Piezography BW ­ Clogging Issues
Please report errors or omissions to Bill Bergh - bill@cone-editions.com

There are several reasons why clogging can occur while printing with inkjet printers. Consult your printer manual and learn about the cleaning utilities that are part of the printer software.  In your printers Utilities menu, run a nozzle check test. The entire pattern should print. A missing line will result in banding. Perform the cleaning procedure to unclog missing lines.  Cheap typing paper is perfectly fine for this process as you are just trying to see that all the nozzles are firing correctly. 

CLOGGING CAUSES:
1 - GENERAL PRACTICES
2 - PROBLEMS WITH NEWLY INSTALLED INKS
3 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - EPSON FOAM BLOCK ON LID PROBLEM
4 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - VENT PROBLEMS
5 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - FLOW PROBLEMS
6 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - RUNNING OUT OF INK BEFORE THE INK OUT LIGHTS ACTIVATE.
7 - MAJOR PRINT HEAD CLOGGING EVERY DAY (cap not sealing)
8 - MIS-FIRING NOZZLES
9 - MAJOR CLOG from HELL (Fantastik/Windex Treatment). 

SOLUTIONS:

1 - GENERAL PRACTICES
It is not unusual to have the occasional clogged nozzle over the course of time, even with the Epson inks.  These kinds of problems clear right up with a nozzle clean or two.

It has been our experience that when we leave our printers on overnight, then we usually have a clogged nozzle somewhere in the test pattern the next morning.  As a general practice we now turn off all our printers at night, and this helped stop this nuisance problem.  It is minor - but cleaning wastes ink.  And electricity is wasted with the printer turned on all night.

Before we start a printing run for the day - we always do a nozzle check.  If there is a nozzle dropped out, it takes a few seconds to fix and saves a wasted print.  Why start out the day with a ruined print? Cheap typing paper is perfectly fine for this process as you are just trying to see that all the nozzles are firing correctly.  The paper can be rotated around at least eight times using the front and back sides.

The main trick here is to avoid excessive cleaning cycles.  If the printer nozzle check pattern shows improvement after a cleaning cycle, but is not perfect, then run another cleaning cycle.  For general nuisance minor clogs this is all that is required.  However if you have run the cleaning cycle 3 or 4 times with no improvement - then stop, to avoid wasting ink.  100 cleaning cycles in a row will probably damage the machine.  Often letting the system sit for a few hours after a few cleanings, will work wonders.

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2 - PROBLEMS WITH NEWLY INSTALLED INKS
Typical symptoms can range from very fine light bands that are in a specific tonal range, or  bands of flat tones that look like the image is solorized or posterized, where darker dots are not being printed over the underlying tones - so there appears to be a loss of detail or flat areas of tone.

We highly recommend that you first christen a new printer using the Epson inks.  Print some color prints and just make sure that the printer is working well.  If there are any problems at this point, it is easier to deal with Epson Support when you using their inks and papers.

Installing third party inks meant to be archival can be more difficult for some people than using the Epson inks.  The Epson inks are formulated to never clog, and  they contain anticlogging agents that the manufacturers of archival ink avoid.  We are switching the printer from the Epson dye based inks to a pigmented inkset.  For the majority of people this change is painless.  For a few, the changeover is harder.

Part of the problem of switching inksets is that the seal from the cartridge to nozzle is broken and air can get introduced into the system.  Forcing air through the print heads can form statically charged micro-bubbles that can be very stubborn and hard to dislodge.

Switching inksets always carries the risk that the two different inksets may not react well when combined.  Some combinations (i.e. Epson dyes and Lysonic E color dyes) are know to cause clogging problems.

PROCEDURE:
For the smaller desktop printers, (1160, 1200, etc.) we recommend as general rule that you use the flushing cartridges to flush out the print head before installing the PiezographyBW inkset.  We have no way to know what inks the customers have had in the machines prior to switching, so this is our generic advise.  We have tested putting the PiezographyBW inks directly into the machine following the Epson dye based inks and have not seen any problems.

