Anyone know what this is? (Epson R2400)

[Jiiri]

Thanks for the time taken to read this, and thanks in advance for any advice!

I recently upgraded from an Epson 2200 which died on me after almost no use, to an R2400. I've had this thing about a month now, and made in the neighborhood of 20-25 large (13x19) prints on it. They look great and I'm happy with the output. Then, yesterday, I fired it up to print some pet portraits for a friend, and there was a small area, near the back edge of the print as it came out, that ruined the print. Its annoying since I burned through a few 13x19 prints and only find out at the very end that they're no good. Other than the blemish the prints look great, and I can't figure out the problem. I've read about 'pizza wheel' on other forums, and was wondering if anyone can let me know if that's what is causing this. Seems like its probably not the pizza wheel issue, since I'm using Epson Enhanced Matte (or whatever they call it now) with matte black ink and all Epson inks.

I made one print (the one I scanned here), and the mark was exactly as you see it, about 2.5 in from the end of the page as it spits out of the printer. I then tried another, different image, and had no problem. I then tried a third image and had two of these spots in different places, but both about the same distance from the edge of the paper. I then printed the original photo, and the spot returned in the same exact place. I checked the image, and it's definitely not in the image as taken. It looks like something scratched off the ink as it rolled off. Also, there are little ink granules that sit on the print after it finishes around the blemished area. That mark you see in the image is from a 13x19 print, and is about 1/3rd of an inch on each side, about 2 inches from the edge that comes out of the printer last. Any ideas? I've sent an email to Epson support, but I have a feeling they're gonna tell me to send it in, even if it's a relatively easy fix, since they aren't going to want me to muck around in it. I live at an FPO address in Italy and really dont want to have to ship this thing there and wait a month or two for it to come back if it's something I can fix. Thanks!

Mark H

[John R Smith]

Mark

try a different pack of paper.

John

[Geoff Wittig]

This sure looks like a zebra stripe, meaning a head strike. If you have the printer set for a thin paper stock and then load a thick paper, or a paper with a pronounced curl to it, the print head flying across the page will scuff against the paper and leave marks looking like this.
Make sure you have the right paper selected in the printer driver, that the head height is correct for the paper, and that paper is flattened out pretty well before it's loaded. On an HP Z3100 I had head strike issues when I printed on some papers in dry or low humidity conditions; that may also be part of the problem
Good luck!

[Richowens]

Mark,

It appears that the paper is cockling (warping) from the ink load and you are getting a head strike. Try setting the ink limit to about 10-12% negative to reduce the amount of ink applied.

 If your paper has been around for a while, it may have picked up some extra moisture if the humidity has been high. Again, this can lead to cockling and head strikes. As John said, try another paper.

 Try printing at 1440 istead of 2880. You didn't say what resolution you are using. Are you printing with a profile or are you letting the printer manage the color?

 These are just some thoughts about what can cause head strikes.

 HTH

 Rich

[Jiiri]

Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate you guys taking out time to help me along in solving this!

I usually print at 1440, and I print from Lightroom. I dont manage the profile from lightroom, but from in the printer settings, and I use the standard Epson profile. I'm using the right profile....I've printed about 30 13x19 prints from this printer using exactly the same method with no problem. All of a sudden, it cropped up.

The consensus seems to be head strike, which makes sense....I'll try another pack of paper, see if that gives any more clues. This paper has been sitting for awhile, but in the plastic in the box. It IS pretty humid here, and we dont have a lot of climate control in the house, this being Italy. That seems likely to be the culprit.

As far as the paper being curled or warped, it seems perfectly normal to me. They are individual sheets out of the box where they were hanging out with other individual sheets....how much curling would there have to be for it to cause a head strike?

The main reason thinking it's not the paper thickness setting, is that the paper is thin. It's just the standard Epson Enhanced Matte.

Thanks again guys. I'll try printing from a different pack of paper, and check the lever and see what happens. I'll post here in a bit with the results!

MArk H

[Jiiri]

Thanks John, Geoff and Rich - I apparently fixed something that was causing the problem. I tried the new paper and had the same result. I then followed Rich's advice to decrease the ink limit, and this seems to have worked. I'm more than thrilled that it's fixed, but I still have a question just so I might learn something (else) out of this debacle. How was it working fine on Monday, and Tuesday the head starts hitting the paper, same paper, same settings, same everything? Also, does the decreased ink limit affect anything else? I couldn't tell the difference between the prints with it at the default and the prints with it at -10%.

Thanks!

Mark

[Richowens]

Mark,

 Sometimes I think it is the phase of the moon or something astrological that causes these problems.  

 Seriously, I think that area of the print required a little more ink than the paper could handle, considering your areas relative humidity at this time. I know that Enhanced matt will not handle a lot of moisture. By reducing the ink limit you reduced the amount of moisture applied to the paper, reducing the amount of swelling in the paper's fibers.

 Very glad I could be of help.

 Rich

 Sorry, I didn't try to answer your questions.

 As far as OK on Monday, head strike on Tuesday, did you have any drastic change in the weather? Did you print the same photo on Monday that had the head strike on Tuesday?

 Decreasing the ink will reduce saturation ever so slightly, but you have to look very very close to see the difference and most people can't see any difference.