No vent tape on Arrow virgin carts

[herky1127]

Just ordered a set of virgin carts from alotofthings for a ip3000. Noticed there is no tape/sticker covering part of the vent maze. Every other cart I have seen has something covering a portion of the maze. Are these carts designed to work with the vent maze fully exposed?

 

[Nifty]

Very interesting! Do you have access to a digital camera or a scanner to show us a picture?

 

[fotofreek]

MIS virgin carts came without a tape over the air vent, but they did come with a printed sticker that looks like the OEM sticker on the top of the cart. I called tech support and asked if I should put the sticker over the top like an OEM cart and he said that it wasn't necessary. I've left it off and the carts work fine. I also bought Arrow prefilled carts from Alotofthings. That was at about the time that their vendor used an ink other than Formulabs in a batch of carts and I wasn't sure which ink was in the carts. I purged them and filled them with MIS inks. In the process of purging the tape came off. I remembered the problem that Rob had with some of them not feeding properly and took a good look at the tops. Soime of the vent holes were larger than others and it was apparent that they were from two different manufacturers! I used a push pin and enlarged the holes that appeared to be too small. I've been using these carts with no tape on top and they've worked just fine. Although the tape is probably there to minimize evaporation, I don't know how much evaporation can occur through a pinhole!

 

[herky1127]

here is a pic of the top

 

[d87cfv]

Interesting: they still have the wiggly-woggly bit on the top as if they were designed to have a label on top....Still, an open hole is an open hole. I cant see any reason other than aesthetics to put a sticker on top.

Dan

 

[hpnetserver]

Hum..., these cartridges look really "NOT" very pretty to me. There must be a reason the OEM design has the maze on top of the cartridges. And there must be another reason why it is covered but leaving one end open. It's surprising to learn alotofthings sell cartridges at this level of quality.

 

[herky1127]

Turns out the Arrow maze design is exactly like some MIS carts I bought except they have tape on top. I have completed 10,000 prints with these carts. No major problems. I am getting approximately 350 prints per refill.

One problem that may be associated with this design is the black cart has not been transferring ink to the sponge properly. Once I open the ink refill hole, the ink will then be sucked up by the sponge. Other than that is has been working fine. I have not been using as much black. The yellow needs to be refilled long before black, so I have not run into problems with the black cart going dry. Anyone know what may be the cause of this?

 

[websnail]

I hadn't really thought about it but I guess the maze is there to stop evaporation or anyone from pressing too hard on the cartridge sides and potentially forcing ink out onto clothes, etc... That's a guess but it would make some kind of sense.

As to your problem herky1127 sounds like you may have a clogged vent.

 

[herky1127]

websnail, I think you might be right on this. I had a cyan cart which had similar problems to the black. I took a paper clip and slid it down the vent hole. It went in with no problem. After I did that ink started to come out of the vent hole. I must have enlarged it slightly. It wasn't much but even the smalled drop can create a mess.

I threw out the cart after that, so I never found out if a restricted air vent was causing the problem.