Printing on Duo paper without roller marks

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Hi there,

I have been these days printing signatures for an artist book with Piezo K6 inks Selenium on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Book and Album 220 gsm.

The problem I am having, as it has been documented in some places, is that when I print the back of the sheets, the prints at the back get roller marks. I wait for a day for the prints to dry out, before printing the verso of the sheet. Even like that, the rollers seem to compress the ink of the already printed images, and these marks are visible when the light strikes at a certain angle. Kind of “rubbing” marks where light reflectance is different.

I have looked around, and it seems that this problem has been documented. Too bad I only realized now. Strange that this kind of papers are sold to do something that apparently cannot be done?

My questions now are related to ways or tricks I could bypass this problem. Among them, I have seen some people use a second sheet of paper to protect the already printed back. My question is: Would it be a good idea to use a second sheet of 220 gsm Hahnemuhle Book and Album paper of the same size? Or should I use a thinner paper? If I use two sheets of paper instead of one, should I choose Platen Gap Wide instead of Standard? Should I re-print and calibrate the paper thickness AND paper feed adjustment values? I calibrated them for a single-sheet and prints came beautifully…

The other question is related to how to fix the “protecting” sheet… Can I just put two sheets of paper at once in the printer, aligned but not taped-fixed one to another? Or would that jam the printer? How would you suggest attaching the protecting sheet to the printing sheet?

I would like to know whether at Cone Editions you have gone through the process of using double sided printed paper for publications, artist books etc. I have all the process done and working perfectly… but these roller marks are ruining the whole thing!

By the way, we have realized making handmade books of your projects is just the best way of coping with a pandemic! I strongly recommend you the exercise. Wonderful prints with piezo!

Thanks in advance for your help and keep yourself healthy and creative,

Rafael

2

I too have in mind to do somehing ike this, so would also appreciate any advice.

3

Yes Brian, I have realized how wonderful is to make your own books with this paper… The piezo prints are just sublime in book form. However, I do not know how to solve this problem.
Walker, have you gone through this situation in any of the jobs done at Cone Editions? Any ideas? Any suggestion might help. I intend to try these next days, whatever idea you or any other member of the forum might have is welcome.

Cheers,

rafael

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i am also interested and following!

5

Ever since opening my first print-lab in 2004 I have refused to do double sided printing. If required it’s 4x the price because it requires thin duo paper and back protective sheeting every time it goes through the printer. Only some printers work, etc.

-Walker

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Hi Walker,

I understand it is a trick process, and I realize you might be wary of recommending things that might mess with the printer… I totally understand commercial labs would refuse such a work, but all the better for us users to go through the pain ourselves. I have studied lots of alternatives for making an artist book at the studio, and this is the “least worst” option. The other alternative would be not to have a solution, and to waste a huge amount of work and time I have already put into the creation of this book. So obviously, I would take 4 times the amount of hassle to print these sheets and be very happy with that!

Without ANY responsibility, I would appreciate hugely that you share with me any piece of advice that you have for running Hahnemuhle Book and Album paper (0.33 mm thickness) on a printer like the 9900. Kind of do’s and dont’s. I do not know whether to back the sheet with another sheet of the same paper (0.66 mm thickness total) and whether they two sheets have to be “taped” together or just put one against another. Particularly, I would like to avoid that suction acts on the first bottom layer and the top one remains curled, hitting the head? I suppose that platen gap should be set to wide, or even wider? Would Hanehmuhle protective spray do something to avoid the roller marks on the printed images?

Again, I appreciate this is tricky and I will not come back to you saying you did not say it! I simply am at a dead end.

Thanks again!