Epson P800 - Top Feeder Not Grabbing Basic Matte Paper

[PatCastaldo]

I do a lot of prints (sometimes over a hundred a day) on Red River's 11x14 polar matte and often have two P800s printing at the same time.

Just yesterday both started to stop grabbing the paper. I can sometimes "jiggle" it in so it finally grabs, but now, nothing. I've tried my normal 6-10 sheets stacked in there, but also just single sheets and nothing wants to grab.

I created a little video and you can see what happens: Link to youtube video of problem

Has anyone encountered this problem? Any tips/suggestions?

I looked at the rollers and they don't seem dirty or coated — and I've read mixed things about trying to clean them with alcohol or even rubber-roller restorer (which I bought, but am hesitant to use without some social proof).

Switching to the art-paper-feeder would totally ruin my productivity.

[PatCastaldo]

Update on this:

I realized I had some of the Epson roller cleaning sheets I had ordered from Japan — I tried them: Video of cleaning paper trial but didn't really see any difference. It still doesn't want to grab the matte paper.

[rdonson]

Hmmm.... I've run a lot of 60 lb (229gsm) RR Polar Matte through my P800 without any issues.  8.5x11. 13x19, 17x25 and 13x38.  I've never needed to use the paper guide cleaning sheets.

Have you tried any other papers?

Is the "edge guide" close enough to the paper? Close to the right side?

Have you recently changed any settings?  Paper Feed Adjustment?  Paper Thickness?  Platen Gap?

Have you tried the manual feed tray?

Sorry for all the questions.....just trying to help you think of what may be going on.

[BobShaw]

The P800 user guide is worse than vague, but the only matte paper they seem to recommend with more than one sheet is Epson Presentation Matte which is only 100gsm, so quite thin. My experience is that the sheet feeder is only for plain paper. I often use 160gsm without issues.
All of my matte stuff is in rolls through the back. You just have to cut it.

[PatCastaldo]

Yeah, I can still manually feed it through the art feeder — but not having the rollers in the sheet feeder pick it up has really slowed my production down.

The matte paper from Red River is very similar in thickness to the Enhanced Matte — and I've found in most cases I can sub it real easy. I print a lot of 11x14, so using that paper saves me from trimming.

It is so weird, because it's a paper I've been running through the printer for years and thousands of prints with no problem, and now both printers just refused to grab it. I even had a third spare P800 that I bought refurbed and it won't take it either.

I was looking at even getting a P5000 — but from what I can tell, the paper is gonna be stuck in that too.

I could switch to rolls, I just never like the extra curve in the paper that I get, since it makes it slightly harder to sleeve (we put all our prints in a poly clear bag with a chipboard backing).

[na goodman]

Did you check with RR to see if something has changed in the paper. It does seem weird that you have been using it on both printers and now neither is taking it. Maybe try setting a different matte setting and see what happens.

[PatCastaldo]

Yeah, I've got a thread going on with them, too

So far, I got back

Despite being "high tech" products made in modern manufacturing facilities, there can be variations in surface smoothness that affect feed. We cannot predict or correct it as many customers do not report problems. There is no test on our end to see if a batch will give certain customers trouble. That could be the issue or it could be humidity or just bad luck.  We encourage customers to clean the feed roller after every box of paper.

[Randy Carone]

Are all the sheets from the same batch/lot? Have you tried a different batch. Since you are having discussions with RR this may be obvious, but thought I'd mention it.

[PatCastaldo]

So, I heard back from Red River and it sounds like it quite possibly could be this batch — there's some curvature to it and apparently it was a harder batch for them to process due to high humidity.



One thing he suggested was that the Cannon Pro-1000 has a slightly better paper feed mechanism. So now I'm wondering if I don't add one of those to the mix and see how it performs.