Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "tomoc" <tomoc@y...> wrote:

> 
> Jim-
> 
> Most of your suggestions are great for the person struggling to keep 
> the printer going. My point, however, was that since I switched from 
> the Piezo ink carts (maybe CIS would have been better?), all of my 
> problems went away. With both CIS and carts, printing daily or after 
> as much as a 10 day layoff... I have had ZERO problems.

Tom, this was my situation exactly too. I was standing on my head 
trying to get a piezo printer working right, clogs a bit but really 
with density breakdown of the ink. (And I'm not knocking Piezo, it 
works well for many people, just MIS did better for me, personally.)

Then I switched to MIS VM and no more density or clogging- for two 
whole months on a new 1160 that had been in storage for 8 months. I 
turned it off for 3 weeks and no problem, at most a cleaning cycle or 
two. Then suddenly after a two week stretch of non use at low humidity 
(20%RH) and it didn't clear.

So it's all very odd. I'm trying to come up with some cohesive plan of 
attack that is still pratical and not too $$$, as a preventitive. So I 
posted all the tricks I'm running now and have gathered from others.

Something in my environment makes my printers more sensitive to 
problems. I live in a low humidity area up against the Rockies, at 
elevation, so the air pressure is a fraction less than you folks at 
sea level. I can't think of anything else I'm different in.
 
> 
> My only thought on your suggestion to stick with carts is that there 
> could be an advantage with the bulk systems...once set up and 
running 
> well, there is no change to interfere with good performance

yes, this may indeed be true.

...this 
> could, as you say, change for very infrequent printers (who may well 
> be better off for reasons of flexibility as well to stay with 
carts).

There has to be a price/use point where we have to look beyond the 
cost of buying virgin empties and filling time vs just going with a 
CIS. Getting new ink and a new screen in there is an advantage with 
carts, but it can be countered with the fact that the CIS cart doesn't 
have to be changed out, and has advantages in the printer in not 
having to hope you filled all those multiple carts correctly. The pros 
and cons go on and on, complicated, but my point here is that I think 
we look at the $$$ advantages of a CIS too much, not other advantages 
and drawbacks.
Jim H.