Digital BW, The Print

In the past what I have done to get rid of annoying air pockets in the port is grab the little cotten-filled plug used to plug the air intake (when transporting the cart). I then take the cart out and tip it slightly so the port-end is down. I simply nudge the plug into the cart port and any excess ink that shoots out gets sopped up by the plug's cotton. This gets rid of air-bubbles nicely.  Gravity feed.

Walker


On May 7, 2010, at 12:36 PM, piezobw wrote:

> Shaking is usually done to re-suspend pigment. The carts we sell for large format hold about 350ml of ink. Epson recommends discarding a 220ml cart that has not been used up in less than six months. So pigment settling is an issue with pigment printers. Intermittent shaking therefore is a preventative to settling. Rather than wait six months to try and breath some more life into the ink, the idea is to not allow the pigment to settle at all.
> 
> For desktop carts, the biggest problem often is that an air pocket forms at the port. OR in initial filling that is not done with the vacuum method, it is possible that the air in the port does not get displaced by ink. Even vacuum filling often will not displace this air lock.
> 
> The port get's pierced by the ink stem of the printer head carriage and the tiny holes in the stem sometimes encounter the air. The piezo crystal acts like a little tiny pump in the print head and its not strong enough to counter the air pocket and get ink. Likewise the capping station which is a very strong pump sometimes can't either...
> 
> Shaking gently can work, but often does not dislodge air pockets. It's best for resuspending pigments. I believe Epson instructs the customer to gently shake the desktop cart before installing. They arguably have the best filling procedure in the industry. So if they have the occasional air pocket - one can imagine that the third-party carts will have more occasion to have air pockets.
> 
> For a cart with a nuisance air pocket, I usually put some folded paper toweling on a table, and then sharply rap the cart port side down directly onto the table. The paper towel will absorb any ink that might otherwise mark the table and provides some cushioning to the cart. The rapping seems to force the ink contents to replace the air pocket through the magic of gravity! Imagine being on an elevator when the cable snaps.... That is what rapping the cart is trying to do... not a pleasant thought, but trying to illustrate what gravity is trying to do... making the ink above the air pocket suddenly hit the bottom of the port...the air bubble is forced out and rises quickly to the top of the ink cart. 
> 
> Give it a go...
> 
> Jon Cone
> Piezography
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mojojones2001" <mojojones@...> wrote:
> >
> > Not sure if this applies to your particular cartridges but Inkjetmall has a video that shows how to use the 220ml refillable carts. Towards the end they demonstrate several methods of shaking the cartridges. My favorite is "agitate the printer". ;-)
> > 
> > video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyjI4tIGQ4Y
> > J.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, John Beeching <johnbeeching@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear All,
> > > 
> > > I have recently replaced my Epson 2100 with a 3880 and am greatly enjoying
> > > its possibilities and its more economical cartridges. Whilst one shakes
> > > them in installation I would imagine that the pigment may settle with time
> > > in the cartridges, which could cause altered tones on the prints. Should I
> > > remove them periodically to give them another shake and, if so, should this
> > > be every week, month or whenever?
> > > 
> > > Yours,
> > > 
> > > John
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > John Beeching
> > > http://johnbeeching.com/
> > > 
> > > 
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> >
> 
> 

Walker Blackwell
802.821.4451
www.walkerblackwell.com
aim: greendirtblues
wblackwell@...



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