Have your ever checked your inks?

[DoubleDown]

Apologize for posting this in two places, but didn't know which was better:

We are the kind of shop that really wants to make sure everything is going right and we are getting the most for our money, so everytime we have to replace inks in our machines, we take apart the cartridges to see what is left.

Well, two times so far, our ColorSpan 9840 chip has told us that our ink is low. The first time we replaced it at a very low level and the second time we let the ink go completely to 0mL, which on a UV you can do since the inks don't dry like solvents. But remember, it's the chip in the machine telling you that it's going to 0mL.

So we took apart our $500 box of cyan ink only to find that when the chip was telling us 0mL, we actually had 12oz or approx 355mL of ink left...or approx $100 worth of ink. Now it's true that the manufacturers overfill the containers a little bit so you don't completely dry out your heads, which is more true on the solvent machines...but 12oz of ink?

This is the second time we have opened up a box on near empty or empty and have seen this.

So curious to all the other users of flatbeds or even solvents who have closed cartridges if you have ever opened up your containers.

And we are definitely contacting the manufacturer big time about this.

Best,

 

[GARY CULY]

well on a mimki you can just pull out the cartridge and shake it back-forth,,its not hard to tell how much is left .....also just note ,ive run inks out in my mimaki jv3..it just stops ..puts something on screen,,pop out the empty replace .go back and push remote ...it takes back off and didnt ruin print ,,,so there must be a thing tells it to stop built in i guess

 

[mark in tx]

Welcome to the world of ink profits.

 

[DoubleDown]

Well with the JV5 I believe it is different because there are two cartridges per color as a backup system and you are told once the one cartridge is "empty" and the red light is blinking you have a about a day to replace it, if not sooner because if you don't, you can introduce air into the lines and that's a whole 'nother pain in itself.

Again, the manufacturers put in extra ink to make sure you don't do this to your lines, but I think it is really, really important as end users to get their full value out of the money they are paying for these inks. With bulk ink systems, you see what you are using but with OEM's you don't plain and simple. It's why they don't make any of their boxes clear...

We are doing a test here with our SS2 inks and we are weighing them when they are 100% completely empty where we take any extra ink and we are weighing them when the machine tells us to replace the cartridge and we are weighing the full ones. We should be able to tell how much is left when the machine is telling us to replace the cartridge and then open up the container to see how much physically is left and measure it out in mL and then convert it to a price.

The only other way is to sacrifice a full new ink cartridge and measure the exact amount of ink in that and then measure the exact amount of ink left in a cartridge the machine tells you to replace and see the difference. Because the manufacturers claim that you will get "x" amount of liters or mL of ink and if the difference between full new ink and "empty, machine telling you to change ink" is not that amount then someone is in trouble because that is straight lying to customers.

As customers, we "trust" the manufacturers to give us our money's worth but unless we keep them in check, who will?

Just my two cents

 

[ScottyDoo]

Check my reply at PD.

 

[GK]

our HP and Seiko are wrong all the time. Sometimes 2% will last 3 days of printing, sometimes it will kick 10 mins after it says 2% lol. NEED CLEAR CARTs....grrrr

 

[Bogie]

With my old Epson 10600, the "low ink" light flashing meant it was time to order some, because I was down to maybe enough to print half a roll...

With my new Epson 9800, it means "well, you probably are going to have to replace it on the next print.

My Falcon doesn't give much warning either. I wish the OEM folks sold their ink in bulk.

 

[GK]

With my old Epson 10600, the "low ink" light flashing meant it was time to order some, because I was down to maybe enough to print half a roll...

With my new Epson 9800, it means "well, you probably are going to have to replace it on the next print.

My Falcon doesn't give much warning either. I wish the OEM folks sold their ink in bulk.

LOL, Bogie come on now....if they sold it in bulk....how could they ever charge $275 a cart. They couldn't justify the gallon of ink cuz it doesn't have a cute little microchip in it that they will say costs most of the money lol

 

[DARLAK]

say what you want about my slow ass roland CJ500 eco-solvent printer!!!!!

no chips to fuck with and I get the ink for $40 a liter!!!!

GO BULK!!!!!

 

[ChiknNutz]

No issues like that with a bulk ink system!!!!

 

[high impact]

Get a bulk system...it's worth the initial investment.

 

[WYLDGFI]

Bulk Ink is not possible with my flatbed...my plan is to get a very accurate mailing scale to measure the weight of it at various points.

It IS a heck of a lot easier on my Solvent 3360...Bulk ink there is Beautiful.

 

[Replicator]

I weight the cartridges . . . !

 

[player]

Can you not put the excess ink into a new cartridge?

P