Digital BW, The Print

Steve Kale wrote:

>Yes I think that is correct and while the Epson support guy was not sure he
>thought that was the case also.
>
>
>  
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>>From: Paul Roark <paul.roark@...>
>>
>>The vacuum pump probably pulls equally from all ink on that side.  The CMY
>>carts are probably blanks that plug the CMY holes so that only the K is
>>sucked through the tubes.
>>    
>>
That has been my guess too. The pressure chamber in the carts is used to 
create a vacuum by the same air pump. It would be possible to only 
introduce CMY blanks and suck the matte black back in the black cart but 
the chance that you take air in as well is too high and any filth that 
was building up in front of the black damper would get back in the ink 
cart. Better throw away the content of the inkline. It is interesting to 
see that they use CMY blanks as there must be extra electric valves in 
the inklines and by that they could keep the CMY lines closed. The 
vacuum is probably too high to trust the seals of the carts enough in 
preventing air getting in.

I have replaced the 10000CF inks with MIS 7600 inks with the same method 
but used a custom 10000 vacuum cart for it. By taking out all the ink in 
the lines there's no need for cleaning fluid. Changing between matte and 
gloss black can be done in the same way, matte chip on the gloss cart to 
prevent the normal changing cyclus. Have to push the electric valve of 
the black line open with a finger though while sucking the black inkline 
empty, which means a hole at the back of the plastic cover. The same 
method can be used on 9600/7600's.

Ernst