Epson F6370

[Margrit]

I have a F6370 printer and we use it for chromolux metal printing. had the machine for 3 years. We use the printer everyday but not 8 hours a day. I had to replace the the yellow ink a few weeks ago. After after about 3 weeks all of sudden all my production had a severe green cast. After some trouble shooting I figured it was the yellow ink that I poored in must have cause the green shift. We are using epson edge software and I noticed in the output section there is a tonal range and you can go into the yellow channel and correct for the the yellow similar to curves in photoshop. I am also in process to create a custom profile to compensate for the shift. My question is. I am wondering if I should flush the printer and start fresh. The printer has been bulletproof and I don’t wanna have to deal with shifts all the time. I ordered a fresh set of ink but I also have a lot of expired ink left. I don’t know if I should use it or throw it away it expired in 2022. I noticed there is a very short expiration date and the stays in the machine for a long time. Also I am thinking about agitating the inks weekly, we do agitate the black once a week. Any thoughts on flushing out the inks and start fresh?

 

[edcooleyar]

We have seen severe color shifts on our 6300. Sometimes it happens between two print jobs on the same day. We use ergosoft and found a recalibration usually corrects the issue. We now include a test print with each job that we sublimate to check for color shifts. We are in the process of replacing it with a 6400 series with light inks but that has been problematic as well.

 

[Margrit]

I am still curios what causes the shift. Are the inks sitting in the machine for to long? There are always ways to work around it, I would like to find the cause. We did create a custom profile but it did not help.

 

[Andrew Heiner]

100% the inks settle. When you pour in a new bag of ink it kicks up what has settled. The yellow gets the worst if it.
Add stir sticks to the other 3 tanks.
I would clear out the tanks & add new ink.

 

[Margrit]

I think that’s what I am going to do. Thank you. I like your ideal of adding stir sticks to the other 3 tanks.

 

[edcooleyar]

we’ve seen this happen a dozen times with this printer. Last Christmas we printed a roll of prints with a shift happening in between two print jobs. Ink settling does not do that but may also happen. We made stir stick caps and stir every day. Which rip are you using?

 

[Margrit]

I am using the Epson edge print rip software. For me this was a big eye open up because the machine has been bulletproof for three years and it all started when I refilled the yellow ink. so I had a call in to Tech service then I canceled it because I thought I could flush the printer myself, but I reopened the ticket because I’m thinking if I can get them to put in a print head and a pumping station and a cap station for $1700 it will be worth it as a one time repair, evenso that probaly will not fix my problem. With all my trouble shooting I think it is the ink this definitely was an eye-opener. I will steer the inks at least once a week, even the yellow magenta and cyan. In the meantime, I discovered in the rip software on the output section. There is a tonal curve adjustment where you can adjust for the different color shifts and that is working for right now.
Now thinking back. I should’ve steered the yellow ink in the tank before pouring the new ink in, and I made the mistake, not shaking the pouch.

 

[edcooleyar]

We use ergosoft on two machines and the other has been rock solid. Your situation sounds like the ink. Hope that solves your problem.

 

[Margrit]

Thank you

 

[hybriddesign]

Aloha!

I noticed you said you added stir sticks. Did you just punch a hole in the fill cap and add some sort of stick or did you replace the whole tank?

We’ve had our 6370 for around 4 years and have never had any issues but I keep wondering when the fact that we haven’t ever flushed the tanks out is going to cause problems. I hadn’t even heard of the stir stick tanks until this thread but don’t know if I want to spend $1,000 on four new oem tanks.

Thanks!

 

[Margrit]

Aloha!

I noticed you said you added stir sticks. Did you just punch a hole in the fill cap and add some sort of stick or did you replace the whole tank?

We’ve had our 6370 for around 4 years and have never had any issues but I keep wondering when the fact that we haven’t ever flushed the tanks out is going to cause problems. I hadn’t even heard of the stir stick tanks until this thread but don’t know if I want to spend $1,000 on four new oem tanks.

Thanks!

I have not added them yet. Don’t change out the tank I believe you can order the rubber caps with sticks online. It’s just a different type rubber cap for the tank with a plastic stick attached. When I find them online, I will share that information with you. In the meantime you can just take a small plastic stick or plastic knife and use that to steer the tank maby once a week. Just use different sticks for each tank so not to contaminate. I think the important thing is to steer the the ink before you put new ink in and of course make sure it’s not expired. If you haven’t had any problems then I wouldn’t worry about it, but I think to prevent problems would be good to on the regular basis.

 

[Margrit]

If you haven’t had any problems, there’s no need to flush the tank. There’s a way you can flush the lines but only do that if you see problems in the print quality and I can send you that information how to do it.

 

[Andrew Heiner]

You have to replace the whole tank to get the stir sticks added. It was $300 to replace them. It's not too hard to do. Before that we would stick a mini stir stick in there on a drill.... it's just messy to do that so we got new tanks for all of them.

 

[Margrit]

You have to replace the whole tank to get the stir sticks added. It was $300 to replace them. It's not too hard to do. Before that we would stick a mini stir stick in there on a drill.... it's just messy to do that so we got new tanks for all of them.

Good to know, I did not know that.

 

[edcooleyar]

If you can 3d print, DM me and I’ll send you stl files to print a stirring stick and new cap.

 

[Margrit]

Good to know, I did not know that.

 

[Margrit]

This is what I found. You must have drained all the ink before replacing the tank

 

[Margrit]

I feel epson should have put those tanks in all their F6370 if they knew this could be a problem. I also have chemical machines( wet Lab) and the chemicals are constantly stired by pumps, and that brings up another question should the cartridges for my other inkjet printer taking out periodically and gently shaking to prevent settling.