Re: Continuous Ink System hey more good new!s!

[TMorris862@aol.com]

To:Tom W

In a message dated 99-12-31 10:52:13 EST, you write:

<<
 
 My continuous ink system has been in use for about 3 weeks now so I thought 
I 
 would pass on a few notes on its construction and use to help others who are 
 working on their own.  I decided to switch to MIS achival inks and didn't 
 want to do the refill thing all the time.  The Cobra system wasn't available 
 yet so I decided to try a home brew version. >>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Great work Tom thanks for the Information, hey the feeds can be made to work 
you  and John  just proved it!

So it seems once you get your system all set up you can get a good run of 
prints?

I mean are you like 100% sure you can run off a print and you know for sure 
you will not have to fool around to get it right?

I fooled around with a very similar ( sort of) setup as yours about 2 years 
ago and I just gave up and went to refilling because it gave me the results I 
needed,

But now that I can drain a set of cartridges in only 25 minutes (large banner 
printing)I may rethink my design.

My designed did not use cartriges at all ( I really wanted to end the air 
traps in the sponges) I connected diretctly to the ink inlet spike.
My big problem was getting the high surge flow of ink needed for a clean 
cycle as this flow is about 25 to 50 times the ink flow when normal printing 
is done. 

A typical clean cycle ( on my 1520's) can drink from 1/3 to 1/2 of CC in 
about 3 seconds!! It would take a full page or 2 of a fully filled color 
block to drink this same amout of ink. I actually could measure the ink used 
for each cycle.

 Eddie is right as the volume of ink used per clean cylce changes as the 
printer uses more ink if you ran 2  or more clean cycles back to back in an 
effort to blow out a clog the printer will try to force more ink through the 
printhead at higher pressures..

I used 0.060 medical tubes and I just could not flow enough ink  for the 
clean cycles. Each time one ran it would starve the printheads and i would 
have to reprime them!

When I used larger feed tubing to carry more flow, I found that drips would 
form  ( at the ends of the carriage strokes) as the ink volume in the tubes 
was high enough to cause presure spikes due to the really fast motions of the 
printheads.

I must say that up until last week I saw no reason to go back to a feed 
system at I have been very happy with perfect prints for about 2 years now 
with refilling.

I never get banding and I almost never have to print twice to get a good 
picture!

I keep about 5 to 6 sets of cartridges refilled at most times and this would 
last a few days. So Each refill "mess" was seperated by a few days of really 
productive printing!

But now that I can drain a set of cartridges in just 25 minutes I may go back 
to my notes and see where i can fine tune what i tried! My guess is the 
volume of ink in the cartridges act as a sort of a ink flow shock absorber to 
allow for the high flow clean cycles and then the ink is resupplied to 
cartridge over perhaps the next few minutes. I think with a "back to back 
clean cycles 'this still may not flow enough ink?

                             So ther is my 2 cents

                                      TomCat

 
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