Canon iPF 8400 Scratches on Print.

[William Walker]

Every now and then I have noticed very light scratches on my prints - especially using rolls of Canson Baryta Photographique - and recently on Hahnemuhle Museum Ecthing too.

I made a print on Friday and started by resetting "Head Height" from "Automatic" to "Highest", "Vacuum Strength" from "Automatic" to "Stongest" and it still came out with the light scratches. (See Images ILL1094 and IMG 5102)

I then set "Roll Tension" to "High" and the next four prints came out beautifully. (See Img5097)

I removed the roll from the machine and then continued to print again yesterday with the exact same setup.... The first print that came out had the scratches again!

The following nine prints then came out perfectly without me making any other adjustments.

Would it be fair to conclude the the problem is either:
1)  The paper is being scratched when I repack and remove the roll from its box and feed it into the machine, or,
2)  The machine needs to "warm up"?

Any ideas?

Thanks
William

[vjbelle]

I would recommend setting the head height to either 'High' or 'Highest' to see if that resolves the issue.  I never use automatic head height.

Victor

[samueljohnchia]

I used to have this issue and it drove me nuts until I found out why. The paper path is dirty. Fine debris is scratching the paper as its dragged across the bottom surface of the paper path. Reach in from below where roll paper feeds in and clean the surfaces.

[keithcooper]

My 8300 had this problem with some papers - turned out to be two things.  Dirt in the curved print path, but even after cleaning there was still an issue with some papers where it turned out to be a slight burr on part of the plastic paper guide.

Given the 2nd problem only occured with some Epson TPP paper (ExFib) I never followed it up (current TPP was reformulated a while ago to toughen the surface)

[William Walker]

Many thanks for your input!

Regards
William