Digital BW, The Print

Hello All

I have been somewhat inactive for a period of months.  I have a few occasions to print...and I noticed that a print had an issue where the Black (Eboni) seemed to rub off easily if I touched the surface.  I am using QTR..and believe my profiles are good.  This print was on cheap ink jet paper..and I figured it was just lousy paper.

Just got a box of Epson Hot Press Natural...and I made an initial test to profile the paper...and notice the black rubs off easily.

So this is a two or three part question.

1.  Does Ebony or other MIS inks go bad and have rub off issues?  I am using some relatively old inks in a 4880 with MIS clear large format carts.  I have candidly never noticed this.  The ink is not exactly rubbing off...it is smudging if I run a finger over it.

2.  I have never sprayed.  Does the Premier Spray eliminate the smudging issue and not change the look ( dmax, etc)?

3.  I have not printed for a while as mentioned earlier.  Should I shake the carts and run a cleaning cycle to remix to hopefully not have this issue.

Frankly, the tests on the Hot Press look good..but I cannot have high end prints that will rub off.

Ideas????

Thanks

Phil