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  • Removing cartridges before they are empty

    Posted by Mike Grant on 25 March 2008 at 21:34

    Reading some threads on the boards it seems that some of you remove your cartridges now and again to weigh them. Now my question is this, If you remove the cart will any air get in the system that could cause a future problem. I don’t trust the rips evidence of quantity and would like to try the weigh it route.

    Another question while I think of it. The "empty" cart always has some ink left in them, is there a way to refill a cart with this wasted ink, and can the stupid "rip you off computer chip" on the cart be reset in any way. I have a normal puter printer that I was able to reset the chip with a small gizmo I got from an ink supplier. (?) (?) (?) (?)

    Kreatorbg replied 17 years, 5 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Peter Normington

    Member
    25 March 2008 at 21:55

    Mike, I always weigh mine, (Mimaki) and never had a problem, I don’t know about other systems though, but weighing is mimaki’s recommended way.

    As for the ink left in the cart, the weighing is so accurate, the ammount left is hardly worth bothering about, I have taken the carts apart to see how much ink is left, and the bladder is all but empty.

    Peter

  • David Rowland

    Member
    25 March 2008 at 21:59

    yep, it is practically empty…. no air troubles.

  • Chris Dowd

    Member
    25 March 2008 at 22:48

    Don’t want to sound thick, but whats with all this weighing cartridges?

    Our printers (Seiko Colourpainter 64s and HP5500) both tell me how much of each ink is left. When a cartridge drops below 50% I order a new one and put it on the shelf. When the cartridge is empty the print stops, put a new cartridge in and it carries on, no lost print.

    Okay, so your cartridge may be low as you want to run an overnight job. So change the cartridge before you leave, and swap it back over the next day to let it run out!

    If I want to know (roughly) how much ink a job takes (an quite frankly I don’t really need to know anymore) I log the percentage of each cartridge before and after the job and work out how much in has been used.

    Can’t really understand why you’d need to have 6 cartridges of any colour on the go all at the same time, but perhaps I’m missing something here?!?!?!?

  • David Rowland

    Member
    25 March 2008 at 23:22

    well the JV3 does a poor job of reporting back the ink levels of a cart, it basically will stay at ‘1’ (nearly empty) for ages. Infact I had some 3/4 full carts on ‘1’.

  • Kreatorbg

    Member
    19 April 2008 at 07:13

    Mike I don’t know with what equipment you have, but I guest that they are all the same. I have Roland vp540, and I can tell you that the answer is yes to all your question (almost). Yes, you can reset the chip on the cartridge (actually you don’t need it if you have older machine than vp540/300). The counter in the machine for the ink, reboots every time you put a new cartridge (or just pull the old one to check it). Yes, you can pull the remaining ink from "empty" cartridge, or use it to the very end. I’ve been filling a cartridge to almost 50% from 3-4 "empty" cartridges. Inside the cartridge there is a vacuumed bag with the ink inside (I’ve opened only Roland cartridges, but I believe these technology is used the others also). You can fold it several times so the ink can concenstrate, and can be draged from the system. No, I don’t advice you to pull the cartridge and check the remaining ink during work because the system will suck air. You can check it only switched off machine. For more questions on my email pls, because there’s a little time for the forum.

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