Banding Artisan 837 What to do?

Artisan 837 using Image Specialists ARC and ink. I'm noticing slight banding in photos that have a solid green background (making Xmas Cards). I've checked the ink levels and all carts are aprox 3/4 full and I have ran a cleaning cycle 6 times already. Thank heavens for the Printer Potty!. What can I do?

Here's my nozzle check

There are a few black segments missing, but colors appear OK. You might want to let the printer sit overnight to get rid of the black nozzle check issues.

Otherwise, run a manual print head alignment from the driver, and report back on another printing test for banding.

If the printer cleaning does not work, try adding some window cleaner with ammonia on the purge pads and soaking the head this way, make sure the printer does not drain the fluid before the head parks. On a canon the usual way would be to remove the head and place on good quality paper towel soaked with window cleaner with ammonia, but with EPSON heads are not removed that easy

This seems related http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/micro-banding.9038/page-4#post-74395

Smile said:

This seems related http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/micro-banding.9038/page-4#post-74395

Click to expand...

Epson (piezo) print heads do wear out, but MUCH slower than thermal (Canon) print heads. There is a LOT more "violence" in the nozzles of a thermal head that can destroy the geometry...

turbguy said:

There are a few black segments missing, but colors appear OK. You might want to let the printer sit overnight to get rid of the black nozzle check issues.

Otherwise, run a manual print head alignment from the driver, and report back on another printing test for banding.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I did do a print head alignment with no improvement.

Are the missing segments the identically same after each head clean and nozzle check? If they are not, then we have air in the printhead in which case waiting hours between nozzle checks will usually clear it.
If they are the same each time then we have some clogged nozzles and you will need to begin a process of introducing liquid back at the bottom of the printhead to dissolve it.

Smile's procedure will not work on these machines as the capping station is brought up to the printhead to seal it via a micromotor. So when the printhead is away from the parking station the capping station is lowered and stays there. If you place windex in the capping station, the power up sequence will suck it away.

The only way of rehydrating the bottom is to physically introduce moisture on absorbent material beneath the printhead. While printing, pull the cord. The printhead is free to move now. Remove paper . Put printhead in middle. Take some paper towels and fold it to the width of the platen or get some synthetic chamois and cut it to same width of platen. Slide it under the printhead. Now you need to raise the chamois UP to meet the bottom of the printhead. Do this by sliding some thin styrofoam layers ( food containers) under the chamois. When the chamois is nicely against the bottom of the printhead. You then saturate the chamois with windex with ammonia. Let it soak for a number of hours to let the liquid dissolve the clog. Remove contraption and perform a head clean and nozzle check. If necessary. repeat and stay patient. It can take a long time and some luck to get the liquid up into the printhead nozzles. I have done this about three or four times on different machines. One took as long as ten days to clear. Another was just an overnight situation.

It is important to perform nozzle checks regularly on all printers even Epsons because when caught early, a head clean will normally fix it. If it remains there and the printer is used, the fanning action of the printhead as it moves back and forth makes for a bad situation to get worse.

The appearance of the clog at the two ends of the nozzle banks suggest a not perfect seal on the capping station that is supposed to keep the printer nozzles from drying. When the seal is perfect, printers can survive long periods of no printing and not have clogs. When the seal is imperfect, then moisture gets out and we have the potential for clogging.

When you do this head cleaning with windex and a raised paper towel, etc, are the ink cartridges removed or does it matter?

I am also experiencing the banding on an Artisan 835 (seems like light magenta) and hoping the head cleaning will help. The nozzle checks look perfect. Also tried putting the CIS system on a VHS tape to give it about 1 inch of elevation, but that didn't seem to help.

I suppose this may be a stale thread, but hoping some kind soul will give me some guidance on the head cleaning. I've tried the Windex soaked paper towel in the past and it had a minor improvement. I'm now trying this with a thin piece of Styrofoam under the towel to get the Windex closer to the print head.

I still don't know if the ink carts are supposed to be removed or not. Anyone?

This is on an Artisan 835. Primary problem is banding on sky blue areas where it looks like light magenta is missing on roughly 50% of area printed. I have removed any air in the ink lines with a syringe. I have elevated the CISS tank about 1 inch above the surface the printer sits on.

Thanks,
Paul