call us if this happens. You can minimize any delay in repair if you have an authorized 3rd party service provider near you. They don’t care so much about policy but want to provide good service so that you call them next time and not Ricoh. Find one. They can be your best friend at the worst time.

Problems occur when your Ricoh tech has never heard of Enduring Images. If you can avoid discussing ceramic toner then do so, because this will prevent confusion on the part of the service tech. If it never comes up, the service tech will fix the printer like any printer. But if it does come up, and it will if the part is covered in ceramic pigment, you should be prepared to give the tech the statement above. If they have any questions about it have them call us. It is rare that a service tech will care about the toner in the printer unless it is in contact with the component suspected of causing the problem. If the tech deems that the toner is causing the problem, then they can charge for repairs that otherwise would be covered by the one year warranty. After the one year, it no longer matters since all repairs are T&M and why would they care. T&M work is a good gig. So this issue is primarily relevant during the warranty period. Again, call us if it surfaces after the warranty and a tech decides they don’t want to repair a ceramic printer. This is contrary to policy but does happen, and it can take several weeks to resolve the misunderstanding.

We generally cover all of this during training, but it looks like we have missed it for a number of customers. We’ll do better in the future and will make sure it is part of training videos. I hope this blog helps everyone else.