Epson CIS : Things I have learned

[websnail]

Having been forced to return to the old trusty Epsons recently I've discovered a few home truths about their setup and particularly in terms of what not to do.. So here goes with a few "Lessons I learned all over again"

1. Spongeless cartridges as part of a CIS require some other form of baffle to stop ink from free flowing.. Either:
a) an air bubble in the top 10% of the cartridge
OR
b) a sponge as part of the whole loop..
Preferably both..

If you don't have this baffle you will likely end up with a free flow, especially if you have 2.


2. Attaching a waste ink tank to the printer is a good thing except when you have such a long tube to the tank and a printer placed on high that such a placement results in a strong syphon effect. It is wisest to have the external waste ink tank just under the printer and preferably with a loop of tubing so that the tube drops to below the waste tank and then back up reducing the pull pressure on the ink.


3. Spongeless cartridges need to be primed and kept upright to avoid air bubbles getting into the exit port and causing an air lock in the printhead. If You find this happens anyway then the use of a bottom fill adaptor and a syringe to draw ink through the loop and air out of the exit port should fix the problem.

Bottom line: air moves more freely in a spongeless cartridge so more care needs to be taken with keeping the cartridges in the correct aspect/orientation.



You can imagine what the past few weeks has been like can't you... Ah well.. lessons relearned.. :/

 

[ocular]

Having been forced to return to the old trusty Epsons recently I've discovered a few home truths about their setup and particularly

Hi Websnail, does that mean that your Canon CIS machines are defunct?

 

[websnail]

Having been forced to return to the old trusty Epsons recently I've discovered a few home truths about their setup and particularly

Hi Websnail, does that mean that your Canon CIS machines are defunct?

Lord no... I've just been getting so hacked off with the Canons that I needed to return to something a bit different for a little while.

I have 5 Epsons in one school and they've been suffering from algae and sponge clog of late so it was sort of forced on me.

In terms of Canons I'm set to return to them with a new outlook and a "best practice" approach over the next week.

Basically planning to start over with one of my problem printers and see what difference I can effect using:
- Silicon sealant
- Cartridges adapted to allow ink inflow above the spongeless part of the cartridge
- Adapted printer to allow the elbows to travel properly with the above arrangement (ie: removal of some plastic)

I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[websnail]

Returning the Epson CIS's again I should also note a new twist for anyone using a certain brand of spongeless cartridge

One particular brand have a plastic film glued over the back of the cartridge.. This file covers a number of holes in the back that I assume are there for reference so you can see if there's an ink flow.. Personally I think it's a bit of a crap design.

If you're using these cartridges in a CIS though you will find that you need to remove the film in the top left corner (nearest the vent hole) because the seal here is often poorly glued. My solution has been to remove the film in this area and glue gun the hole carefully ensuring that I don't put too much glue in and gum up the air vent.

If you don't do this you end up with a totally failed seal and a crap CIS set.. Realised this on my 3rd set failed spuriously and caused me to check things more carefully.

Pain in the ass but there ya go... I'll post pictures when I get around to it.

 

[mctawards]

Hi,

I am pretty new to your forum. finding and learning a lot from you all.. thanks a lot.

I have epson 1290 flat bed printer. CIS is not got enough with its spitton sponge. just want some source to ahead. any help

with regds,

Ram

 

[cohozo]

I setup a CIS system (spongeless) on Epson C88+. It worked for a week and then the yellow cartridge started to quit. Before long, all the cartridges stopped working. I cannot get the red light on the printer button to switch off. On screen utility had all the cartridges grey out. Also, all the color ink in the ink bank had disappeared. I presume they went into the printer although I couldn't find where they went.

I have put the original Epson cartridges back in the system. I can get the printer to see the cartridge but 3 out of 4 of them are shown as having no ink (a red cross on the cartridge) although the cartridges still have ink in them. After a couple of days, the yellolw cartridge has become empty. I believe the ink has leaked into the printer but this is an epson cartridge, not the CIS cartridge.

I am new to CIS system. Any idea what has happened and how to fix this? Any help is much appreciated.

Cohozo

 

[mikling]

websnail,

I think I'll make a couple of comments on spongeless cartridges and I think you'll find these quite enlightening.
There are various designs and some are much better than others. How can you tell? First see if there is any type of flow regulation and damper system built in. You will see a small round chamber somewhere in the middle of the cartridge. If you do, you are getting a chance to have one of the better ones. The better ones have this chamber and then have something else that you can't see unless you take them apart. They have a semi permeable membrane. This membrane is like an extremely fine filter, it's main purpose is not to filter but it does that as well. How these work is very interesting and enlightening. The membrane is loaded with ink on one side and the ink does not go through. When a very small vacuum is applied on the other side, the ink oozes through the membrane. This is special because the cartridge itself becomes a mini tank system and the chamber/ membrane etc is the feed system. What it also reveals is that the cartridge will not leak ink out through the printhead even if the cartridge is totally unplugged or unsealed.
These same cartridges are used in some better CIS systems. This essentially makes the CIS less sensitive to tank and hose issues.
This design mimicks the Epson OEM design parameters.
The only issue with this design is that for best performance, the filter membrane should be kept fully wetted on one side with ink. Unfortunately the only way to properly do this is to initially prime it with a vacuum chamber to evacuate the internals of air otherwise the only way to get this air out afterwards is through the head..... something that experienced Epson owners know they should avoid. Other than that these work well if properly primed.

So with a good design, you don't need an air break within the top 10% of the cartridge. This air break you speak of is actually after the regulator membrane if you look carefully, this stops the membrane from leaking ink through by capillary action. Look carefully at the pics.

 

[websnail]

I've seen soooo many different cartridges since I started playing with Epsons and haven't seen that particular type...

I do know that the latest batch I sourced was a complete and utter waste of time and space with over 50% suffering from air leakage thanks to an incredibly poor design.

Granted it wasn't an issue for non-CIS usage but it's left me somewhat cold.

As it goes though I've been switching slowly to the newer HP printers... I may return to the newer Epsons at some point but right now 3rd party cart manufacturers are just plain annoying me atm...