For the larger printers (Epson 3000, 7000, etc.) it is mandatory that you flush the system prior to installing the inks.  These printers have lots of ink in the tubing that leads from the ink cartridge to the print head.  You must flush the ink out or there will be color contamination of the prints for 40 to 60 prints.

If you are installing the PiezographyBW inks for the first time, and are experiencing a lot of clogging, don't panic.  Our rule of thumb here is to do no more than 4 cleaning cycles if there is no progress being made when printing the nozzle checks.  This is one time that excessive cleaning cycles will NOT work and 100 cleaning cycles in a row will probably damage the print head.

The best advice we can give based on our experience is to let the printer sit, preferably overnight.  This gives any micro-bubbles time to disperse.  For most people this is all it takes to achieve a clean nozzle check.

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3 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - EPSON FOAM BLOCK ON LID PROBLEM
EPSON has added some foam pads and moved others in recent releases of the EPSON 1160 and perhaps other printers. These foam pads interfere with the flow of ink from our new cartridges. Our ink cartridge manufacturer has been trying to keep up with recent printer modifications as well as offer a cartridge which has a flow rate that is conducive to Piezography™BW printing. They moved the vent hole to a new position.

PROCEDURE:
Go to http://www.piezography.com/ts/black-cart-fix.html
A complete description of the problem with pictures and our recommended solution can be found there.

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4 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - VENT PROBLEMS
There are a few problems that are specific to the small cartridges and apply to all cartridges from all the manufacturers we have ever tested.

There is a part of the thin plastic label on the top of the cartridge that you pull off before inserting the cartridge.  This plastic film is perforated and only part of the plastic is to be removed.  When you remove the plastic, you are uncovering the cartridge vent system.

Some cartridges have grooves that lead to larger holes under the plastic.  The grooves provide a metered amount of air to the larger holes.  Some of the newer cartridge designs have a small hole that is exposed in the back of the cartridge when you pull up the label.  The small hole is the right diameter to provide the proper vent.

If you pull off ALL of the plastic and expose the larger holes near the front of the cartridge, then the cartridge will prematurely dry out, and the ink flow may be incorrect as you print.

If you do not tear off any part of the plastic label then no air can get into the cartridge to displace the ink as it is used, and a vacuum results as ink is drawn out of the cartridge.  No ink can come out and the printer will look plugged up on the nozzle check.  Symptoms of this would include a print that starts out perfectly and then starts banding part way through.

PROCEDURE:
Remove the strip of plastic where the perforations are.  If the plastic does not tear straight and you are worried - you can cut it with an Exacto knife or razor blade.  Don't worry if it isn't perfect, just make sure that the rear holes, or the vent grooves are revealed so that air can enter.

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5 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - FLOW PROBLEMS
Some times when you install a new cartridge, the ink flow doesn't start correctly when the cartridge is pierced inside the cartridge holder.  This will result in nozzle drop outs on the nozzle check.

Another problem we have discovered is that Epson has recently been shipping the printers with a small foam block in the lid of the cartridge holder.  This ensures that there is pressure pushing down on the cartridge and that it is seated firmly.  This causes a problem if the foam block lands on top of the vent hole in some of the third party cartridges.  The vent hole is sealed off, and a vacuum is created inside the cartridge while the printer is printing.

PROCEDURE:
Make sure that you do not have the foam block in the lid problem.  This problem is covered in Topic #3.
Press the "paper" button for 4 seconds and the printer will move the print head to the left so that you can change the cartridge.  Place a paper towel on the table.  Lift the lid, and remove the cartridge from the cartridge holder.  Whack the cartridge on the paper towel, until ink starts coming out of the big holes on the bottom.  You should get dots almost the size of a pencil eraser from all the holes in the cartridge.  When you think the ink is flowing well, put the cartridge back in the printer and close the lid.  Press the "ink" button and the printer will move the print head carriage back to the right home position and begin a cleaning routine.  Run the nozzle checks, and do a couple of cleaning cycles if necessary.

