Shipping Canon Printers

[Trigger 37]

Hello, I would like to request your help and experience in shipping printers. I repair and sell a lot of printers and 95% of the time there is no problem in shipping, but recently I have problems with ink leaking from ink carts that have been modified for refilling. I had always shipped these ink carts plugged into the printhead, as this is the method recommended in all of the Canon Service Manuals.

Then I had some problems with one that was damaged in shipment. After a few "Discussions" I got the shipper to return the box and I had to start all over to clean up the mess and repair the broken parts. So I also changed the method I used to send the modified ink carts. I packaged each one in a sealed plastic bag and then packaged them in a separate small box to protect them and put that in the larger box with the printer. The ink leaked. I don't have the ability to seal the ink tank exit hole like Canon does from the factory, so I have gone back to my original approach but added a few more safeguards.

I would like to know your best recommendation on shipping printer and refillable ink tanks that are 95% full of ink. I'm not concerned about physical damage because the shipper has given me great help and guidelines on the basic sealing and packaging of the box. The real problem is how to handle ink carts that have been modified for refill and are full of ink.

I use one of the techniques I found on this web site and that is to use Stainless steel screws and "Rubber O rings" for the refill holes. These must be very good at the seam to be fine. The problem comes with the ink tank exit hole. I have tried the large black "C" clips and they work good around the house, but they don't seem to be that good on long trips.

 

[Grandad35]

Trigger37

Canonfodder has done some work that may help to explain your problem, and hopefully he will chime in. One possibility is that you are shipping by air, and that the large pressure changes experienced in flight are causing the leaks. Any air in the ink chamber will expand when the ambient pressure is reduced, and this will produce the same effect as a leaking refill screw. One cure for this would be to fill the ink chamber to 100%, eliminating all of the air in the ink chamber.

In addition, once a cart begins to leak, the surface tension of the ink can continue to pull ink out of the cart, depending on what happens to the ink that already leaked. As a simple test, set a cart on a dry, folded paper towel. As long as the towel and cart are dry, they won't leak. Next, wet a small piece of towel, place it up against the filter at the cart's exit and set the cart on the same dry folded towel. Ink should now be slowly pulled out of the cart and into the paper towel - this is what happens when the sponges at a printer's cleaning station become saturated and cause cross-contamination.

I have never shipped carts or a printer, but I would:
1. Remove the print head and flush it with cleaning solution. Place the cleaned head in its own Ziploc bag. If you need to add packing material, add it outside the bag - never inside. This appears to be how Canon ships their print heads on new printers as well as replacement print heads.
2. One option with the carts is to leave them completely dry (as they are after purging) and to ship the ink in separate bottles for the end user to refill. Obviously, this isn't for everyone.
3. To ship the carts prefilled, completely fill the ink chamber of each cart. If you don't have a clip or the original exit hole cover to seal the cart's exit, maybe you can find a tape that sticks aggressively to the cart, but which doesn't leave a sticky residue on the cart when removed. Put each cart in a separate sealed plastic bag without any packing material inside the bag. The polyethylene in the plastic bag won't wick ink from the carts and will contain the mess even if there is some leakage.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have shipped many refilled cartridges which are probably 95% full. I use a vinyl tape made by 3M, Scotch 35, stretched over the ink outlet hole. It does not leave a residue. It is very important to NOT cover or seal the air vent hole or, as Grandad35 pointed out, changes in air pressure will force ink out of the cartridge. This will happen just from daily ambient air pressure fluctuations or elevation changes during ground shipping. You want the cartridge to be able to breathe through its normal air vent, not through the ink outlet port.

 

[Trigger 37]

Grandad35,...ghwellsjr,... Thanks to both of you for the great information, especially about the note on covering the air vent hole. That I did not know for sure. I ship all of my stuff by FedEx ground but I have a feeling that when they ship some things go from city to city by air, especially to places like Denver, CO. I guess it doesn't even matter if it goes by air, since Denver is at 5000 feet. There is quite a pressure difference at 5000 ft. The ones that leaked went to Colorado and I made the mistake of sealing all openings. The exit was sealed, the air breather was sealed, and of course the fill hole was sealed with the Stainless Steel screw and the rubber "O" ring. It is no wonder it leaked. It is luck that it was in a plastic bag and I was told that it leaked at the blue tape I put on the exit port. I'm sure now that the cause was the pressure difference between getting from California to Colorado. Even by truck you have to cross the Rockies and that will take you to 7000+ feet.

