Would low ink cause color consistency probs?

[CN Spots]

We spoke with a printer in town who told us to trash our ink cartridges once they hit 10%. They said that they had performed tests which indicated that low cartridges (they were not sure why) were causing variations in their proofs. This was on an Epson 9800. They had even gone to the trouble of writing software for their RIP that measured ink levels and stopped proofing once a specified level had been reached.

ColorBurst said that was hogwash. I have not yet spoken with Epson.

Has anyone ever heard of this?

Thanks

 

[cjwworld]

personally, it think its a b.s. issue. I ran an xerox 5550 and rigged up an ram reader to trick the setting of the toner cartridges. This particular machine would not let you print any more because it has a sensor. I simply reprogramed the chip and reset it to 0.

and we were able to print about 15,000 to 20,000 more

 

[Al Ferrari]

You may have posted to the wrong thread. The first post is about an ink jet device.

Al

 

[cjwworld]

well, that is what my take on first post.. it may not be relevant, sorry

 

[prepresscolor]

The only instance where I have seen a problem like this, a customer hardly ever used the printer like once a month and the ink particles settled in the cartridges. If your company has this usage then I suggest you manually agitate the cartridges.

 

[CN Spots]

The only instance where I have seen a problem like this, a customer hardly ever used the printer like once a month and the ink particles settled in the cartridges. If your company has this usage then I suggest you manually agitate the cartridges.

We keep them pretty busy. They may sit idle over the weekends but it's unusual for them to go for more than a few days without being used.
Thanks.

 

[VladCanada]

Very often SmartChips at cartriges give wrong time counting and reject printing process rather than real ink low level. So, you got a message "cartridge empty" but in reality some ink still remains.
Ink feeding system keeps whole line underpressured up to the end of ink
Never met such a kind of issue with Epson.

 

[Padzilla]

How low is low?

How low is low?

I have worked with a few Epsons, and in my experience, when the "low ink" light comes on, there is still quite a bit of ink in the cartridge. I've run a machine for months with the light on. It made me cocky enough to see how far I could drive my car with the gas light on. I'll never do that again.

I have seen consistency problems come from the large Epson cartridges. About once every month, I would take the cartridges out and agitate them, the pigment tends to separate from the medium.

If you run any calibration bars on your proofs, they will tell you whether you are having consistency issues. Color Science, in Austin, used to remotely monitor our color, and could tell me whether I needed new ink, or I had a clogged nozzle, etc.

 

[T]

We Power Clean everyday
4-Epson 9800s