Fisrt drop after prim the ink

[BrunoD]

Hi,

I am using the Voltera to print some materials from our own ink. I am filling the cartridge with our mixture of a wet powder (= ink). Prior to installation on the printer, i do the operation “prim the ink” as it is a silver conductive ink. The first drop is very big so i need to stop and to wipe the substrate. After it works, the flow rate is correct to draw my lines patterns.
Please note that my ink is much less viscous than the flexible Voltera ink.

Do you have any tip to avoid this hugde flow at the starting (by changing some ink parameters as kick, Rheological set point, the way to install the cartridge ,)

Thanks for helps.

[mewertow]

Hi @BrunoD,

Can you please clarify - is the large drop collecting on the nozzle before the print, or is it just that a lot of ink comes out on the first line?

If there is constantly material dripping from the nozzle even when you’re not printing, then this is what we call ‘leakage’ - the first thing to do to mitigate this issue is to try using a smaller nozzle size, and then we can continue to debug from there.

If it’s just that there’s a lot of material dispensed on the very first line, that means that your ‘kick’ value is too large - simply open the settings window and reduce your ‘kick’ parameter. Try reducing it to 0.2 and see how that works.

Hope that helps!

[BrunoD]

Hi,

Thanks for your answer.
No, it is not a continuous leakage as after this first flow i can draw some lines :

I will try to tune this Kick parametrer but I need to produce new "ink"
I have forgotten to say that i am using the red cap. Is there a big effect between red and white cap ?

[mewertow]

Hi BrunoD,

Great, in that case it sounds like you only need to adjust the Kick parameter.

Our software team is working on adding custom ink profiles to the software, I’ll poke @troy in case he wants to comment.

In the meantime, I suggest modifying an ink profile that you’re unlikely to use day-to-day - for example, open the settings window, then select the EXP ink profile, and modify the parameters to match what you’re using. You can always revert to the default settings in the ink profile, if you’d like.

We suggest using the red wiper if the ink you’re using has a tendency to leak through into the syringe barrel, but the downside is that it can increase the ‘leakage’ of the ink. Since your ink isn’t seeing any leakage anyway, it sounds like there shouldn’t be any issues for you.

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

[BrunoD]

Hi,
Following your advice, I have tuned the Kick parameter and it works.
I need to decrease it to 0.12 value. So for the ones as me who are working with Voltera to deposit some materials : a large change of values could be required.
Thanks for your helpfull support.