Purging out color inks in order to replace with Piezography inks

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(These instructions are provided for changing out inks in printers that have not been maintained, or poorly maintained over the years. Flushing is the preferred method used to change inks because it removes color pigment and its associated staining of the inks. But, with printers that have been running color pigment inks for years and have not had the ink exchanger or dampers replaced or have not been regularly flushed in many years, flushing can temporarily clog the dampers with pigment. This instructions therefore, is being offered as an alternative to flushing. Of course, the ideal is to properly maintain a printer or to properly flush the printer and to deal with the possibility that dampers or the ink exchanger will need to be replaced. Piezography prints at a much higher density of dot than does the Epson driver. So naturally, we recommend that you reserve the best printer in your arsenal for Piezography - whereas a printer with slight defects can still be used with the Epson printer driver.)

You must use the QuadTone RIP’s Calibration Mode to use this method. The QuadTone RIP is a $50 shareware program, which can be downloaded from www.quadtonerip.com
The QTR Print Tool is necessary when printing from Mac 10.6.8 or higher, for accurate output (other printing applications have screwed up color management that will produce poor Piezography output). QTR PrintTool can also be downloaded from www.quadtonerip.com

Pre-made QTR purge images are attached below, and include an image for 8 and 10 color printers

WINDOWS:

  1. Print a nozzle check to ensure all nozzles are firing.
  2. Open QuadTone RIP and select the paper size you wish to print on
  3. Select Tools> Options> Calibration Mode, which will automatically open an inkseparation image file.
  4. Open the correct purge image by selecting File> Open
  5. Select 100% on the “Ink Calibration” slider if printing on heavyweight, coated/print paper or 50-80% if printing on uncoated, very thin or typing paper.
  6. Select the paper feed: either sheet or roll, 1440dpi is fine to select for this purpose, bi-directional will print faster than uni-directional.
  7. Repeat printing until the Piezography inks have circulated through each print channel and signs of color staining are not detected.

MAC:

  1. Print a nozzle check to ensure all nozzles are firing.
  2. Open the correct purge image in QTR Print Tool (10.6.8 or higher)
  3. Select “NO Color Management” in the Print Tool window
  4. Select your K7 or Pro printer model, and paper size, then push print
  5. In the QuadTone RIP window- select Calibration Mode, Ink Limit: 100% and Resolution either 1440 or 2880dpi
  6. Select 100% saturation if printing on heavyweight, coated/print paper or 50-80% if printing on uncoated, very thin or typing paper.
  7. Select paper feed: either sheet or roll, 1440dpi is fine to select for this purpose, bi-directional will print faster than uni-directional.
  8. Repeat printing until the Piezography inks have circulated through each print channel and signs of color staining are not detected.

It is not unusual for color staining to return in the first few weeks of Piezography printing. The Piezography inks might scrub some of the agglomerated color pigments from the ink lines, but eventually the staining will disappear.

Having read this far, you should know that if you decide to PiezoFlush your poorly maintained printer and the dampers or ink exchanger clog with pigment, subsequent periods of sitting and INIT FILLs will eventually dissolve the damper/exchanger clogs. Otherwise, dampers are less than $100 a set and the ink exchanger if still available for your printer model is sub $200.

QTR-Purge-Images.zip (156.4 KB)