Digital BW, The Print

In regards to ink generations, all of the Cone inks are now encapsulated which puts a very thin layer of acrylic co-polymer around each and every pigment particle. This eliminates the static charge between pigment particles and prevents clumping. This is a treatment to the pigment that takes place prior to formulation. That's how we eliminated clogging in the dye and pigment printers. This generation of ink came out in 2005 and is called either Piezography K7/K6 or ConeColor. Initially we encapsulated in polyester, but due to patent issues with HP we switched to a proprietary process. HP and Epson both use encapsulation with their pigment.

I developed Piezography Special Edition inks especially for the Epson 1400 and then ported it to the complete line of printers I support. But, I also offer Carbon K6, or Selenium K6, or Warm Neutral K6, or Neutral K6 system for the 1400. They all include complete media curves which are folded into Roy Harrington's excellent QTR system. The 1400 is a little workhorse. I use it for printing as well as development work. It never strains with pigment. It's Achilles' heel is it's paper feed mechanism. But, with patience you can learn to hand feed thicker papers.

K6 on the tiny 3 picoliter 1400 prints with as much fidelity as a K7 system on a X800 or X880 printer.


Regards,

Jon Cone
Piezography
http://www.piezography.com



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "David Whistance" <david.whistance@...> wrote:
>
> Tony,
> 
>  
> 
> With all due respect I think you are several ink generations out of date
> with both the printers you mention and the inks.  The gap between "pigments"
> and "dyes" has narrowed considerably so that many of the more recent
> pigments share some of the features of dyes and vice versa.  As a result
> later "dye" printers seem to be much happier using pigments.  I have
> intermittently used the Cone K7 inks in a  number of "dye" printers for
> several years with little or no clogging.  The earlier inks did clog
> however.
> 
>  
> 
> David Whistance
> 
>  
> 
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony
> Sleep
> Sent: 19 September 2011 01:22
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Epson 1400
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 
> On 17/09/2011 tom.maugham wrote:
> > Hmmm, and for years I've been told that the holes in the printhead of 
> > dye printers are too small for pigment inks and will clog more.
> > 
> 
> After the first few months I had interminable clog problems with 1160 & 
> 1290, using Piezo BW and Generations G4 respectively. This was due to 
> clogging of the microfilters which are internal to the heads (just below 
> the spigots that penetrate the cartridges) and not designed to cope with 
> pigment. Their job is to prevent any particulates reaching the nozzles 
> that might cause blockages. Of course dyes shouldn't have any, but 
> pigments /are/ fine particulates and much more likely to block the filters 
> over time and restrict ink supply. I suspect I made matter worse by 
> intermittent use, which probably allowed the pigments to settle.
> 
> The 1290 (with G4) was worst, it killed 2 heads in 18m. It was not the 
> nozzles that blocked, but ink starvation during printing would mean that 
> the first half of the first print would be fine, and then degrade rapidly 
> with no consistency to which nozzles appeared "blocked". Attempting to 
> clean them only resulted in more nozzles becoming starved of ink. If I 
> left it alone for a day or two, enough ink would pass the filters to print 
> another half page...
> 
> I tried backflushing the filters several times, but that never really 
> worked. I scrapped both printers, plus CIS, plus inks, after they became 
> unusable. The alternative, 90GBP a time for a DIY-fitted new head every 
> few months, was not something I could put up with; it was just a very 
> expensive mistake.
> 
> I'd be quite wary now of using pigments in printers designed for dyes.
> 
> -- 
> Regards
> 
> Tony Sleep
> http://tonysleep.co.uk
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>