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C88 direct inkjet printing

2007-02-03 by wnnelson0

I have completed a test board which I took pictures of and posted in 
the photos section under C88 Test PCB. I think the biggest step to 
getting a good ink transfer was preheating the PCB before printing. I 
used a small heat gun my wife uses for stamping. I warmed it up to 
about 75C. With the heating I did not get any pooling of the ink 
which I had before. I believe Stephan was saying he had pooling too. 
I think this must allow some of the ink to dry before more is put on 
top.  What time of the year was Volkan printing maybe the boards were 
warmer to start with (summer)? Printing in black but with all carts 
magenta (EPSON TO603)works great. I get a very good layer of ink. 
After etching the ink still looks the same. It will not come off with 
a casual wipe with acetone but will mostly come off with continued 
scrubing with acetone. The curing is almost the same as Stephans. I 
am giving it a little more heat 240C to 245C and a little more time 5 
minutes than I did in the photos.  I have given it up to 20 minutes 
of time and it still worked fine but the epoxy was getting very 
brown. All the traces were very good with no breaks down to what 
Eagle says is .001 in. on the PCB. I'm not sure if the Epson is 
really printing that small as it is hard to measure. The photos are 
not as good as I would have liked but the light meter was not working 
in the camera and it was hard to get good light on the board when the 
macro lens was so close. I beleive that this is a very good start for 
me and I will have pictures of completed boards in the future. I will 
also post some pictures of the printer but it is very much like 
Stephans. The C88 appears to be the same as as a C84

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