Newbie questions on 3880 conversion to Piezography Pro

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Total Piezo neophyte here with my first post. I am receiving a 3880 tomorrow that is currently filled with Cone Color inks. I’m planning to convert to Piezography Pro inks using the following steps gleaned from posts and customer education on the inkjetmall site:

  1. With the color cartridges still installed, run a nozzle check. If there are apparent clogs, run the nozzle cleaning cycle until resolved.
  2. Once that looks acceptable run some test prints to check for any banding artifact
  3. Load PiezoFlush into a full set of cartridges.
  4. Clean the capping station and print head
  5. Run approximately 3 power clean cycles, then a nozzle check, then a gradient pattern to check for color staining
  6. Finally, load the Piezography Pro cartridges

Look OK? I have some questions in advance

  1. I’ve seen conflicting information on whether Power Clean addresses both black cartridges, or if I need to manually switch them prior to a power clean. If I need to manually switch should I assume another 3 power cleans to ensure both black channels are cleared? Or is the conversion process kinder to the black channels than to the color channels?
  2. For some Epson printers I’ve seen recommendations to wait several hours between power cleans to protect the print head. Is that the case with the 3880?
  3. Finally, greetings from Santa Fe where the humidity this time of year is about 35% (up from 15% in the summer.) Is this likely to be a problem? I’ve kept a violin humidifier in my P900 and haven’t had issues in the last 18 months.

Thanks!

2

Will respond to you by numbers…

  1. If you have a clog that can not be recovered by nozzle cleaning and you run endless nozzle cleans you may ruin that inkjet channel. You may need to clear with PiezoFlush and you can investigate PiezoFlush on our webstore.

  2. Good idea!

3). This may be how you unclog the printer. Running 3 Power Cleans. shutting if off for a day or so. Running three more power cleans.

  1. Should do that twice a year!
  1. PiezoFlush removes the color pigment staining… so no need to run a gradient.

  1. Yes

  2. Power Clean does not address both blacks because both blacks use a single inkjet channel and are switched in the ink selector unit. Running Black ink mode changes allows Power Cleans to run on the alternate black. The problem with 3880 printers that have not regularly been printed with both blacks is that the unused black can ruin the black ink exchanger in the ink selector unit and the only remedy is replacing the ink selector unit. If you can get a nozzle check with one black but not the other, then the other is plugged.

  3. Not really - it does not have an electric stimulus in the same way the newer models have.

  4. Yes low humidity means dry print heads and missing nozzles. EPSON recommends about 35% as minimum. We run 50% at Cone Editions Press.

regards,

Jon

3

Thanks Jon! The clogs cleared pretty easily after two power cleans and I will PiezoFlush this coming week. Downloaded the user and service manuals and now understand the black ink architecture. Looking forward to actually printing an image other than the nozzle check pattern!

4

One additional thought – have a solution available for your waste ink tank. IJM sells a reset-able multi-use part, I think, but I have not bought it (not sure why not) for my 3880 so I order the Epson replacement tanks, to try to keep one on hand for when the printer feels ‘full’.

5

Good advice (and I did buy the chip reset device.) The six power clean cycles to flush out color ink using PiezoFlush consumed about half the capacity of a new OEM maintenance tank.