Cyan Blotches on Nozzle Check

[Charles218]

I have a very clean nozzle check on all colors, except I am getting small blotches of cyan showing up on the GO square. See attached image.
there does not appear to be any problem elsewhere on the check. Any suggestions on how to remedy this?

Epson SC P-400

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Since when are you observing these blotches ? Did they come up suddenly ? Are they at the same location when you do another print of the nozzle check ? Are you using OEM cartridges ? How does the cleaning unit look - rather clean or do you see pigment residue anywhere - any blobs or alike ?

 

[stratman]

Please do not post images with printing on the backside of the paper. It may lead to false conclusions from the bleed through.

 

[Charles218]

This is the first time that I've printed in about two weeks, the nozzle check was fine at that point. I'm attaching a fresh nozzle check, this time on a fresh sheet of paper. As you can see, the blotches are not in the same location. This nozzle check was the very next thing printed after the first images I posted.

I use refillable carts with Precision Colors ink, have never had an issue until this came along. I have very little experience with the mechanics of the printer, so not quite sure what the cleaning unit should look like. Attached is a photo of what I see.

Thanks for the quick come back!!!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

That's a pretty good photo of the cleaning unit indeed, I don't see any pigment ink blobs in this image, the rubber lips around the inner foam pieces are not damaged , cut or bent; there should be a separate rubber lip left to this module which should be similarly clean, this rubber lid wipes off the nozzle plate and typically collects some pigment ink. This rubber lid moves up and down as I remember.

I assume that the cyan blotches print remain when you do 2 nozzle checks after each other . ?
Do yu see these cyan blotches as well in actual printouts - in lighter areas - with the gloss opt. activated ?
I was running a P400 for quite a while but never have seen something similar like this effect , did you print anything with small suare cyan squares earlier - e.g. as part of some drawing or graphics ? I tend to think at this time that these cyan blotches are not actually printed but are transferred from some contaminated rollers, Can you watch the printing of the GO test patch - is it printing the blotches or does the paper already carries the blotches when the print cycle starts. ?

The nozzle check print shows a few nozzles missing for red and some more for the photo black , please run a cleaning cycle to bring back all nozzles.

 

[stratman]

Thanks for the repost. Great images.

 

[Charles218]

I assume that the cyan blotches print remain when you do 2 nozzle checks after each other . ?

Yes, the 2 nozzle checks that I posted were printed consecutively, though maybe an hour apart. Nothing else was printed during that time.

Do yu see these cyan blotches as well in actual printouts - in lighter areas - with the gloss opt. activated ?

I will check that in a bit, probably later today.

I was running a P400 for quite a while but never have seen something similar like this effect , did you print anything with small suare cyan squares earlier - e.g. as part of some drawing or graphics ?

Actually, since it was a couple of weeks ago, I don't recall exactly what I was printing.

I tend to think at this time that these cyan blotches are not actually printed but are transferred from some contaminated rollers, Can you watch the printing of the GO test patch - is it printing the blotches or does the paper already carries the blotches when the print cycle starts. ?

I tried getting video of the nozzle check, the problem is the printhead blocks the view and you can not see what is going on. The blotches reaming, though they are in different locations, this has been true everytime.

The nozzle check print shows a few nozzles missing for red and some more for the photo black , please run a cleaning cycle to bring back all nozzles.

The red was almost totally missing earlier today, getting that taken care of is what got me started with the printer today.

What would you suggest for a test print, any specific colors or patterns?

Thanks!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I do not recall what Epson is doing exactly in the nozzle check pattern to make the transparent gloss optimizer visible in the printout, I think they do an immediate overprint of a printed pattern with the photo black with the GO, a clean check of the GO only works as long as all nozzles of photoblack are printing.
So please run a cleaning cycle -or two - to get all nozzles of photoblack working, and then check on another nozzle check print for changes.
And please do a test print - a smaller piece of paper - glossy photo paper like 4x6 inches - should suffice , the image should be partially white - w/o colors like white clouds in the sky or similar, and print with the GO option always/everywhere so the white areas should get a GO overprint as well.
Please check the image whether you get these cyan blotches anywhere and whether you can see any banding in the gloss from missing GO nozzles when you hold the image against light and turn it slightly back and forth.

 

[Charles218]

Well, the issue appears to have fixed itself. After two cleanings I still can not get a perfect nozzle check, however the blotches on the GO are no longer an issue. Attached is the final nozzle check results, note that photo black is still not perfect, but the GO does not have any color contamination. The nozzle check just prior to this again had minor issues with the photo black and cyan, and the GO had but one small block of cyan showing.

Also, attached is a photo, in looking closely at the clouds I don't see any hint of the cyan, and the GO appears even throughout the print. The only thing that I did today was to run two nozzle checks and cleanings, I ran several of each yesterday and it did not lead to this result. For now I'll leave it as it is.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for your feedback and notice that the problems dissappeared at this time; be cautious nevertheless and do a nozzle check regualarly for some time - like after a few days - to catch changes early ; the missing PK nozzles may cause missing lines in areas printed with the photo black