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Care Card
A care card for South African large-format teams, with daily checks for heads, capping, wipers, ink lines, and media handling.
What A Care Card Covers On Print Floors
Use the Care Card at the machine before the first print of the day. It prompts the operator to inspect nozzles, capping tops, wiper condition, ink feed and media loading so small faults are recorded before they turn into wasted vinyl, banner or paper.
Start the card with the printer name, media loaded and the date on the job. In Gauteng, dust build-up can change wiping and nozzle recovery, while Durban humidity can affect how media sits and advances. Load-shedding should also be noted if the printer stopped mid-clean or mid-pass.
Add clear photos of the carriage area, capping station and the print from the first check. Those images help when colour moves unexpectedly or a cartridge change is followed by banding. Keep the card near the printer or save it with the day’s production notes for the next shift.
Daily checks worth recording
A filled-in card creates a usable record of what was seen, what was cleaned and what changed on the machine. That makes it easier to match later colour trouble to an actual event such as a head strike, a weak channel or a media feed issue.
- Nozzle check noted before production
- Head, cap and wiper condition logged
- Photos attached with machine identification
Checks for South African conditions
Shops in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town do not all face the same print-room conditions. Dry inland air, coastal moisture, courier cut-offs and mixed power supply all affect when a test print should be repeated and when a cleaning cycle needs to be written down.
Record if media edges lifted, if static was present or if the take-up behaved unevenly. Note any restart after a power cut, because interrupted purges and parked heads can change the next nozzle result. Short details like these are often more useful than a broad fault description.
Operated by Astros Marketing (Pty) Ltd from 2 Makro Place, Sunnyrock 1401.
What to send with it
Send the Care Card with printer photos, the job date, and notes on failed profiles, colour shifts or cartridge issues. Use a plain subject line that names the machine.
Attach the Care Card with one readable nozzle check, a photo of the loaded media and any settings used for the run. If a profile failed, mention which file was tried and whether the issue appeared as a cast, weak density or broken gradation.
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