PC Photo Magenta plugging?

Hi all,
Having a huge problem with PC photo magenta plugging heads on our Canon Pro-100's. We used to have some of the same problems with our old 9000 MkII's doing this with anything but OEM Cyans, but we've lost 5 heads to this already.
I tried Pharmacist's solution for cleaning 2 heads, and they soaked for 4 or 5 days. I have a hose setup we bought some time ago that fits snugly over the ports and every one sprayed clean except the PM on both heads.
Until I can source a good supply of these heads is there anything I can do to stop this? We have been flushing our carts and watching for starvation as well as we can. This is a commercial operation here, I have 11 of these printers. Help!

Has it been established yet what the Pro-100 print head has issues with? We know the Yellow OEM cartridge will react with refill ink / water to form a gelled substance that will irretrievably clog / burnout the print head.

Since that discovery there have been numerous reports of Magenta / Photo Magenta causing print head failures that may be due to nozzle burn out more than a blockage which could be resolved with flushing the print head.

In order to facilitate a solution we need good information on what inks - any or all - that cause this Magenta issue. Does the print head failure occur with:

A) Cartridge color causing problem.
1) Magenta
2) Photo Magenta
3) Other color


B) Ink Manufacturer and/or etailer
1) OEM CLI-42 inks (used exclusively - no aftermarket inks used)
2) Image Specialists refill inks (previously sold by Octoink and still currently sold by Precision Colors)
3) Prodinks GmbH (currently sold by Octoink)
4) Other


This could be a design flaw for which might be alleviated by an altered design and manufacturing run. Maybe this is why Canon has aggressively been dumping the Pro-100 on the US market - to get rid of flawed stock.

Regardless, more information might lead to a solution for you and others.

Perhaps there is an incompatibility between refill inks and residual CLI-42 OEM ink remaining in the print head passageways? A solid clog difficult to dislodge?

Perhaps a dedicated flush of the print head with distilled water prior to switching to aftermarket inks would help?

Anything in this that might cause precipitation when mixed with aftermarket inks?

http://www.usa.canon.com/cpr/pdf/MSDS/IC3720_0101.pdf

I originally taught that the OP was using only OEM inks till I read that he was flushing his cartridges, because that in itself can cause even more problems by introducing water into the procedure.

The Pro 100 may also suffer from the same problem of overheating in the heads that has plagued the 9000 and other large mutable cartridge heads.

There are two things you can do to try and prevent this, one would be to run the printer in Quiet Mode to help reduce the heat in the heads and the second would be to make sure that all refill cartridges drip a little ink on removal of the orange clip.

Another thing we don’t know is the OP running his cartridges to empty and then refilling or refilling on the low ink warning that too can play right into the hands of ink starvation problems.

We will just have to wait till @Grazer5 comes back with a lot more information on his operation to determine the best solution for him..

The Hat said:

I originally taught that the OP was using only OEM inks till I read that he was flushing his cartridges, because that in itself can cause even more problems by introducing water into the procedure.

The Pro 100 may also suffer from the same problem of overheating in the heads that has plagued the 9000 and other large mutable cartridge heads.

There are two things you can do to try and prevent this, one would be to run the printer in Quiet Mode to help reduce the heat in the heads and the second would be to make sure that all refill cartridges drip a little ink on removal of the orange clip.

Another thing we don’t know is the OP running his cartridges to empty and then refilling or refilling on the low ink warning that too can play right into the hands of ink starvation problems.

We will just have to wait till @Grazer5 comes back with a lot more information on his operation to determine the best solution for him..

Click to expand...

His post indicates "no-flow" through the PM passges upon failure, even with pressurized water. That implies the head is plugged for that color.

Has anyone actually mixed OEM inks with aftermarket inks and observed any issues?

Well,
For starters, it's all Precision Colors ink. The carts aren't flushed until I notice a flow problem, which should answer your one question Mr. Hat. We try and swap before the warnings, but it's not always possible. Quiet mode is slower right? I don't think that would work out too well here. It's almost 99% exclusive to the Photo Magenta.
We do a lot more printing with these things than Canon ever intended, so I expect some failures. I have a job coming up that is 20,000 11.5 x 17.5" sheets with about 20% coverage, so I need to have a rock solid way of maintaining these heads for a month at least.
I wish I could find a high speed inkjet that could print as well as the Canons do, but no company save Memjet is making a sheet fed printer strong enough to handle the unique paper we make. And their machines cost $20K

I personally believe that asking a cheap consumer desktop printer, with a thermal printhead, to produce 20,000 prints (or even 2000 prints) in short order is just ASKING for overheating problems! Why are you using inkjets for this? Seems to me offset (or rotogravure if you need photo-quality) would be more appropriate...

That said, you must spend all day refilling and feeding carts to the PRO-100's. Wouldn't a machine with a CISS (an Epson, hint-hint) be more appropriate?

This could be the Yello Gello syndrome popping up its ugly head again and if it is then the heads are certainly blocked up, the heads are going to need a good long soaking in order to remove the gel.

The gelling in the heads comes more from mixing water and ink then mixing the two ink together and my earlier suggestions were to help prevent it happening again.

@Grazer5 The idea of using the Quiet Mode was to slow down your printer which would allow the heads to cool that bit longer and this might help prolong their life.

Now if you want a printer that will print much faster than the Pro 100 then HP have one that will work stunningly fast and will handle A3+, the trade-off is poorer quality output (4 colours) but can use pigment inks with CISS also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSix-WkEOv4

I'm trying to wrap my head around any physical chemistry process where you add water to a solution that already is 60% water (OEM ink) that causes a gel or precipitate to form...something else going on IMO...

I totally agree with you on that one but it still happens, so if one drop of OEM ink still remains in the sponge after flushing with water then this gelling problem can occur inside the print head over time..