ET-8550 - Excessive Borderless Printing What Precautions?

[glasseye]

Thread title says it all. If I do a lot of borderless printing, should I take any additional precautions?

If I run my finger over the little felt pad right after a borderless print, I can rub off some ink. Not much, but enough that it's visible.

I see no other areas in the printer that are receiving any overspray (unlike other printers I've used).

What happens to the ink that hits the little pads? Does it evaporate? Does it ever get as far as the maintenance tank?

Since I'm using OEM dye inks can I assume that there will be no issues with this overspray? (unlike pigments which might leave a residue once the carrier (water) has evaporated)

Thanks for any advice or experience.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

why do you call your borderless printing 'excessive'? You are able to minimize the amount of overspray via the driver. I'm not aware of a kind of waste ink counter which is user accessible, as well not with the WICReset utility. The ink solvent is mainly a mix of glycoles with some water which evaporates over time.

 

[glasseye]

I intend printing quite a few art cards on "letter size" (North American 8.5" X 11") These prints need to be borderless. I'm printing not thousands or hundreds, but certainly dozens. Not all at once, but over a period of weeks.

I understand that I can control the amount of image expansion which would control the amount of overspray. I've set that to the minimum that creates a borderless image.

I'm concerned with saturating the overspray pads, which might result in a service issue.

Epson tech support line was useless. I received instructions on cleaning the nozzles.

 

[The Hat]

I've set that to the minimum that creates a borderless image.

If you don’t mind ink smudges on the back of your prints, then go right ahead, because that’s what will happen in a very short space of time..
Yes you can clean the printer, but trimming your prints is a shorter job..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I have printed plenty thousends of borderless prints on various Epson printers - and with no backside smudging - and rarely had to clean the platen pads - with some window cleaner and and padding them off with some kitchen paper - this e.g. on an age old R265. The ink deposit is much less with dye inks than with pigment inks . I'm currently running an L805 at 42 000 pages - about 10% borderless - and no issues with the overspray pads so far.

 

[The Hat]

about 10% borderless - and no issues with the overspray pads so far.

I’m the type if I printed 1 borderless print the very next print would have ink on the back..

 

[glasseye]

So who do I believe? : ) Two experts, Two diametrically opposed opinions. : )

I guess I'll just print away and watch for problems.

Impressive performance from your L-805, ISF. When I got my ET 8550 my L-805 (unavailable in Canada, so imported from Taiwan) I gave to a photo friend. This after several years of faithful service. It's still working.

Of probably half a dozen Epson printers, the ET is by far the most satisfying printer I've owned and I have an Epson 9800 and a HP Z3200 sitting gathering dust.

 

[The Hat]

So who do I believe? : ) Two experts, Two diametrically opposed opinions.

On the contrary, one of us knows what they’re doing.. the other one is away with the fairies..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I must admit that I a kind of overlooked the printer you are referring to - my response applies to printers with dye inks (only) - your ET-8550 comes with an additional pigment black which the driver prints together with the dye black for particular paper selections - e.g. normal paper, it is supposed to improve the black level, and some pigment black is used as well for matte paper and inkjetpaper , not for glossy - photo papers, the ratio of dye- pigment black ink is unkown. This pigment black may build up some deposit over time from borderless printing , but that's quite easy to clean away. Problems like this to a bigger extend are reported for the ET-7700 which is using as well a pigment black. You may consider the ET-7700/7750 as a kind of predecessor for the ET-8550

 

[glasseye]

Thanks, ISF. I appreciate your knowledgeable input.

The borderless prints will all be under Velvet Fine Art conditions. According to your post, this media is what uses the most pigment black ink. : (

I'll report back.

To "The Hat": I've seen no rear surface smudging so far. A couple of dozen borderless 8.5X11" prints.
Thanks for your advice. I'll watch carefully for this potential issue.