Which Pigment Ink for Epson 1500W?

[The Hat]

The top CISS system works (Simple answer) because the tubing does not go all the way to the bottom of the tank so therefore no settlement can take place and clog the suspended tubing; it’s primed by pulling a vacuum on the tubing till the ink starts to flow.

The only way you can stop a Marrutt CISS from clogging up when used with pigment ink is to use it heavily every day other that that is will eventfully clog up which would require a complete flush of the whole system..

 

[pharmacist]

The top CISS system works (Simple answer) because the tubing does not go all the way to the bottom of the tank so therefore no settlement can take place and clog the suspended tubing; it’s primed by pulling a vacuum on the tubing till the ink starts to flow.

The only way you can stop a Marrutt CISS from clogging up when used with pigment ink is to use it heavily every day other that that is will eventfully clog up which would require a complete flush of the whole system..

Or you could give the external ink container a gentle stir every few days to resuspend the slight precipitation of the pigment ink .

 

[mikling]

If you check how older tradition design hot water tanks are designed, they also feature a dip tube that feeds hot water from just above the bottom. The other reason is superior efficiency due to the greater temp differential due to incoming cold water against the heated surface.
There is a reason for power flushes in Large format printers. There will be sedimentation along the feed tubes as well. It is best to leave the pigment particles that no longer have the correct charge behind at the bottom as they will eventually drop out again along the way to printing and that will occur in the tubes as well as in the damper/cartridges.

The ability of the printhead to use top fed dip systems will indicate that constant pressure ( Isobaric) CISS is a lot of ........ Rubbish or Needed feature. You figure it out.

You can always make a bottom fed dip tube. All you need to do is to follow the Canon pigment cartridge design. Place a wall along the circumference of the intake at the bottom. Place a hood over the hole to prevent pigment from dropping into the hole. Problem solved. Patent worthy?

One reason that top fed CISSes are hardly marketed is that it does not easily allow for prefilled CISS sealed systems to ship. Usually the user needs to properly prime. ..It ain't gonna happen for most folks.

Do a search on a 777. A home brew CISS system I fabricated on July ( 7th month) Day 7, 2007.

The key aspect to a quality CISS is really the quality of the install. Too many folks just don't have the requisite skills to do a proper clean job.
Flapping of the tubes is easily conquered with some pieces of adhesive felt sheet found in craft stores. Tubes should be properly guided and clearance provided etc.
Loss of charge and improper density of particles will vary amongst ink batches etc. and happens primarily with darker colors.....more solids.

It is a good idea but many have done without it. There is right way and wrong way. Sometimes the wrong way still works for a while but the correct way stands tall.

 

[Apostolos]

Here is what i learned during the past few days about pigment ink and ciss.
The pigment ink is in fact a powder ink. If we feed a printer through bottom feed ciss, the powder when it sits down not moving at all, solidifies (i hope i'm using the correct term) at the bottom . This is why bottom feed ink clogs the printhead if not used very regularly.

There is however a tip for those who use pigment ink, through a bottom feed ciss. They have to place the ciss system, with double adhesive tape, to the side of the printer. This way, with the printhead movement, when the entire printer shakes and trembles, the pigment ink in the ciss system shakes as well, and doesn't solidifies so easily.

I have preferred the empty cartridge solution, rather than a ciss, because the cartridges move with the printhead, having a better shake of the pigment ink inside. It's more hassle refiling them, but they provide better reliability than a ciss with pigment ink.

 

[pharmacist]

Use two sets of cartridges, when one cartridge is empty replace the whole set. The reason is that when installed the printer will execute a cleaning cycle dumping more ink. For example if your light magenta is empty and your light cyan is at 5%, refilling the light magenta only will cause again an empty cartridge message (light cyan), as installing the full light magenta will reset this cartridge, but the cleaning will cause the light cyan be drained completely and you have to start again refilling....if your yellow was at 10%, this will be drained too after you refill the light magenta and light cyan.....until you will become crazy....

I now use two sets of cartridges, when one cartridge is registered as empty I replace the whole set with a new completely full and reset set, so everything starts from 100%. Meanwhile I can reset and refill the old set of which for example light magenta is empty, light cyan at 5% and yellow at 10%. Otherwise you will keep on with refilling and installing cartridges until you will become crazy.

 

[Apostolos]

I 'll keep that in mind! Thanks!

 

[martin0reg]

...
- Now one thing I noticed: in the diluted matte black I can see the particles with the naked eye! Very fine particles but definitely visible, different from the photo black(also pigment!) in which I could not see particles...(a "clear" gray tone similar to dye ink)
Questions arise:
- Is matte black really so "grainy" compared to photo black?
- could matte black be used at all in a native dye printer which has no precaution to stir the ink or appropiate cartridges? While the carts are sitting on the printhead they will be moved and shaked a little...but will it be enough for matte (!) black??

I let the diluted matte black and photo black ink sit for a day in the glasses and took a quick photo:

The visible particles of matte black are sinking down already, in the diluted photo black I see no particles, it looks like dye to me.
So could it be that only matte black needs special precaution for pigment ink?

I will do this test of deposit with other pigment colors to see if particles are visible to the naked eye or not and how fast a deposit is building up.
PS: despite the light clear look of the diluted matte black it prints deeper blacks than the photo black ... must be the result of these grainy particles...!?

***PS: I just found the explanation regarding matte and photo (pigment) black***
photo blacks "have a colored dispersant like the color inks ... matte black does not have a dispersant, being a pure carbon pigment"

 

[martin0reg]

After only one week not printing the matte black has clogged the printhead
I had to pull out the cart and gently shake it, then had to run several cleaning cycles and purge prints.

So for now my experience with pigment ink in a 6 channel is disappointing - because of two big problems with the black inks I have used:
- the photo black (both inktech and IS) is definitely not black enough, neither on glossy nor on matte paper. Dye ink generally results in much deeper black.
- the matte black (IS and OCP) on matte photo paper results in deep blacks - but it cloggs the printhead very fast...

This is my personal experience with a R285 and I wonder what is going wrong here ... while many users claim to have no problems with pigment ink in non-pigment epson printers ..
So my question is: do you get really deep blacks - similar to dye ink - with a 6 channel pigment ink set using photo black??

 

[Borut]

i think you need to use K3 pigment inks for photos whit only photo black?
and for photo maybe you need 8 colors for best result..can you post some scan of printed image
i whana see results)

 

[martin0reg]

Here are two scans each of 3 samples, from left to right:
dye black ink (coralgraph ink set) - pigment matte black (IS) - pigment photo black (IS or inktech)
(the rest of the pigment set was inktech powerchrome)

1. purging test patterns on cheap "eco" plain paper, which is slightly off-white and absorbent.
(please ignore the nozzle lines...prints are from declogging procedure..)
- dye Bk is okay, pigment mBk is blackest on this absorbent paper, pigment pBk is not reallly black

2. B&W photo (from internet.. keira wasn't here..) on matte inkjet paper using "black ink only" mode
(please ignore the color cast from scanning...also the stripes from a clogged nozzle then..)
- dye ink Bk and pigment mBk are both able to print deep blacks while pigment pBk is not.

.. in the photo file the black areas on the left of the portrait are really black, reading luminance of around 3-3-3