HP Designjet 5500 Bloated Cartridges

[Fiz]

Hey all,

Curious of any of you have had experience with the HP Designjet 5500. We've had one for years but recently it's starting to make the cartridges bloat up with air and get stuck in the machine. This also seems to affect the quality of print.
We've added new cartridges, printheads, etc. It still does it. It started with just one color and eventually went away. Today I find that all the cartridges are filling up with air. I can wait 5-10 minutes after stopping the printer and remove them, reseat them, and the issue persists.

Anybody ever had an issue like this? If so, did you ever find a solution?

Thanks in advance!

[M&M Displays]

Ours did that also. Our newer Z6100 does it but not as bad

[RickLee]

The printer uses air to squeeze the ink out of the cartridge. We use to get this from time to time. I think it was mostly if the machine crashed or a power failure and the printer on startup pumped up the cartridge again. generally it should not have an adverse effect as the ink would only be at a higher pressure in the lines and the ink head regulates the flow rate and print rate.

have you cleaned the traverse rod or inspected the belt that moves the carriage. Ours started missing teeth and got worn down twice.

we have since moved to Canon ($$$$$ don't recommend it)