Digital BW, The Print

Tom,

You wrote:

>I've got condensation forming inside the cap of the black ink bottle
>on my NoMoreCarts CIS. I'm using the MIS VM Hex inks ...The other five
>bottles show no signs of condensation.

The MIS VM black, like Piezo inks, uses a more volatile co-solvent base.
(You may have noticed a rather strong smell with the MIS VM black.)  The MIS
VM midtones do not use this base.  So, you'll more likely see condensation
in the black bottle than in the midtones.

As far as I can tell, the volatile base does not cause problems with the
black ink.  In the Piezo midtones I think it is part of the problem.
However, with the black ink, neither the Piezo nor MIS VM inksets appear to
be having problems with it.

The co-solvent base could be part of the ink's relatively good performance
characteristics.  It's faster drying leaves more of the particles on the
surface of the paper.  (Some Iris printers used to put little fans at the
heads to dry the ink as fast as possible to get better blacks.)  Also, the
co-solvent base is said to cause the ink particles to clump together on the
paper more.  This clumping may account for part of the superior
fade-resistance the MIS VM black shows.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com