My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[stratman]

Last night I duplex printed an 10 page article that has numerous brown bars 5/16 inch tall and of variable lengths. These solid colored bars are above every table, graph and chart in the articles I print. I have not noticed this behavior with other solid colored horizontal bars before, but maybe that is because I don't recall this particular colored used.

On the last 4 or 5 pages I noticed a faint repeating two-tone banding of approximately 0.5 inch length. The appearance is similar to the banding effect of using a CIS scanner element in default mode. See PeterBJ's post here for example and the fix. (Hat tip to original poster @lukasz) Now that the ink has dried overnight it is essentially imperceptible unless you are looking for it.

Maybe this is evidence of the ink starvation others experience. Will try printing the stress test pages on this page to see what happens. A call to Canon may be forthcoming.

 

[stratman]

First, the printer knows you have opened the paper cassette, even though no paper was added, with the power OFF (but plugged into Mains). Spooky.

Second, I just tried @The Hat 's image for a stress test. The first printed page seems perfect. Starting with the second print out there are noticeable artifacts in the last three colors CMY, K and CMYK, which happen to be the Browns and Blacks. Recall, my first notice of a defect in printing was with a ~80% Brown, if using The Hat's graphic as guide. These defects increased over the next 8 pages of the 10 total printouts in the Browns and Blacks only.

All the other colors/blocks appear to be as in The Hat's image.

First image is the second page printed. Defects noted.



The second image is a crop of the problem areas, marked with brackets, that begin on the second page printed out.



The third image is a crop from the ninth page - the worst of all the pages. (Ignore the right-most arrow.)



Interestingly, the vertical defect between the first and second arrows was not very noticeable when I marked the page but is now since scanning. The scanner was better than my eye.

I then called Canon Tech Support. See next post.

 

[stratman]

Called Canon Tech Support and discussed the situation. Very patient man had me do a number of tasks.

1. Print a nozzle check - perfect.
2. Do Regular Cleaning and then retry The Hat's image. 3 copies printed and same defects.
3. Do Deep Cleaning and Auto Head Alignment (appears perfect) then retry printing. Once again defects present, with some worsening.
4. Try a different application to print the JPG. Tried PAINT - improvement but also some different defects noted.

At this point the Tech thinks this could be hardware related. He had not heard of this issue before with the Maxify. Sending replacement printer. Says cannot replace print head since cartridges cannot be removed until empty. Canon tech support under warranty coverage is superb.

Effect of testing on the ink levels -- used about 1/3 of the CYM cartridge inks! That included 19 copies of The Hat's image, one nozzle check, one print head alignment, one Regular Cleaning, and one Deep Cleaning.

Still, I love this printer.

I asked how much the printer consumes on a deep cleaning and he said as much as printing out a 4'x6' image. Did not know ml amounts.

Speaking of cartridges, Tech said the Maxify cartridges use pressurized bladders like the Pro-1. Maybe this is why refilled OEM's and aftermarkets have uneven ink flow leading to ink starvation at standard quality settings - not enough pressure.

 

[mikling]

First, the printer knows you have opened the paper cassette, even though no paper was added, with the power OFF (but plugged into Mains). Spooky.

Second, I just tried @The Hat 's image for a stress test. The first printed page seems perfect. Starting with the second print out there are noticeable artifacts in the last three colors CMY, K and CMYK, which happen to be the Browns and Blacks. Recall, my first notice of a defect in printing was with a ~80% Brown, if using The Hat's graphic as guide. These defects increased over the next 8 pages of the 10 total printouts in the Browns and Blacks only.

All the other colors/blocks appear to be as in The Hat's image.

First image is the second page printed. Defects noted.

View attachment 8948

The second image is a crop of the problem areas, marked with brackets, that begin on the second page printed out.

View attachment 8949

The third image is a crop from the ninth page - the worst of all the pages. (Ignore the right-most arrow.)

View attachment 8950

Interestingly, the vertical defect between the first and second arrows was not very noticeable when I marked the page but is now since scanning. The scanner was better than my eye.

I then called Canon Tech Support. See next post.

See and determine if the vertical marks are actually indents left by the exit rollers. I suspect that it is. The small fold will show up more in scanning because of reflective light.

All carts operate by either negative or positive pressure. How it achieves that pressure will depend on the design. Some are active and some are passive.

 

[palombian]

See and determine if the vertical marks are actually indents left by the exit rollers. I suspect that it is. The small fold will show up more in scanning because of reflective light.

All carts operate by either negative or positive pressure. How it achieves that pressure will depend on the design. Some are active and some are passive.

I did the same test.
On normal settings C and BK have defects, on high quality everything OK.
Since it was printed in landscape the indents of the rollers are sideways (from dark to light).
80g Double A paper.
Very understandable when the paper is soaking wet with ink.
In real printing this seldom happens and the indents are not visible.

Previously I had a MX7600 as office printer (PGI-9 cartridges as the PRO9500).
I remember ink feed problems with the magenta ink at that time.
In comparision the Maxify is a dream.

We print at less than 20% of the OEM cost, think about it.

 

[stratman]

See and determine if the vertical marks are actually indents left by the exit rollers. I suspect that it is. The small fold will show up more in scanning because of reflective light.

Maybe so but I do not detect any indents, folds, or creases in the paper. Will see with new printer if same issue occurs. If so then could be a design flaw in the Maxify or my choice of plain paper: Boise Polaris, Premium Multipurpose Paper, 24 lb., 97 Bright, ColorLok, 8.5'x11".

All carts operate by either negative or positive pressure. How it achieves that pressure will depend on the design. Some are active and some are passive.

Yes and why the refilled OEM may experience defects in printing -- no more factory pressurization. Yet, The Hat's aftermarket Alibaba cartridges which do not have an ink bladder also experience the same issue.

