never seen this nozzle check pattern

Paul W.

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It's the K position on a 1430. Am using InkJet Mall's Inkthrift CL carts, the configuration using capsules and keys. I haven't done any cleaning yet but I thought I'd post this before I get started. I haven't even run the Epson software clean routine. I'm quite familiar with the various cleaning techniques, but just don't want to make it worse. Has anyone seen a pattern like this before? Also, there's some black contamination into the yellow and light cyan positions. All other positions are perfect. (I printed my check on ordinary copy paper and the printing on the other side is bleeding through a little.)

nozzlecheck.JPG
 
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Ink stained Fingers

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I would think there are various effects to consider - a cross contamination between adjacent colors can point to some leakage of gaskets in the printhead, between adjacent ink channels before the ink is diverted to the row of piezo elements and from ther to the nozzles.
The gray shades on the black letters point to some uncleaniness on the timing strip , that one is easy to clean. The timing strip is the small gray plastic strip stretching over the width of the print patch, and the timing strip passes a sensor on the back of the printhead carriage. This strip collects ink emissions during the print activities and can be cleaned quite easily with a piece of kitchen paper wetted with some window cleaner. And I would not be afraid to run a few cleaning cycles, Epson drivers typically raises the intensity if you start them shortly after each other, do a nozzle check after each cleaning cycle.
The WICReset utility offers an additional ink charge/heavy cleaning command for most Epson printers.
 

Paul W.

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leakage of gaskets in the printhead

Thanks for the reply, Ink. Are those gaskets accessible? Are you referring to the gaskets at the base of the nipples? Those are accessible, and I know how to clean those.

As for the timing strip, I hadn't thought of that. If it's the timing strip, that might explain some erratic behavior of the printer before I finally obtained the nozzle check you see. Last night the printer wouldn't accept my paper, just shot it on through. And even though I cleared the queue of one, sometimes two jobs (probably the nozzle check), the printer kept trying to send to send something even though the queue was empty. Hard to explain... finally I shut everything down, printer, computer, everything, and called it a night. This morning it had settled down and that's when I got the nozzle check.

I'll have to get to know the WICReset utility. Seems I recall that a few years ago it was a risky utility so I never used it... or maybe I'm thinking of something similar.

Regards,

Paul
 

mikling

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My guess is that there is some ink drying occurring at the end of the black nozzles. Head cleajing will normally fix that if not, some moisture soak on the underside should clear it up. You can see the deflections of the misdirected droplets due to obstructions. The yellow as ISF has described is crosscontamination. This could be due to the ink crossing on the exterior but more likely inside the printhead.

The yellow- black cross leakage has been an issue for this printhead model dating back since about 10+ years ago. The 1430 engine dates this far back. This is a known failure mode of this model of printer and its related siblings ( R260, R280, R280, RX580, RX595, SP1400 and others in the first generation Claria lineup) as the mileage builds up. I have had over 7 related models die this similar death. Initially a head cleaning will resolve it but the leakage will build over time to the point that it will occur even during printing. Hopefully your 1430 is not ailed by this.
This leakage cannot be fixed except by replacement of the printhead which is usually uneconomical vs. a replacement.
 

Ink stained Fingers

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Those gaskets in question are in the printhead itself, between the nozzle plate and some other plastic parts, you would have to break the printhead open and to remove various parts, that area is not accessible as such. I don't think that the timing strip controls the detection of paper in any way
 

Paul W.

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Thanks to both of you...

I performed pretty much all the cleaning I know: under-printhead "shoe-shine" (gently), wiper blade, capping station, and added cleaning the timer belt. The latter was hard to do since I didn't want to touch its surfaces. Overlooked cleaning around base of nipples, will catch that next time. Did a nozzle check, it was better. Then did the Epson software cleaner and the nozzle check was quite good... missing about four dashes in the black pattern. The yellow was hard to see but it looked like quite a few dashes. Going to let printer sit a long while, I've learned that works quite well.

Sorry to hear of this printer's (and its siblings) problematic history.

Regards,

Paul

PS: Please ignore attached file.
 

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Paul W.

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ISF, thanks for tip on UV flashlight.

And to all of you, thanks very much for all your help.

Paul
 
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