Inkjet Goodies Bacterial Glop

[Grandad35]

Rob,

I think that I saw two types of glop:
1. The soft glop in the ink chamber probably came from the grooves in the vertical wall between the two chambers (the second photo in post #72 in http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=28&p=8). I say this because some glop was knocked loose by tapping the cart on the sink after it had already undergone several syringes of cleaning.
2. The glop "under the sponge and around the filter" appeared to be harder and more resistant to cleaning. Even after the sponge was cleaned, this glop still hadn't been totally dissolved. It is common for this area to be full of air while the cart is in use, so air may be involved (could the hardened glop just be a dried version of the other glop?).

I think that the first type of glop may be common with all inks, and that it is the reason why carts "fail" after being refilled a number of times (as was suggested by Craig). When my other new inks arrive I'll have a chance to do the same tests on 6 other ink colors to see if it is a common problem or if it is limited to certain colors. It's too bad that you need a vacuum system to evacuate and refill carts after using this cleaning method, or it would be an easy way to clean carts every 3rd or 4th refill.

If others have failed carts and want to see if they can find similar glop in their carts, it would be good to have additional data.

 

[Nifty]

Any updates / comments on bacteria glops, globs, sludge, blobs, etc. within cartridges and/or ink?

I'm interested in confirmed cases of the development of this stuff due to bacteria, mixes of inks, etc.

 

[Grandad35]

Rob,

My inventory of refilled carts is large enough that I only have to refill about every 6-8 weeks. I have only performed one refill cycle (16 carts refilled 3 weeks ago) since all of the carts were cleaned and refilled with Formulabs ink. I have not had any problems with banding or ink starvation since the carts were cleaned, even though I was experiencing lots of those problems on the PM before cleaning the carts and switching inks.

There was no sign of glop when the carts were refilled (6 of the 16 were PM), but I wasn't looking for it and it may take longer to develop to the point where it causes an ink supply problem. In a few months I'll clean a few carts and specifically look for glop.

 

[alchemist]

Rob,

I have been making and testing inks for over 20 years. I believe all the OEMs and most high quality aftermaket suppliers use a biocide/anitoxident in their inks. This should prevent alge from growing in the ink for several years of storage. The only alge I ever saw develop was when a Canon BJI 201 Magenta ink cartridge was placed in direct sunlight next to a printed samples in an outside archivability test in Houston. That occured after three weeks of August heat, humidity, and direct sunlight. By that time the magenta on the paper was almost completely gone.

Most major remanufacturers that I have evaluated use a cartridge cleaning solution that includes a biocide, such as Proxile GXL to prevent organic growth in the ink. Their RO/DI water also is exposed to intense UV light which also kills most living things. Yes it can happen but highly unlikely if the OEM cartridges were not exposed to extreme heat, humidity, and sunlight. Given that some aftermarket ink is at best poor quality, anything could happen then, including growing things in the cartridge.

Alchemist

 

[Nifty]

alchemist, a HUGE welcome to the forum!!! When I first started refilling (a very long time ago with my Canon BJC-1000 ) it was many of your posts (on other sites) that helped and inspired me. I'm glad that you found you way over here and hope to more interaction from you. I know you've got a lot to add!

 

[Grandad35]

Alchemist,

I second Rob's welcome and look forward to the input from someone who knows what goes into formulating inks. Do you have any ideas on what caused the glop that I saw in this post?
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1676#p1676

 

[tyamada]

I hate to bring this thread back to the front but I just had to refill a BCI-6PC and replace it in a Canon S800 printer. I replaced the empty cartridge with one I had refilled about 4 months ago. When the printer finished cleaning the heads I ran a Head check and found that 4 jets were plugged. I kept running head cleanings and everything got worse more jets wouldn't print. Changed cartridges with the same results. I went and tried to refill a cartridge with MIS Photo Cyan I pruchased awhile back. When I tried to draw ink into the syringe nothing was drawn in. Pulled out the syringe and saw a glob of goo was drawn into the needle. I strained the bottle of ink and found large amounts of goo in the ink. I then vaccumed out the three cartridges that didn't work in printer and found goo had grown in the sponge chambers and was causing my print head to clog up.
I ran numerous cleanings and blew out the print head with compressed air but there was still 4 jets that wouldn't print. Turned the printer off and let it set a day and ran the head check, worked fine, I guess there was some air in the head and cleared overnight.

Beware of any Photo Cyan ink that is old, it might have have some goop in it and cause you big problems.

 

[websnail]

So's you know... I spoke to an MIS tech not too long ago after one of my older full sponge CIS carts for the black started to have feed problems... (C84 printer with Ultrachrome equiv MIS inks)

I was told that the issue could be related to the age of the kit and the inks as algae can build up and clog the ports/sponge. Additionally there's the drying out issue as well...

I'll be getting replacement carts for this set and ripping the sides off the old one that's causing problems to see if I can spot what's happened.

Thought it might be useful

 

[Nifty]

Hey tyamada, don't worry at all about bringing up old threads! I actually like to see older threads be opened back up then a new thread started.

BTW, any chance you took and/or could take pictures of the goop?

 

[tyamada]

I didn't take any pictures, it completely slipped my mind. The stuff was stringy, about 1/4 to 3/4 inch long and about 1/32 inch wide give or take. As I said I strained it with a hobby paint funnel with a very fine mesh. Then I used a coffee filter to filter the ink. I haven't refilled any Photo Cyan cartridges yet, I will wait and refill when needed. There was a large amount that was strained, the coffee filter didn't seem to catch any at all.

I will keep you posted when I refill another Photo Cyan cartridge.

I flushed three sets of Canon OEM cartridges out with a vaccum syringe. The only cartridges that had any goop was the Photo Cyan cartridges. Of the the three Photo Cyan cartridges I had a hard time cleaning two of them and ended up throwing one of the cartridges away due to the goop left in the sponge.