Epson 7900 Ink Build up - left edge only

[JohnB304]

Hello Gurus,

I have a 7900 that recently started smudging the left edge when borderless printing, It appears to be ink build up and there's about a 1/8th inch wide area of wet ink as the paper exits the machine. The rest of the print isn't effected. I've never had an issue with the print quality until now. Just before this started happening I had my first head strike when printing to canvas, it's stopped the machine and bent the canvas but I finished that job with wider platen gap settings. The little pad behind the left edge of the 10" paper setting was filthy but I swapped it out with a clean one and I cleaned the nozzle wiper. I'm coming into my busy season so any advice or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!

John

edit: If this has been covered elsewhere, please fwd the link & I apologize for over posting, lol.

[Farmer]

It's from your head strike.  There's likely still detritus on the printhead and it's building up ink and then dumping it.  It may also still be striking a bit.

Your wiper blade, although you cleaned it, may not be really clean or may be damaged or not positioned properly.

You may need to adjust your head height as well as have a tech check and clean the machine over.

[JohnB304]

Hello,

This is just a quick update that I figured out the problem, a defective roll of paper. Upon very close inspection and holding it at just the right angle to the light I could see that the surface of the paper smudging was missing the luster coating on the unprinted area. I have always preferred using this house brand paper but recently the online business changed hands and this is the second defective roll I've received. Anyway, I hope this post is of use to someone some day. It had me baffled for two days and in the end I overlooked what was in front of me the entire time. Also, thank you Farmer for the tips.

[rxchaos]

I had a somewhat similar problem (may be not so alike)  on my Epson7900 - see attached image. I talked with Epson's tech support and the vendor from who I bought the printer. Both said it's most likely due to an incorrect platen gap and asked me to to user a wider setting. I did and it resolved the issue.  The platen gap was initially set to the default "Standard" I think, I changed it to Wide and that solved the problem. The paper I had used was Epson Exhibition Fiber.

[JohnB304]

Yeah, my aforementioned canvas printing caused the head strike but the electronics saved it from my lack of experience. It was my first attempt using canvas, widening the gap was all it needed and I still use normal for luster paper.

[davidh202]

Ex Fiber is quite stiff and if using rolls the curl on the  leading edge is prone to a head strike since not enough paper has fed into the platen for the vacuum system to hold it flat against the platen. I always back roll the leading edge to relieve some of the curl and I have a reminder  next to the LCD panel to change the gap to 'wide' ... never have a problem on wide.