The past days I made quite a few (~200) prints with an Epson 3800 on Harman Gloss FB AI size A4 (8"x11,5") using the read feed and 2880 dpi unidirectional with no problems at all. I was using paper size 4 (mm) and platen gap "widest". Today I printed 30 pages A3+ (13"x17") with the same settings successfully before something was going wrong. The printer was making a different noise than usually. It wasn't a head crash an there were also no signs of an head crash. However after inspecting the print I saw a large and deep solid scratch running in parallel to the long side of the paper (i.e. NOT in parallel to the print head movement). It was about 10 cm (4") away from the paper edge and about 10-12 cm (4") long. No, it's not a pizza wheel mark, I know how they look...
I first thought it would be a problem related to paper manufacturing, so I inspected the next page closely before printing and set the paper size to "5" (mm). The scratch came out again, it was a little bit shorter however. So I printed again a third time using a different image, but it also had a very small scratch.
In preperation of opening a support case for the 38000 I printed the same image using A3+ (13"x17") Epson PGPP using the default settings (paper size "3", plate gap Auto) and both using the single sheet feed and the rear feed (er, one after another I mean). No problems! So I though that something was sitting in my paper path and it would be gone, but the next Harman page, this time using the single sheet feed, came out scratched again.
I finally printed the image with 1440 dpi and bidi, with no (!) scratches at all *sigh*
Any ideas? May this be related to paper curling inside the printer? The prints come out curled, a little bit, but this might be a problem... The blank sheets are very plain and do not show any curling at all, but it seems when ink hits the page they curl and this might cause them to get scratched.
All other settings I use for printings are normal: WinXP SP 2, Epson Driver 5.51, CS2, 2880 dpi, unidirectional print, in "paper config" all set to 0 except paper size "4" or "5" (mm) and platen gap "widest", paper is chosen as Epson PGPP.
If you have any idea please let me know. Is there any instruction to open the device and clean it without using warranty?
Thanks,
Thomas