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6 - SMALL CARTRIDGES - RUNNING OUT OF INK BEFORE THE INK OUT LIGHTS ACTIVATE.
The Piezography BW driver changes radically the way the printer prints.  The dots are packed as tightly as the print head will allow from 1% to 100% black.  Instead of dithering dots like a CMYK driver does - the volume of ink is changed to vary the ink density.  Because of this, we consume more ink than the Epson driver.  The Epson firmware in the printer keeps a running count of the ink droplets printed, and when it estimates that the ink is almost gone, it lights the low ink warning light on the printer.  There is a little leeway here and Epson's main concern is to keep the user from running the cartridge completely empty.  If the cartridge becomes empty, air gets in the print head and the user can experience a lot of problems when the next cartridge is inserted.  The normal user tries to eke out a few extra prints before changing the cartridges.  This is human nature.  However while printing with the PiezographyBW driver, this is a bad idea.

PROCEDURE:
When the printers low ink warning light comes on, change the cartridges.  Don't try your luck at getting a few more prints.

Depending on your images and individual printer, the cartridge may actually run out of ink before the lights come on.  You will notice this immediately as an area of the print will look posterized or solarized.  Change the cartridges.  If you run out of ink before the lights come on, then it is best to keep track of how many prints you have made and estimate when the ink will run out in the future.  One of the beauties of the Continual Ink System (CIS) is that you can visually see the ink level in the bottles.  Not to mention the advantage of economy when buying ink in 4 oz. bottles.

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7 - MAJOR PRINT HEAD CLOGGING EVERY DAY (cap not sealing)
It is not normal to have a massive amount of clogging every day. It is not unusual to have the occasional clogged nozzle over the course of time, even with the Epson inks.  These kinds of problems clear right up with a nozzle clean or two.  If your printer is seriously clogging up and you are sure that you are not out of ink, then your printer may have a problem.

When the printer is turned off, there is a little cap that is raised up to seal the print head.  The cap is sometimes nicknamed the "sponge".  It is a small rectangular plastic cap with a spongy material inside.  Some printers like the Epson 3000 and 7000 have two caps, the smaller desktop printers like the 1160 and 1200 have only one. The cap also has drain tubes, and this is where the excess ink goes when you are cleaning the machine.  The drain tubes lead down to a larger absorbent waste ink pad.  When the cap is raised against the printhead, it seals the print head to prevent it from drying out due to exposure to air.  When all is working well, there are very little clogging issues related to leaving your printer off.  We have stored a printer for months and were printing quickly after a few cleaning cycles.

If the print head cap is not sealing well, however, the print head would dry out overnight.  If your printer  seems to constantly have massive clogging problems after everything was working well, this could be the cause.

PROCEDURE:
For the small desktop printers, (1160, 1200 etc.), press the paper button for 4 seconds and the print head will move to the left.  Pull the power cord.

Get a flashlight and look under the case to the right home position where the print head normally rests when the machine is off.  Find the rectangular cap.  The cap has two springs under it and on the side is a little plastic "T" that slides up and down in a groove on the right side.  You can wiggle the cap up and down with your finger to make sure it is free to travel. Make sure that both springs are under the cap and that one hasn't fallen off or come loose.

 CAUTION : if you push the cap all the way down the "T" will come out of it's groove and the cap will come loose and the two springs will be loose.  If this happens or if the cap or springs were already loose, it is easy to fix.  There are 4 screws (two in front and two in back in deep holes) that hold the lid in place.  You can remove the screws to lift off the case to get access to the inside of the printer.  Position the two springs on their pegs, place the cap over them, press down until you can slide the "T" on the right side into the groove - and then let the cap slide back up.  Piece of cake.

Move the print head to the far right "home" position before plugging the printer back in.

For the 3000 printer, turn the printer off, then back on again.  After the machine finishes its initial startup and is ready to print, you have a few minutes where you can open the top beige lid, and grasp the tubing at the print head, and pull gently to the left to pull the print head out of the home position.

Get a flashlight and look under the case to the right home position where the print head normally rests when the machine is off.  Find the two rectangular caps.  Wiggle them gently to make sure they are free to travel. 

EXTREME CAUTION: I have never pulled this part of the 3000 apart - read the caution for the smaller printers.  The case on the 3000 is not easy to take apart and not recommended.

