Epson 7880 destroying large quantities of Hanemuhle

[Carla Nelms]

I am really hoping someone here can help me. My Epson 7880 running Image Print RIP is destroying my paper on the initial feed in to the printer. I am using sheet paper 17x22 and am pre curling it to avoid a jam. I have increased the platten gap to the widest setting and turned the suction to the highest (o) setting. Everytime I load a sheet it goes forward and catches on the wide black bar where it would feed out and then it crumples. Before this I was having a hard time with head strikes. Epson says they can't help, that it is the paper's fault. I've been using Hanemuhle Photo Rag for years with no problem. I think epson is just passing the buck. I hate their service. Any ideas would be so appreciated. I've trashed 10 sheets over the last week. BTW, 11x17 sheets make it thru. 8x11 sheets get a head strike quite often. 24x30 sheets of Epson fine art make it thru but they have their own problem which I will address in a separate thread. Thanks in advance!

[Bruce Watson]

Join this group and search the archives. It won't help you feel much better, but rest assured you aren't the first person to have sheet feed problems with this or other Epson printers.

[BarryS]

First of all, Epson won't help you if you're using a third party paper. So I'd switch to Epson papers if you think it's a hardware issue and you want a warranty repair. The 7880 is primarily designed as a production machine intended for roll paper, so you might consider buying rolls of your most used papers. If you need to pre-curl flat papers, you might as well use rolls. Good luck.

[neil poulsen]

What weight of Hahnemuhle and which paper are you using?

Yeah, switch to the thickest Epson paper you can find, and see if you still have a problem.

[nathanm]

Sounds like the pre-curling is your problem. You want the sheet to be as flat as possible. I know that having a slight inward curl is better than an outward curl, but even with an inward curl, once it is past the rollers it has no more pressure on it and it will stick out and get struck by the head. I have had this happen on a few manually-loaded sheets on the 7880. I uncurled it with a roller\piece of canvas and got it to lay as flat as possible then it fed much better. But overall it is a printer not very well suited to sheet use. Printing a double-sided portfolio with it was a project I am not eager to repeat.

[Tyler Boley]

I have been using all Hahnemuhle papers since they first became available under the Lyson and Luminos labels, in all kinds of desktop and large format Epsons for years. I can't imagine being forced to move back to the less impressive performance of Epson papers for all work. While I don't have a 7880, it's hard to imagine the feed path being considerably different than the 7600, 9600, 7800 and 9800s I have and use with all kinds of papers.
The x800s feed flawlessly with these papers, and x600s can sometimes curl inside the printer if there is a bit of lift that won't let the leading edge slip under the exit slot...
I do put a very slight reverse curl at the leading edge sometimes with those sheets.
After using both rolls and sheets over the years, I far prefer sheets, and have even had clients tell me to please stop using rolls for their jobs.
Perhaps there are some particulars about the 7880 of which I am not aware, but if Epsons continue moving so forcefully towards systems that will only take their consumables, I would seriously consider moving to another platform to maintain the highest possible print standards, which for the most part are made available from the 3rd parties.
Hahnemuhle is outstanding paper, them, Museo, and other companies contribute greatly to our craft. I'm really getting tired of huge tech companies dictating how we make our art...
Sorry for the rant, possibly OT. To the OP, keep playing around, perhaps you will get it to work from input here and elsewhere. From Niépce to Cone and others, playing around is what moves everything forward.
Tyler
http://www.custom-digital.com/

[Frank Doering]

I have had the head strike problem with the 4000 and PhotoRag 308; it's varied from paper box to paper box, worse recently. I've resorted to reverse-curling the first 3 or so inches of the paper.

[Big Fish]

Greetings....

Just my two cents. I have a new 9880 and am new to large format printing. I am using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl 320 and Museo Silver Rag 300 in both sheet and roll. The sheets do catch the corner edge and can ruin the print despite the settings. To get the job done, using a small flashlight, I have plastic wire hanger that I bent to catch the corner as it comes through. Sometimes, the reverse curl helps but also holding the paper straight up not leaning back has also been successful. In looking at the situation I think Epson could easily modify the design.

Best...

Big Fish

[bannermanphoto]

This is kind of off topic... but on topic in another way... we are having Hanemuhle papers destroyed but in another way... We are running an Epson 7800 printer and it has worked well with other papers, eg. Epson Premium Luster 260 but with the Hanemuhle Deguerre canvas we bought, we find weird color shifts even though we use the Deguerre color profiles. Has anyone seen this before? We use Photoshop CS4, view the profile, then do the page setup, turn off all color management, in the driver and in the pre print, point the preprint and the driver to Deguerre, and we get what looks almost like an oversaturation, keeping in mind that printing on other paper gives us screen color results (our screens are calibrated) what would account for such a marked color shift on the Deguerre? Any input would be greatly appreciated. We have tried desaturating the image so it looks badly on screen but prints reasonable, but we are looking for more predictable results as this stuff is pricey... Thanks in advance.