QTR-Quadtone RIP

>... Is any CIS worth the effort? 

I was curious about the air that gets into tubing.  Is it from leaking
connections, air actually getting through the tubing, or some other cause?
So, I asked MIS (Zeiss).  His response, below, may be helpful to us.

(My short version is:  Keep the tubing and bottles in the dark, and don't
allow air pockets to form by using the printer often -- even if just turning
it on and off.  This might stop algae growth, which appears to MIS to often
be the source of CIS failure.)

MIS's full response follows:

> It is not air in the tubing, it is gas from the ink degassing.  
> This happens to all of them when they are idle for a while.  
> So when there are gas bubbles in the tubes, they get pushed 
> into the cartridge when the system returns to full operation. 
> Over time this lowers the ink level inside the cartridge.  
> It will take a long time or a lot of idle-operate cycles to
> fill the cartridge with gas.  It can happen, but other things 
> happen first, usually, to cause a system failure.  

> The most common issue for older systems is blocked tubes.  
> As gas starts filling the tube on an idle system, algae starts 
> to form on the walls of the tube, like cholesterol in an artery. 
> When the system starts to operate again, the algae is not washed
> away, it stays there.

(Hmm, algae.  That requires light.)

>  The gas in the tube will rise to the highest point in the
> tube path.  That point is often exposed to light or even 
> direct sunlight.  This speeds the growth of the algae. 

This makes it sound, again, like we ought to be keeping the tubes in the
dark.

> All the inks have what we call bug killer (we call it ink 
> penicillin) in them, but if too much is added it upsets the
> ink properties and it will not print properly.  We have 
> sent ink penicillin to many customers that complain of blocked 
> tubes.  Instead of adding this to the ink in too large of dose,
> there is some simple preventive maintenance that will keep 
> the system from failing from algae buildup.

> 1.  Trim the tubes to eliminate any loops or unnecessary ups 
> and downs.  Keep the ink path as straight as possible.

> 2.  Always install and run our AutoPrint Software.  It will 
> make a print everyday, and avoid long idle periods.  Turning
> printer off and on each day is also good, because it will 
> do a cleaning cycle when power comes on.

> 3.  Use washable bottles with a wide mouth.  Our bottles, 
> 4 oz Nalgene wide mouth bottles, are perfect.  Keep two sets. 
> Don't top off inks, fill clean bottle, and replace the old one.
> Then clean the old one, and store for next time.  Most of 
> the low cost Chinese system use a tall bottle with small
> opening in top and ink exit at bottom.  The use of bottles 
> that can not be washed out, is going to end up causing 
> system faillure, because algae builds up on the wall of the
> bottle and the bug killer in the ink can not keep up with it,
> due to the large surface area inside the bottle.

> 4.  In hot dry climates, like Arizona and parts of California, 
> the algae problem is much worse.  Keeping the system cool and
> out of the sunlight is absolutely required to have a chance 
> of long system life.

> 5.  If the system fails, replacing the tubing and recharging 
> the cartridges will usually bring it back to life.  We have
> had many customers who try to get algae out of tubes with
> chemicals and mechanical devices, but it is not worth the 
> trouble.  Replacing tubing is much easier.

I hope this information is useful.  I'm going to be cutting some black
plastic to cover my CIS -- no light, no algae (hopefully).

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com