Grandad35,... I don't think it is possible or practical to fill the carts to 100%,.. maybe 95% and that might be good enough. That is what ghwellsjr uses and it works for him. Canon and every other ink cart MFG. ship their ink carts the same way. They leave about 1/8" to 3/16" air gap in the reservoir side, they seal the air breather hole, and they add a very strong cap to the exit hole, and to make sure all of this stays on tight, they then encapsulate the entire ink cart and all seals in plastic shrink wrap. The shrink wrap is not air tight but it holds the exit port cap on so tight there is no way ink will leak from there. They use thick cellophane tape to seal the air breather hole, and I've never ever seen any kind of new ink cart leak from there. Since there is no "Refill hole", there is no other place to leak,... and they don't.

ghwellsjr,... I'll get me some of that Vinyl tape and try it out. Thanks a lot for the great information.

 

[WhiteDog]

3M supplies a clear tape called "storage tape." It is very durable and very sticky. Much better than other clear tapes. Office Depot may have it. It will not age or wrinkle.

 

[Trigger 37]

ghwellsjr,... Let me ask you again about your Vinyl scotch tape. You have shipped many refilled ink carts with the screw and "O" ring sealing the refill hole, and only the Vinyl tape over the exit hole. You must only wrap it half way around the ink cart otherwise it would cover some of the air breather hole. Is this tape 1/2" wide or 3/4" wide? Do you also put the ink cart in an additional plastic baggie? Have you ever had a problem shiping them to all parts of the U.S.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The tape I use is 3/4 inch wide. You can see a picture of it on a BCI-6 cart in my article on vacuum refilling on the nifty-stuff.com homepage. Since I vacuum refill, I don't need to use a refill hole and so I don't need to reseal one. I also always fold over one end of the tape so that it can be easily removed. I have never had a complaint about the ink leaking from any of the people I have shipped to but that doesn't mean a little ink hasn't leaked out. I put each cartridge in a 3x5" ziplock bag I get from Staples.

I got a little chinchy on my last batch of refilling and used a shorter piece of tape (like the one in the picture). Because it is stretched over the refill port, sometimes it will break loose from one side of the cartridge and uncover a part of the port.

I have had cartridges leak in my larger storage zip lock bag where I keep them before I distribute them. I never really worried about it or was too surprised by it. I always attributed it to filling them so full and not clearing all the ink out of the air vent serpentine groove which is where the leaks show up.

 

[jflan]

Here's a couple of things that I've had success with :
Labels...I place a FRAGILE and HANDLE WITH CARE on each panel.
http://www.everythingradio.com/how_to_ship_a_radio.htm
I use FedEx and place one of their THIS SIDE UP labels on each vertical panel.

I see to it that the FedEx agent places shipping labels in an appropriate location.

Make sure the printhead is secure for travel.
Techniques vary model to model.
Sometimes I will move it to center and lock it down with strapping tape that is set up for easy removal with scissors.

If I don't have the original box, I have used the usual bed of peanuts, then a piece of "egg crate" foam, then more peanuts.

They will still find a way to break them, but maybe it can be minimized.
Recently had a scanner hinge break, courtesy of FedEx.
If I had removed the lid for shipping, it would have survived the blow.
Thankfully, this model had a carriage lock.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have purchased many used Canon printers on eBay and the ones shipped by USPS fair the best. Unless you completely wrap the printer in wide cellophane, I would NOT recommend styrofoam peanuts because it gets into everything inside the printer and it is very difficult if not impossible to clear out all the little shreads.

 

[Trigger 37]

Wow,... you guys have some great ideas. I guess it's because you have been doing it for awhile and have learned the hard way. Both Canon and Epson specifically state in their Service manuals, if you have to ship the printer, leave the ink carts in the printhead and park the printhead buy just turning the printer off and it will park over the nozzle caps. This keeps the printhead from drying out and also limits any ink leakage in the printer. Even if it does leak a little it is just going down into the waste ink pads. The printhead is "Locked" in that position by a large nylon lever that prevents the head from moving in any direction. This is what I'm going to try on the next 2-3 printers and see what happens.

As per jflan's help, I have been packaging my printers in really heavy boxes. The kind they ship Cast Iron cooking pots in that typically weigh 30-40#.

Thanks again.