Seems more tinkering with the aftermarket cartridge design or refilling technique of an OEM cartridge is possible.

How do your Precision Colors aftermarket Maxify cartridges perform? Do your cartridges experience the ink starvation that both The Hat and others reported when using aftermarket cartridges while printing in Standard Quality? Have you tried printing multiple copies of an ink-guzzling image like The Hat's at Standard Quality setting to determine printing defects?

 

[stratman]

indents of the rollers

Please describe what the indents look like and where they are located specifically. Can you capture the indents themselves with a scanner?

 

[mikling]

Maybe so but I do not detect any indents, folds, or creases in the paper. Will see with new printer if same issue occurs. If so then could be a design flaw in the Maxify or my choice of plain paper: Boise Polaris, Premium Multipurpose Paper, 24 lb., 97 Bright, ColorLok, 8.5'x11".


Yes and why the refilled OEM may experience defects in printing -- no more factory pressurization. Yet, The Hat's aftermarket Alibaba cartridges which do not have an ink bladder also experience the same issue.

Seems more tinkering with the aftermarket cartridge design or refilling technique of an OEM cartridge is possible.

How do your Precision Colors aftermarket Maxify cartridges perform? Do your cartridges experience the ink starvation that both The Hat and others reported when using aftermarket cartridges while printing in Standard Quality? Have you tried printing multiple copies of an ink-guzzling image like The Hat's at Standard Quality setting to determine printing defects?

My aftermarket is nothing special. I described the workings of it previously.
What I see on standard setting on gradient prints is that there are vertical bands due to either imprecise feeding of the paper or due to not perfect printhead alignment. ( Ised the automatic alignment) I did my quick test on copy paper ...cheap stuff. On high quality most of the bands go away but there still exists some banding from the Black. What is easily observed is that this printer on plain paper uses a lot of Black for luminance control. That gives a coarse look to the prints. What one also needs to consider is the intended purpose of the printer....office work with mostly solid colors. Remember that I said that printers are unable to print all colors they say they can. I am wondering if this is especially the case on printers optimized for text and graphics and I strongly feel this is the case again. Maybe the printer is unable to smoothly shift from one color to another because of this, Don't know.
After owning this machine for 4 years and it is used for bulk printing, hundreds of sheets at a go. It suits my purpose fine. I totally ignore the ink levels on the chips, before a print job, I will top off all carts, then I use it as a production machine for printing instruction sheets where quality is not large issue. 9 Remember this machine was not built for precision like a photo printer. For this purpose I cannot complain. I don't have to reset, I don't worry about refilling during a print job of hundreds of sheets and it is fast like a copy machine and I don't need to worry about cartridge condition either. I know the alignment is not perfect but again, it is not a photo. I don't see starvation issues, if it was having it from day one, it has not affected anything yet after 4 years of use. The only thing the occasional user needs to remember is that because of pressurization issues, it is best to perform some printing immediately after a refill to set up the negative pressure. I've explained this before.

 

[stratman]

Thank you for the reply.

What I see on standard setting on gradient prints is that there are vertical bands due to either imprecise feeding of the paper or due to not perfect printhead alignment. ( Ised the automatic alignment)

Must be what the Canon Tech Support guy was thinking as well since he had me do an auto head alignment. His conclusion was it is a hardware failure and that is why he is sending a replacement printer. Maybe it is a design deficiency.

Maybe the printer is unable to smoothly shift from one color to another because of this

Wouldn't you then expect the defect to occur when the color changes?

The defects appear about midway in the block of color. These defects seem consistent in position but are variable in height, not just in relationship to other defects but also variable in height individually. The defects are also seemingly equidistant apart, supporting a hardware issue. Then there is the rare vertical defect of a few microns width loss of ink, as if the paper or print head skipped a beat forward.

What one also needs to consider is the intended purpose of the printer....office work with mostly solid colors.

Right on. However, the 0.5" height by 6" long solid single color brown swath found in the printed article is well within the purview of office work, but not the checkerboarding that occurred with that specific color. This defect has not been noticed with any other similar sized but differently colored swath found in the 2-3 dozen articles I've printed. My test using The Hat's image shows a defect in the brown and blacks only. There's a pattern.

The only thing the occasional user needs to remember is that because of pressurization issues, it is best to perform some printing immediately after a refill to set up the negative pressure.

Seems good advice to prevent leakage. How would it help those with ink starvation on Standard Quality settings? Too much negative pressure?

 

[mikling]

I think this might be a tolerance issue and slap of some type. What one notices is that these bent sheet metal carriage guide printers never for me at least don't seem to hold alignnment that well. I expected this. This happens even on the Epson with bent sheet metal guides. This could be a consequence of cost reduction. On text this inaccuracy will not show up. On solid colors it will show a band. On varying images, it depends on the image, The simpler it is the more it is discernable.
The varying quality might be due to the ink itself. Not sure what you are seeing because I don't see it in mine. But inkjet nozzle ejection characteristics will vary by ink even though there is no clogging. The volume of actual ink expelled will vary by ink composition. Don't assume because there is a nozzle check that shows OK for two different inks that the same volume is expelled. From a scientific standpoint it falls to reason very simply, for starters the boiling point will vary, The second is that the specific heat capacity will also vary, then there is the physical characteristics as well.
I have learned about these things myself over the last three years in evolving my Signature Inksets. Ink expulsion and its effects need to be observed. For example an ink that looks darker in liquid and measures darker in liquid will not necessarily print darker if less is expelled by the nozzle as compared.
I don't have starvation issues on a left to right/horizontal output. There is microbanding on the vertical axis that still appears after aligment. This microbanding is due to the Black.