Although ink jet printers are extremely popular for photo-quality prints, for both traditional paper media and dye sublimation applications, letting an ink jet printer sit too long, between printing sessions, can lead to ink drying on the printheads, causing clogging.
Ink formulations, especially in the dye sub sector have improved dramatically over the years, and clogging is much less an issue now, than ever before.
Some of the newer ink jet printers, such as the Epson 4800 have built-in auto-cleaning utilities, which can be set to run cleaning cycles at user-prescribed intervals, i.e., daily, weekly etc.
In my experience, it’s not necessary to run daily cleaning cycles, but if a printer has been sitting for a week or more, it’s a good idea to run a nozzle check before printing. If the nozzle check pattern shows missing segments, a head cleaning cycle or two will generally bring it back to proper functionality.
For older printer models, without an auto-clean utility, here’s a site with a head cleaning utility that gets good reviews. There are also some good tips on unclogging printers there as well.
I have no connection with the site or the product.
David “The Stunt Engraver” Lavaneri
Engraving Etc. Forum
Tags: dye sub, Epson, head cleaning utility, ink jet, photo quality, printer, sublimation
