Clip your Cartridges for Longer Life

Clip at the end of each run – Ask us for your free Cartridge Clip

Best practices for maintaining top quality bar codes without streaks or gaps, means taking good care of your cartridges.  Ink Jet cartridges are susceptible drying out or crusting over one or more of the “jets” when not used continuously.  Newer solvent-based ink jet inks, especially colors, are prone to this problem.  Even more importantly, solvent cartridges cannot be “wiped” back into peak performance. Water and Solvent don’t mix.

So, when production is done for the day, and the coding line is turned off for an extended period of time, a best practice is to place a plastic clip on the inkjet cartridge. This clip seals the nozzles so air doesn’t get trapped inside the cartridge. It also prevents the cartridge from drying out (also known as de-priming).

Also: Don’t shake your cartridges: Shaking ingests air

Don’t every shake your inkjet cartridge.  Shaking an ink cartridge to try to get the ink to “flow” actually just makes matters worse,  creating air bubbles in the very small nozzle “jet
holes, effectively blocking the ink!  There’s no good way to get these air bubbles out, short of priming and printing, which use lots of ink. When you have a situation where the ink won’t jet out, avoid the temptation to shake it.

Free Plastic Cartridge clips

Plastic clips are available from Evolution 4500 ink (Free of charge) with every cartridge purchase. The effort to install a clip  is  justified the very first time you save a cartridge from the recycle bin while there’s still ink inside.

Forgot to Clip?  How to re-start your Cartridge:

So what DO you do when the ink stops jetting? Have a supply of  lint-free cloths nearby.  Wipe or blot the copper “nose” with the Ink Jet nozzles very gently without water or fluid.  Use your printers start up or “priming” routine to try to recover blocked jets (whether block by air or dried ink).