Grommets on Canon printheads

[websnail]

Hi guys...

This is something of a plea for some ideas/help for solving the issue of poor seals between the cartridge exit ports and the rubber grommets/printhead. The reason for the plea is because on my MP500 printer I had a nightmare getting a proper seal and at least two of the lines were suffering from a slow air leak which caused all manner of problems with my CIS kit.

So far I've found some self fusing silicon tape which I've stretched over the port in two layers and secured using some electricians tape and then pierced so that the ink can flow into the receiver in the printhead.. That appears to have helped but I'd prefer to find something a little more elegant if possible.


Any ideas?

 

[Manuchau]

Have you tried a rubber O-ring??

 

[websnail]

Have you tried a rubber O-ring??

Unfortunately that won't work unless it's a very tight fit to the inside of the cartridge port.. I've looked for slim/thin o-rings for the cartridge to sit on but it needs to be easy for the cartridge to push into and seal any imprefections on the cartridge nozzle.

Just as a side note I've found 2 carts now that have a slight nick in the nozzle and this has been letting small amounts of air into the cart.. So far the silicon tape seems to be doing the job though..

Keep em' coming

 

[tyamada]

You should try changing cartridges to eliminate the ones that are leaking. That being said you might want to look into teflon tape, used to seal threads on pipes for compressed aire and plumbing. Wrap the outside of the outlet port and fold the tape over onto the lip, use enough tape to wrap around about two times, it should do the trick.

 

[websnail]

You should try changing cartridges to eliminate the ones that are leaking.

Unfortunately the cartridges are the chipped Canon ones so it's an expensive approach to adopt.

That being said you might want to look into teflon tape, used to seal threads on pipes for compressed aire and plumbing. Wrap the outside of the outlet port and fold the tape over onto the lip, use enough tape to wrap around about two times, it should do the trick.

Sounds like the stuff I already have and you're right it does work a treat... I'd still prefer a more elegant solution if I could find one though..

 

[tyamada]

Take the exit port and sand it with a very fine grade of sand paper (400 or 500 grit wet or dry) be careful to keep the port at 90 degrees to the sand paper, a few passes should be sufficient to make a better seal at the grommet.

 

[JRImrie]

InkjetMaster,

The seals area hollow cylinder for the most part and can therefore be pushed on too far. Check and make sure that the hollow part below the seal is not collapsed.

 

[Grandad35]

Remove the rubber seal from the printhead, place a tight fitting O-ring around the ink pickup, then reinstall the rubber seal. This will raise the rubber seal into a tighter contact with the cart. The extra contact force can be adjusted by selecting different thisknesses for the cross section of the O-ring. A washer cut from a soft rubber sheet should also work.

 

[Tin Ho]

Websnail, while you are focusing on the exit hole and printhead rubber ring leaking perhaps you also want to see if something else in your cartridge of your CIS system is causing you the problem. There is a piece of felt material in the exit hole right below the sponge in the cartridge. This felt is made of a bundle of fiber material. The fibers are running in vertical direction so that ink flows along the direction of the fibers. The surface of this felt sometimes is found cut imperectly causing the surface tilted in a small angle. As a result the inktake ring of the printhead ink inlet will not perfectly rest against this felt. If the felt is tilted the ring will only partially come in contact with the surface of the felt. It will cause air to be drawn to the printhead. In fact I tend to believe this may be your problem rather than the rubber ring that does not seal too well. Take a good look at your cartridge and see the felt material if it has a tilted surface. Think about it. Why is this felt there? Why not just the sponge? It is there for the purpose of guiding the ink to flow along the direction of the filbers. The tightness of the rubber ring to seal off the exit hole is not as critical as you think. It is this felt that makes sure ink will flow from the sponge into the printhead. I have seen some poor quality compatibles with a surface of this felt not perpendicular to the ink inlet ring. Cartridges with such tilted surface on the felt won't work.

 

[herky1127]

I spoke to someone at MIS a couple of months ago about their CIS systems. I was curious as to why most of their systems were for Epsons and not Canons. He said they had problems with leakage at the print head on the Canons. Also (I could be remembering this wrong) they don't use spongeless carts on the Canons because of this same issue. I think he said they use a half sponge cart. BTW, is your system spongeless?

I don't remember the guys name but you might want to give them a call. They obviously have run into this problem before and may have a solution.