1430 Best Practices? Evaporation and storage

PiezoDN Digital Negatives
1

I’ve got an Epson 1430 and the Piezo DN inks. I have a few issues. First off, the cartridges evaporate due to the rubber plugs not being very tight. This wastes a ton of ink but more concerning is the pigment that is dried inside the cartridges. Will re-filling the cartridges cause any issues with density? Should I flush them with something?

Secondly, I just ordered a new set of cartridges to fill with Piezo Flush. Hoping that I can just replace the cartridges between jobs with piezo flush and put the Piezo DN cartridges somewhere. Is there a best practice on storing these cartridges for possible extended down-time? Plastic bag? Humidification? Tape over the holes?

Trying to finally get back into printing with the Piezo system, but refilling the cartridges every few weeks always threw a wrench into my interest and I finally just gave up. Now I’m trying to see what I need to do to alleviate the evaporation issue and not printing but every two or three weeks.

Thanks!
-John

2

Dear John, this is not evaporation. There is enough humectant in Piezo inks for them to remain liquid for a very long time even when exposed to air. What is happening is there is not enough seal around your capping station when the head is at rest and this is causing ink to drop. Taping over the vent holes when at rest could help in this situation but in reality it’s an old printer and it’s not going to get better. I suggest a different printer if budget allows.

warm regards
-Walker

3

I have a P400 with PiezoDN ink. I was also wondering about the problem of ink loss during a period of inactivity, and also assumed it was due to evaporation. So the P400, a relatively new Epson model has the same problem as the old 1430.

4

Thanks Walker and John,

The cartridges were half-filled for a quick job, then life got busy and they sat for about four months. I think some evaporation had to have happened because there’s dried pigment on the ‘cross beams’ and bottom of the cartridge.

I’ve just started taping the vents and purchased a sealed plastic container that I installed some silicon matting on the bottom of. The whole thing is tight enough to seal the container, but also push the cartridges into the silicon material. I’m hoping sealing the bottoms and the vent holes as well as introducing a little humidity to the container (via a cigar humidor ‘pack’) will help with my losses of ink.

I’m thinking of getting another container to put my bottles into because those seem a little lower than they should be. I haven’t really used much ink and I’m about 25% left of the big bottles. Maybe it’s the fact that for each onesey-twosey job I have to fill the cartridges and then the leaking or evaporation or whatever. Can’t hurt.

-John