Head Strike with Ex Fiber Roll ?

[davidh202]

       I have used Epsons Ex Fiber for a while now with the Epson 7900 and have had no problem until ....
      Yesterday I printed  some   11x 14s on the 24" roll with the paper size (length) set at 15" to save paper.
  I had some difficulty loading the paper into the printer, the curl was catching on the edges and had to angle it in to get it beyond the head travel area (pinch rollers).Anyone using this paper knows how stiff it is.

      Printing went fine except I had a slight ink smudge in the left side border only (as the head returns to the right)at about the 2" mark at the start of each new 'page'
Is this in fact what's known as a head strike?
Have I hurt my printer?
Looking at the next print set coming through I noticed that there was a quite bit of curl in the leading edge of the paper
      All settings were made in the driver  as recommended for the Ex Fiber, by Epson.
Is it recommended to increase the paper length to leave more leader, to allow the vacuume to grab better,need to back roll the leading edge of the paper ,or manually increase the vacuume setting in the driver, or all of the above?
Thanks in advance
David
 

[neile]

Yup, that's a head strike. Likely no damage to your head. Two things to try adjusting:

1) Vacuum strength
2) Head height
 
Either one or both should do the trick.

Neil

[fetish]

i supposed it's near the end of your roll so the curl is a bit more rigid. paper saving methods will probably not allow enough lead margin for the suction to take effect.

what i did in those situation is to turn off the cutting mechanism and extend the leading margin of the paper past the suction area. that way i'll be able to print multiple prints in 1 long pass without getting headstrikes and then i'll cut them individually later.

[Sven W]

Yup, that's a head strike. Likely no damage to your head. Two things to try adjusting:

1) Vacuum strength
2) Head height
 
Either one or both should do the trick.

Neil

Ditto.
I always go for Platen Gap "Wide" on such papers.

/Sven