Move the print head to the far right "home" position before plugging the printer back in.

Summary - we are looking at the caps to see if we can see a problem that might cause the printer to dry out overnight.  This is not normal and not caused by the inks.  A trip to the Epson repair depot may be in order for any machine that is really bad.

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8 - MIS-FIRING NOZZLES
The nozzle check and alignment check are actually good tools to assess the health of the printer.  Look very closely at the alignment check with a loupe or magnifying glass.

8a - NOZZLE CHECK USED AS A DIAGNOSTIC AID.
Are all the lines in a step pattern?  A line may jump up or down resulting in a gap.  If the steps of the nozzle check are not perfect, and cannot be fixed by cleaning, the print head may be bad.  Nozzles that are sprayed in the wrong place can result in find razor thin bands.

8b - ALIGNMENT CHECK USED AS A DIAGNOSTIC AID.
Are all the vertical dot line patterns well formed?  Are the dots weaving back and forth from the vertical line?  Is there a secondary set of dots that look like an over spray?  These symptoms can result in razor thin bands on the printed image.

PROCEDURE:
If there are serious problems as listed above, these may imply that the print head is defective or dying.  Some of these may be caused by inkjet streams being deflected by a seriously dirty print head.  If you have printed many hundreds of prints, then it may be time for a serious head cleaning.  If cleaning does not help the problem, it may be time for a trip to the Epson repair depot.

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9 - MAJOR CLOG from HELL (Fantastik/Windex Treatment). 
Note: Fantastik recently came to our attention and has proved to be a better cleaner than Windex.  We do not recommend other products as some cleaners will leave a film behind.

PREPARATION:
1 - Get a flashlight.

2 - Get a bottle of Fantastik or Windex.

(For our friends outside the USA, Windex is a cleaner made with ammonia and water specifically for cleaning glass windows without leaving streaks. There should be some product available locally that is similar.  (Fantastik is an all purpose cleaner that does not have ammonia.)

3 - Unscrew the Windex lid and pull off the long plastic straw from the spritzer/spray top.

AT THE PRINTER:
4 - Lift up the top hinged lid so that you can see the print head.

5 - Turn on the 3000/1160/1200 etc. It will go through a lot of monkeyshines getting ready to print.

6 - (3000 only) As soon as the printer is ready, the pause light goes off - reach in and pull gently to the left on the feed tubes attached to the print head. DO NOT pull too hard. You only have a few minutes to do this - and then the head gets locked.  If the head gets locked and you can not gently tug it to the left - turn off the printer and start over.
6 - (1160/1200 etc.) Press and hold the paper button on the front of the printer for 5 seconds. This will move the print head over to the left to the ink changing position

7 - Shine a flashlight in the place where the head is normally parked to the right. Find the sponges where the ink goes when the machine does through a cleaning cycle.  Normally you would see colors there where ink has been dumped but as the printer is new - there may not be much ink on them.

8 - Pick up the Windex tube.

9 - Put the tube in the Windex bottle and put your thumb or finger over the end. You want to trap 1/4 to 1/2 inch of Windex in the tube for the 3000, and about 1/4 to 3/8 inch for the smaller printers. This is the same technique you learned in first grade to transfer milk to your mouth using the straw until your mother caught you and put an end to that..

10 - Don't over do this next step - too much is not a good thing. Reach the tube down into the printer and put a few drops on the Black sponge and a little more than that on the longer Color sponge (the smaller printers only have one sponge).  IF you really messed up and put way too much Windex on the sponges - use a paper towel and soak it up.

11 - Push the printhead all the way to the left (3000) or press the ink button (1160 / 1200 etc.). so the head is returned to the home position.

12 - Turn the printer off, and let the printer sit for a few hours or over night. During a nozzle clean, the sponges are raised up against the print head. The sponge normally is raised against the printhead while it is sitting turned off so that it doesn't dry out. Letting the printer sit - gives the Windex time to work on the clog. It is not real fast - so you do need to let it have some time.

13 - Later - run another nozzle check and clean - most of the time this works or almost gets you 100% and you have to do it again.

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