Epson 9900 life...

[kdw75]

We have a couple of new Epson 9900s that we have started using quite a bit and I am wondering how long we can expect them to last before they start having major problems. We have contracts on them, but we need them to be problem free. We have been running around 300 feet of 36" material through each of them per week for the past couple months, and I fear it is going to wear them out pretty quickly.

 

[MacTwidget]

In reality, the more you use an inkjet the longer it will last.
Inkjet printers that are not used with regular frequency tend to have heads that fail due to the ink drying in the nozzles.

 

[kdw75]

In reality, the more you use an inkjet the longer it will last.
Inkjet printers that are not used with regular frequency tend to have heads that fail due to the ink drying in the nozzles.

I was concerned that the carriage mechanism would get sloppy and cause issues.

 

[MacTwidget]

I was concerned that the carriage mechanism would get sloppy and cause issues.

I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
We have had a 9900 for about three years now and no slack in the carriage yet.

 

[Qbot]

The 9900 are solid machines. We have 2 epson 9900 and pound approximately 1 to 1.5 rolls per day. No problems with the carriage.

Anybody have issues with the epson 9900 stopping half way through proofs? I sent 15 or so full size proofs to each epson and both machines would do the same thing, start a proof, get 1/4 or 1/2 the proof done and the machine would stop and cut the paper. The proofer would then start up and complete a couple proofs but again would start a proof and not finish. So every third proof or so was bad. Would sending to many proofs at one time do this?

 

[kdw75]

The 9900 are solid machines. We have 2 epson 9900 and pound approximately 1 to 1.5 rolls per day. No problems with the carriage.

Anybody have issues with the epson 9900 stopping half way through proofs? I sent 15 or so full size proofs to each epson and both machines would do the same thing, start a proof, get 1/4 or 1/2 the proof done and the machine would stop and cut the paper. The proofer would then start up and complete a couple proofs but again would start a proof and not finish. So every third proof or so was bad. Would sending to many proofs at one time do this?

I have had this behavior. The software on these machines seems very flakey to me. More like something I would expect on a cheap desktop. I never send more than 8 copies to ours because it can cause similar issues. Usually it has a white band, about a quarter inch wide, down one of the prints, or it will just hang on a print.

I wonder if this is the driver, or if it is the internal software. If it is the driver I would be tempted to try a 3rd party RIP.

 

[MacTwidget]

The 9900 are solid machines. We have 2 epson 9900 and pound approximately 1 to 1.5 rolls per day. No problems with the carriage.

Anybody have issues with the epson 9900 stopping half way through proofs? I sent 15 or so full size proofs to each epson and both machines would do the same thing, start a proof, get 1/4 or 1/2 the proof done and the machine would stop and cut the paper. The proofer would then start up and complete a couple proofs but again would start a proof and not finish. So every third proof or so was bad. Would sending to many proofs at one time do this?

Are you using an external RIP, or are you spooling directly to the printer?
The drivers and spoolers on these devices are not the most robust.
We are using a 3rd part RIP, ORIS Color Tuner, and have never had this issue.

 

[Qbot]

We are using a Rampage rip and Oris software to run the proofers. I will find out more when I go into work this afternoon and talk to the system manager.

 

[ogetsu]

We use the efi fiery xf with two 9900's, one 11880, and an S70670.

The 9900's are about 2 years old, and still look and run like they're brand new. Our Z6100's were a nightmare for their entire life span. Awful support, they were always on the fritz, and the insides were coated with ink after the first month. This is with ink limiting & restrictions.

So, to us, the 9900's are unbelievable.

We run roughly a half a roll to a roll a day through each of them, sometimes more depending on volume. One is always loaded with fab6, the other premium luster.

No issues with prints stopping halfway through, but we've never used the provided drivers. Everything goes through the fiery.

 

[Qbot]

Had the same problem again last night (every proof stops and cuts before its done). Started sending proofs one at a time to each proofer and they ran fine.

We are using Oris for color and spooling directly to the printers. So i'm guessing we should really have a more robust rip. We have a few customers that send files that have effective resolutions that are way more than they need to be for 175 line litho printing. Most stuff we can send multiple proofs and it runs fine.

 

[kdw75]

Had the same problem again last night (every proof stops and cuts before its done). Started sending proofs one at a time to each proofer and they ran fine.

We are using Oris for color and spooling directly to the printers. So i'm guessing we should really have a more robust rip. We have a few customers that send files that have effective resolutions that are way more than they need to be for 175 line litho printing. Most stuff we can send multiple proofs and it runs fine.

There is no excuse for a printer of this price, to have such a flimsy driver. I guess the market will bear it though.

 

[Ducasse]

There's little concern to have for the carriage mechanism itself, we see at most some rare cases of belts tearing, but in far less frequency than with other brands.

With Epson however you won't avoid some well known "Maintenance calls" like the famous 0040 (Pump cap unit) wich implies some regular little parts replacements, most of them you'll be able to deal alone, with the specifics Adjustment Wizards and a little bit of documentation

For the Printheads, they are particularly well designed (Piezzo technology) and should not present any problems at least for the 5 first years on average, supposing you're using true Epson inks.

The more you'll use it, the quickest you'll encounter your first maintenance calls, the longer it will last for the most important and expensive part : The printhead ;D

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Had the same problem again last night (every proof stops and cuts before its done). Started sending proofs one at a time to each proofer and they ran fine.

We are using Oris for color and spooling directly to the printers. So i'm guessing we should really have a more robust rip. We have a few customers that send files that have effective resolutions that are way more than they need to be for 175 line litho printing. Most stuff we can send multiple proofs and it runs fine.

I would look into updating the ORIS Epson plug-in, ORIS software and or 9900’s firmwear. I believe that the CGS ORIS ColorTuner RIP is robust and I have not seen this happen with our 7800, 9800, 9900 or WT7900 being driven by either CGS or Kodak proofing RIPs.

When you say “printing directly”, do you mean without using the Windows print spooler or do you mean via USB cable and not network?


Stephen Marsh