Canon Pixma Pro 100 feed issue

[jrp55262]

So we print a LOT of fine art greeting cards for our giclee customers.  We print almost exclusively on Red River Aurora Art White or Natural card stock, and we print on a Canon Pixma Pro 100.  The problem we're having is getting cards to feed consistently.  We find that sometimes we need to hand-feed cards one at a time (we'd really rather stack feed them, but that's REALLY unreliable).  Not only do we have to hand-jigger the cards to get them to take, but then the registration is inconsistent.  The artists really want their art centered on the face of the card, but we find a significant portion of our cards are off by 1/8" or so.  It's gotten worse as the printer has aged, so I'm suspecting a worn feed roller.  I notice that this printer is apparently not serviceable; attempts to find a service manual and repair parts have come up empty.

Any ideas as to how to proceed?  We're starting to lose money on print jobs as we waste time and cards with babysitting the feeding and with do-overs...

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

You could try doing a roller clean.  Available in the Canon utility.

I did once get a batch of office paper which exhibited poor feeding.  After a great deal of testing I identified the paper itself was the problem; it was definitely not the printer.  The paper went back to the supplier who replaced it.

So another thing to try is some different papers to see if you get the same feeding problems.

[NAwlins_Contrarian]

Agreed that so many printer feed issues--and this applies as much to a B&W laser printer as it does to a Pro-100--can be at least improved and often cured by doing a roller cleaning, which many printers have as a utility.

That said, I suspect that Red River Aurora Art Natural, especially the 285 gsm variety, may be a substantial factor in causing your problem; it is the only paper that's ever given be significant trouble in the Pro-100. At first I thought I was getting head strikes, but later I wondered whether what I saw was due to the paper not feeding smoothly. I described the problem in as much detail as I could, and sent photos of prints to Red River. They were responsive and sent me some paper to experiment with, but straight up this has not made it to the upper levels of my to-do list. Also, I really like the look of Canson Rag Photographique, which for my tastes and purposes is a good alternative.

I realize that Aurora Art Natural, unlike most papers, is microporous coated both sides, and maybe that's something you need. Also, generally I like Red River papers (especially Palo Duro Softgloss Rag and Pecos River Gloss 60 lb). But maybe try a different paper?

[jrp55262]

Just to let you know how things turned out: After poking around on other forums I ended up getting a bottle of rubber rejuvinator and applying a little of it to the main feed rollers.  I then sent a few scrap pieces of paper through to absorb any excess.  After that the cards feed *much* better; this gave the rollers just the extra bit of stickiness they needed to pull the paper through.

Hope this helps!