Hahnemuhle Bamboo jammed in my 7900

[Guigui]

Hello,

A few days ago, as I was looking for eco-friendly inkjet papers, I purchased a pack of A4 cutsheets of bamboo paper (290g), just to give it a try.

The sheets were so curly that it jammed 3 times in my printer (both during loading and printing). The only way that I found to avoid this was to manually "decurl" the sheets (with a home-made d-roller) to make them flat before loading them.

I'd like to know if my print head can be severely damaged because of this and what precautions I should take in the future.

I know that using a roll (or larger sheets) would probably eliminate the problem, but has any other 7900 user experienced such hassle while using hahnemuhle bamboo ? What can I do to avoid this ?
Otherwise, I'm very pleased with this paper but handling small sheets is just a pain in the neck.

Details : Paper type was set on Velvet Fine Art, as suggested in the bamboo paper specs.

Thanks !

[pcmurray]

Hello,

A few days ago, as I was looking for eco-friendly inkjet papers, I purchased a pack of A4 cutsheets of bamboo paper (290g), just to give it a try.

The sheets were so curly that it jammed 3 times in my printer (both during loading and printing). The only way that I found to avoid this was to manually "decurl" the sheets (with a home-made d-roller) to make them flat before loading them.

I'd like to know if my print head can be severely damaged because of this and what precautions I should take in the future.

I know that using a roll (or larger sheets) would probably eliminate the problem, but has any other 7900 user experienced such hassle while using hahnemuhle bamboo ? What can I do to avoid this ?
Otherwise, I'm very pleased with this paper but handling small sheets is just a pain in the neck.

Details : Paper type was set on Velvet Fine Art, as suggested in the bamboo paper specs.

Thanks !

I have a 7900 printer and have not yet tried Hahnemuhle's bamboo paper.  However, I called Epson when I found other Hahnemuhle papers jamming in my printer regularly. Epson tech support had me try changing the platen settings, which was not successful in solving the jams. I found that derolling the paper solved the paper jamming. Now I always use my d-roller first and have no problem. I suggest you just always decurl as you are doing.  It takes a few minutes extra but is worth it.
Best regards,
pcmurray

[Guigui]

However, I called Epson when I found other Hahnemuhle papers jamming in my printer regularly. Epson tech support had me try changing the platen settings, which was not successful in solving the jams.

Thanks for your reply. I suppose this is likely to happen with all thick paper sheets that are not perfectly flat.

I was wondering if creating a custom paper setting in the printer driver could solve the problem, but I don't understand how that is done. When I use a non-Epson paper, I simply set the printer paper type on the most accurate match in the Epson presets (i.e : Velvet Fine Art for Hahnemuhle Bamboo, Epson Premium Semi-Gloss for Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, alhtough they are both thicker than the Epson papers...). How can I add custom paper types to the initial list of Epson papers ?

Thanks

[BobDavid]

The 9900/7900 are a lot more sensitive to paper curl and are thus more prone to jamming than previous Epsons. I make it a standard operating procedure to manually deroll the bottom corners before loading a sheet. This seems to work.

[Bearmann]

Doesn't the cut paper come flat in packages? I can see why roll paper is curly, but why would cut paper be curly? Don't all of these professional printers have a vacuum whose purpose it is to keep the paper flat? I can't use a roll of Harmon FB AL in my Canon iPF 5000 without flattening it first or I'll get head strikes. I can't understand why the vacuum is not keeping the paper flat. There is a lot here that I simply do not understand!

[TylerB]

Both Sugar Cane and Bamboo sheets seem to have a natural curl in the direction of the coated side, coming out of the box. Perhaps it shrinks a bit depending on humidity or other factors. I just went through 6 roll of Sugar Cane, of course with an off-the-roll curl in the other direction, without problems. Like pcmurray and dave, I reverse curl the leading edge of the sheets just before printing, seems to work.
Tyler
http://www.custom-digital.com/

[Alan Goldhammer]

I print on a 2880 so it may not be fully relevant but I've not had any problems with Bamboo.  Run through one box of letter size and a fair number of 13x19 sheets.  Even though the rear feeder can be quirky at times, it seems to love Bamboo.

[Guigui]

Both Sugar Cane and Bamboo sheets seem to have a natural curl in the direction of the coated side, coming out of the box.

Yes, this is the curl that was causing the jamming. I was hoping it was just my box, but it looks like it's always like this.
Oh well, I'll just buy a roll next time.

Thanks everyone for their reply.

[MHMG]

Yes, this is the curl that was causing the jamming. I was hoping it was just my box, but it looks like it's always like this.
Oh well, I'll just buy a roll next time.

Thanks everyone for their reply.

Coated papers almost always have humidity coefficient of expansion differences between the coating and the substrate. Cellulosic materials and hygroscopic layers like the inkjet receiver coatings also have hysteresis effects with humidity cycling where a quasi-permanent curl towards the coated side will naturally develop over time. Papers on rolls also develop a "core set" due to plastic deformation when wrapped around narrow diameter tubes.  And paper also has anisotropic material properties which means that in terms of expansion/contraction behavior there is a difference between the lengthwise and widthwise expansion/contraction response to changes in temperature and humidity.  Paper conservators talk about the "wane" and "weft" of papers to identify and discuss these lengthwise and widthwise material handling and property differences.

A manufacturer can apply an anti-curl layer on the verso to counteract the differences between the top side coating and the base, but this anti-curl coating can then obscure the paper "feel" of the base.  For a fine art paper, this is bit of a dilemma because the prized feel of the paper can be hidden underneath that dual coated sheet.  Hahnemulhle papers tend to have little or no anti-curl layer to in order to preserve that artistic tactile experience when you pick up the paper. Other fine art paper manufacturers also use limited or no anti-curl coating treatment on the backside for the same reason, but it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.  In contrast, for example, Ilford Gold fiber Silk has a very obvious anti-curl coating technology on the verso which IMHO works well but also clearly prevents it from mimicking precisely the "look and feel" of traditonal darkroom processed fiber based papers (which have no anti-curl layer on the back).  

Bottom line is that there is no free lunch with coated fine art papers. Better layflat characteristics come at the expense of the fine art paper aesthetic. Hahnemuhle errs on the side of giving you a better fine art aesthetic, but you have to pull out that de-curling roller more often!

cheers,

Mark
http:/www.aardenburg-imaging.com