Ink blotches on print

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

just make a nice 13x19 piezo print on my epson 4900, and noticed that in one spot there was black ink blotches that messed up my print.

my second print had same blotches in same spot but less severe.

why did this happen and how do I stop it from happening?

thank you

2

Were the blotches on the edge of the print?

What paper are you using?

3

was using type 2 paper and the blotches were about 2in from the edge of 13x19 paper.

is this excess ink from running cleanings?

4

probably one of two things…

either the paper is bending inwards towards the coating (and that can happen in dry environments) - and is catching the print head.

go for the paper first as it’s easy to gently roll back the four corners and edges (don’t dog ear the paper of course…) - just try to get it to lay flat. see if that makes a difference.

or the capping station or wiper blade is leaving gunk behind on the print head. had you been running a lot of cleanings on this printer?

5

my papers are stored in my basement so I do not think they are too dry.

yes I was running a lot of cleanings on my 4900 prior to getting a perfect nozzle check and starting my printing session.

what do you consider a lot of cleaning and how do I remedy this?

will excess ink causing the blotches dry?

6

excess would be more than 3 or 4.

Wait for Monday and let Dana help you with this.

But did you check to see if the blobs are there with just ordinary inkjet paper or is it related to the slightly curled edges of thicker fine art paper?

Please let us know.

7

the blotches were on the 13x19 type 2 paper, but no blotches were made on thinner 8.5 x 11 188gsm hamm photo rag i printed in the same print session.

8

well that’s good news. the paper is probably curling up from lack of humidity. so do what i told you a couple messages ago and make sure the paper is feeding in flat or slightly curled to the back…

9

just finished another print session and while most prints were fine, 1 print had those ink blotches on Hamm photorag 308 in the same spot as last time.

this time however I just ran 1 cleaning prior to printing, so it wasn’t like I was doing many cleanings before printing.

would this signify a paper/humidity issue?

10

this is very common with thick paper and Epson printers when the paper is curling to the inside. As I mentioned earlier - did you examine the paper to see if it is flat or if it has a slight curl towards the print side. If it does, the paper feed can not fully hold it down and it’s edge can catch the print head. that is the source of the blobs. and i told you how to remedy that.

11

You can also widen the platen gap when printing on heavyweight papers, such as 310gsm Type 2 and 308gsm Photo Rag. If you have the issue with the thick papers, but not with thinner weight papers, then I suspect widening the platen gap will help.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

12

thanks for the help.

I will try to roll back my papers.