Digital BW, The Print

Rodrigo

  -----Original Message-----
  From: ramestica [mailto:ramestic@...]
  Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 9:06 AM
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Help please! bad nozzle checks


  Hi Paul, yes I'm using CIS. I cannot correlate the usage of CIS with
  Piezo problems, because is the only method I use. One year ago, I
  printed one set of Piezo cartridges and that was all with cartridges
  (they are expensive like hell).
  [Paul Roark]

  I think Piezo ink is a total rip-off.  If it were truly superior ink, I
might consider the price.  But for inferior ink, Cone's got to be kidding.
Now that trouble-free MIS inks are available (the FS ink) I would  not buy
any more of the trouble-plagued Piezo inks.

  Lots of people like the Piezo driver, so I'm going to help MIS (and us
users) get some appropriate inks out there.

  I' starting to have very bad nozzle checks and alignment verification
  results (I can see banding on the prints as well), they go away after
  three of four cleanning cycles, but the thing happens to come back the
  next day.
  [Paul Roark]

  This might indicate that your head is not parking properly when you turn
off the printer at night.  There is a cap that is supposed to seal around
the head when it's off to stop the ink from drying and clogging the head
when the printer is not in use.

  (You do turn off the printer when not in use, I assume.  Pigments dry on
the head and will clog it if left too long unused.  Pigments are much more
prone to these problems than dyes, but they are worth it due to the
longevity of the image.)


   The sludge you mention is really scaring in my printer, but
  I suppose it does not introduce a problem in the heads themselves,
  [Paul Roark]

  Yes, one of the forum's 7000 users had to have heads replaced due to Piezo
sludge messing up the "dampers" in the heads.  (This information is coming,
so I'm told, from an Epson repair person.)  There are "blind alleys" that
help absorb the shock of the printer jet slamming on and off.  When they get
all clogged with Piezo slug, the shock waves caused by the jet turning on
and off will cause banding and other problems.  Piezo ink appears to be a
bad one when it comes to causing this slug build-up.  I'm hoping that
leaving the cleaning fluid in the printers over night might help clean this
mess out.


  unless the sludge is present also at the output of them, and this I
  cannot tell because my inspections of the printer do not go further
  than removing the upper cover and checking the parking pad status.

  The filter you mention, why are they not use for CIS cartridges?
  [Paul Roark]

  The carts without the 1 micron filters are probably cheaper.  For all I
know, Cone is using the cheap carts for his pre-loaded Piezo carts also.

  I'm encouraging MIS to warn people about bottom filling of carts also.
This may ruin and avoid the benefits of the screen by putting any garbage
that is in the ink below the protective screen.  MIS is apparently going to
have some vacuum, top fill alternative for filling carts soon.

  These ink sellers just don't appreciate the frustration we users go
through when there are problems.  So, I'm trying to pressure them into doing
things right for us.

  MIS was not that concerned about it because their pigments are so small
that they almost never have problems.  However, with the VM black being so
similar to Piezo black, I want to be sure I (and we MIS VM and FS users in
general) don't end up with the same garbage that is ruining Piezo systems
after a year of use.

  I'm not all that concerned about the MIS VM and FS inks, however, because
it appears to be an interaction between the Piezo co-solvent and the dyes
Cone uses in the midtones that causes the serious problems.  What I do with
the inks I've designed is use MIS's clear base, which is not the co-solvent,
and I do not use dyes.  So far, there have been almost no clogs with this
approach -- but it's early in the game.

  Good luck.

  Paul


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