Tips for V-One Users (Migrating to NOVA)
Table of Contents:
As a V-One user transitioning over to NOVA, you’ll notice a ton of improvements to the workflows and capabilities of the machine. With that, there may be a few old habits you’ll need to break to have a great experience with NOVA. Here are a few we’ve come across as avid users of the V-One ourselves.
General Workflows
Turning on the vacuum
When mounting a flexible substrate to the vacuum module, we’ve noticed that users with experience on the V-One want to turn the vacuum bed immediately. This isn’t necessary on NOVA as part of the material settings associated with flexible substrates is the vacuum power. The vacuum bed will turn on automatically when NOVA needs to interact with the substrate either when probing or printing.
Attaching a nozzle
A new workflow for NOVA is connecting the nozzle to the pressure sensor rather than directly to the cartridge. Since they both use the Luer lock system, this can be confusing at first, but you won’t be able to install your ink into the smart dispenser without the pressure sensor.
Swapping tools on a single port
One great new feature with NOVA is the two module ports for mounting tools. This means that you can keep the smart dispenser and precision touch probe connected to NOVA at the same time. So, no need to swap out one tool for another between workflows.
During Calibration
Watching a little too closely
We all love watching NOVA print, it can be mesmerizing. During calibration we all want to keep a close eye on how the print is looking. You’ll want to be careful you don’t get too close to the machine when watching. A new feature with NOVA is the vision system. At the end of each calibration print the gantry on NOVA with shift forward to take a photo of the print. If you’re watching too closely this may catch you off guard. Make sure to keep a healthy distance and let NOVA work through the motions. With the photo afterwards you will get a much more detailed look at your print quality than you can get by eye.
Cleaning after each calibration print
One great new addition to NOVA is the calibration plate. This is a dedicated area on the machine for calibrating material and checking for flow before prints. That means you no longer need to worry about calibrating on your substrate. Additionally, you don’t need to worry about wiping your calibration prints between tests either. NOVA will automatically shift the print on the calibration plate between tests, so you only need to clean up once when you’re finished calibrating.
Stopping calibration to make adjustments
On NOVA, the calibration print is a little bit more involved than the calibration print on the V-One. It can be tempting to stop the print when you’re not getting the results you’re looking for. It’s best practice to let the calibration print finish so that you can grade the print and make the appropriate adjustments. If you stop the print too early, you may not be able to grade the pattern and will need to print again before making adjustments.
Worrying about nozzle height
Controlling the nozzle height was a pretty integral part of dialing in print settings on the V-One. This was due to the number of variables that could affect the height in small ways between uses — although small, they could still affect print quality. On NOVA, the tolerances are much tighter and we have eliminated a lot of the variables that could affect the print height. There is no longer a need to adjust the print height during calibration. If you think you are having print height issues it’s worth going back a step and re-probing.
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