It's fun, it's cool, it adds a memorable experience to any kind of celebration. Edible ink printers make your wildest dreams possible when it comes to decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies or other desserts. If you are having a party, no matter whatever the occasion is, with edible printed cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, no one with ask for a cherry on the top.
You can print exactly what you want without having to compromise with your choice. However, you must also consider how much edible images you would be printing. If you need a cake topper once a month or once in 3-4months, go for custom edible printing services.
Now, if you are thinking to start decorating confectioneries on a rather regular basis or at least 3-4 times a week, you must have an edible ink printer at your place. Edible printing is quite easy. Just like normal printing, it is done using a printer. However, unlike the normal printer, it uses edible ink that is significantly different. The edible ink is thicker in nature and sticky.
The nature of edible inks causes some obvious problems with the printer, like clogging the printheads. But fret not! Here are some common problems and solutions for your precious edible ink printer.
1. The printer is showing “Out of Ink” notifications
Sometimes the printer machine can give “Out of Ink” or “Error” notifications but you can ignore it unless you start getting inadequate prints. If one or some colors start to be absent from the prints or the compound colors like Orange, Green, etc. start to look fainted, it’s time to refill and reset.
How To Reset The Edible Ink Printer?
- Take out the cartridge
- Turn off the printer
- Unplug the power cord
- Wait for 5~15 seconds
- Plug it back in and turn the printer back on
- Refill and reinstall the cartridges. Our special edible ink cartridges are equipped with auto-reset chips so reinstalling them is all you need to do.
2. Inadequate and Poor-Quality Prints
Inadequate printing quality can be faint prints, missing of a certain color in the print, or no print at all.
What Are The Probable Causes Of Poor-Quality Edible Printing?
- Empty edible ink cartridges
- The clogged printhead in your printer
- Non-Recognition Error with the edible cartridges
- A poor-quality edible paper
Make sure that you are using the correct paper type. Edible icing sheets are usually thicker than standard printing paper and are composed of sugar. And if you are using Icinginks edible sheets, edible ink cartridges, and still facing the issue, the causes are probably the first three.
Check your edible ink cartridges and make sure they are filled. Edible ink cartridges can also get dried. So open the refilling clip and press out 2-3 drops of edible ink from the bottom sponge. Put paper towel beneath while dripping edible ink to avoid dirt on floor or shelf. The ink can be nasty and stain your hands and surrounding surfaces for a long time.
Most of the time empty cartridges are the major cause of scratchy lines which will get clear once you fill edible ink in them. If you examine the full ink levels, check the printing setting.
The print settings should be set at “standard”, “plain paper” as the media type, “high” as the print quality. Also choose the correct paper size. If all these are at place and still you are getting the issue, its time to check your printheads.
How to identify a clogged printhead?
- Run a Print Nozzle Pattern test using your Canon Printer Settings as follows: Setting Or Gear icon>> Maintenance>> “Print Nozzle Pattern”
- Use plain A4 size sheet in the FRONT Cassette of your Printer. You don’t need to waste your edible sheets for this.
Follow These Steps To Clean The Edible Printer Printhead:
Clicking on the “Cleaning” button in the right-hand corner of the Check Pattern window. Next, select “Regular Cleaning” and run this function 2 times and then print another Check Pattern.
- If the patterns are improved, you are making progress and keep running the regular cleaning.
- If this is not enough, take out the edible cartridges from the printer, uplift the bar supporting the printhead in place, and remove the printhead. This step will only be possible if you are using a Canon machine. This is why all experts advise to use Canon machines for edible ink printers.
- Clean the entire printhead with hot water letting the stream into the chambers that the edible cartridges occupy.
- Next, direct the water onto the nozzle plate on the bottom where the edible ink is released when printing.
- Repeat this for 20 minutes or until you see no signs of color from either the chambers or the nozzle plate.
- Dry the printhead using a paper towel. Ensure that the electrical contacts on the rear of the printhead are completely dry before placing the printhead again.
- Next, reinstall the edible ink cartridges and run the “Regular Cleaning” again and then print the Check Pattern to see if the problem is solved.
- If you still see no progress, then you will need an expert’s help.
To have a better look at the solutions, check out our elaborated edible printer guidance with video references.
These above-mentioned issues are usually faced while using the edible printer. However, if you are not sure how to fix the problem or if you face something else, you can always us here at Icinginks at 844-618-6818. Or you can also write to us at [email protected]. One of our customer representatives will reach you in no time and will assist you in the best way possible.
