Ink flaking off paper

[pcgpcg]

I am printing on Moab Entrada Natural Rag 300gsm matte paper with a Canon iPF6400. When I print a large area (several square inches) of solid black it looks gorgeous fresh off the printer. I typically let it dry for 24 hours before handling, and then that’s when the trouble starts. After picking up the print and handling it carefully during matting I will typically find a couple tiny white specs where there is no ink. If I very gently wipe the print with microfiber I will suddenly see a dozen more white specs.

Either the ink pigment is not adhering to the paper and flaking off or, most likely I would think, there are tiny particles of loose paper that are coming off after the ink has been applied. I have wiped down the inside of my printer and even blown it out gently with compressed air to remove all paper dust. I initially found a lot - I’ve run almost 400 feet of this paper through the printer over the past year.

Yesterday I started with a very clean printer and a new roll of paper and the problem persists. The roll of paper comes double-boxed and in a plastic bag. When I took a new roll out of its bag yesterday I did see a couple small pieces of paper fragments affixed to the edge of the roll. I estimate these were 1/64” to 1/32” (less than 1mm) in diameter and were not loose. I have no way to visually see if there are any specs of paper dust on the surface of the paper in the roll because… it’s rolled up.

I am just noticing it now, but it may have been happening for some time as I don’t generally print images with large areas of very dark ink, where it would be much more noticeable.

What’s going on? Has anyone else experienced this?

[David Sutton]

I experienced this a few times with matte papers. Not with Entrada Rag but there's no reason they should be exempt. Firstly you could try contacting Moab.
Secondly, I've had some success with running a vacuum cleaner along the manual feed slot as the roll paper is advancing, or manually advancing the paper and running a rocket blower over it, retracting and then printing. Drastic, but better than wasting a roll.
David

[petercorb]

I have experienced this with several photo and matte papers especially Canson Platine Fibre Rag. After much frustration I developed the following routine, which does not eliminate the problem 100%, but almost.
I came to the conclusion that the guillotine produces micro fibres which get lodged in the paper path. Then during the printing process they move around and adhere to the paper surface, the printer then prints over these micro fibres. Most times the print looks ok straight from the printer but as one handles it or after drying these fibres come loose and one sees the white specs you describe - the print is then unusable.
After printing I retract the paper, I then run a micro-fibre cloth along the cut edge of the paper, its quite remarkable how much paper dust (fibre) comes off. The worst I have experienced is Canson Platine Fibre Rag, however all papers including matte produce this dust/fibre on the leading edge of the paper. I do not use cut sheet very ofter, however I have found that there is the same problem albeit not as much on the edges of the sheet. Some sheets from certain manufactures have none at all - however I still always do the same routine.
I then use a powerful vacuum cleaner, first to blow the paper path and leading edge of the retracted roll, then turn it to vacuum and do the same.
I do it as a routine with all papers photo and matte. It may seem like a pain but as I say its eliminated the problem virtually 100% and saved me thousands on wasted paper.

[pcgpcg]

Thank you both so much! It never occurred to me that the problem might be caused by dust from the cutting process, but that makes perfect sense. I will address the issue with your solutions and report back.