Epson Photo R3000 Paper Thickness

[schrodingerscat]

Greetings all -

Recently picked up an R3000. While not dialed in completely, have been pleased with the results, especially B&W in ABW.

However, just had the strangest conversation with two tiers of tech support. With Red River Utrapro Satin it sometimes sounds like I'm getting occasional head strikes. I noticed that there's a setting for paper thickness in the advance media settings, so thought I'd try that. The poop sheet that came with the paper spec'd it at 10.4mil. The thickness adjustment in the driver is in round whole numbers, with nothing to indicate what measuring method it refers to. Next to that, in parentheses, is 0.10mm, with no indication what that pertains to.

Somewhat confused, called Epson TS. The first guy seemed to have difficulties with English, and there was pronounced satellite delay. He was rather argumentative, but did eventually kick me up to the next level. Like the first person, he also had no real idea what any of the settings and numbers actually meant. The only advice I was given was to ignore the paper thickness setting and use the platen gap adjustment. Both conversations ended with mumbled apologies and embarrassed silence. Don't blame them.

Was wondering if this setting is available for other 3xxx printers, and if anyone knows how it works. 

Thanks

Minor rant - When is the US going to finally join the rest of the industrial world and adopt the metric system, we've only been talking about it since the 60s. Guess it takes more than blowing up multi-million dollar space craft get us motivated.

[Rand47]

10.4 mil = 0.26416 millimeters, therefore on the R3000 set paper thickness accordingly.  I "round up" rather than down.  The whole numbers represent "tenths of millimeters," hence the explanation in parens.  So, I'd set thickness to "3."

But, this still does not address the platen gap and if you're having head strikes that's a gap issue.  Set the platen gap wider & see if that corrects the problem.  

RR UltraPro Satin is not a particularly thick paper, IMO & I've not had your problem on my R3000.

Edit:  You don't mention if you have any physical evidence if head strikes?  Flaws in print, ink where it doesn't belong?

[hugowolf]

Minor rant - When is the US going to finally join the rest of the industrial world and adopt the metric system, we've only been talking about it since the 60s. Guess it takes more than blowing up multi-million dollar space craft get us motivated.

Of all the US inkjet paper suppliers, Red River are about the worse for this; they have only recently started adding g/m² long with the stange pound basis weights. Moab have g/m² but still mils (thousandths of an inch), and Museo have g/m² inches as decimal fractions, and strangely, µm (micrometres).

Brian A

[BarbaraArmstrong]

With Canson Platine (a 310gsm paper; I don't know its thickness in mils), and the R3000, I've had to go to a paper thickness of 5 and the wide platen gap to avoid headstrikes.  At the 4 setting, and wide, I often, but not always, had headstrikes.  The ink would smear at the edge of the paper, at the end of the print.  I am printing sheets, and often slightly bend back the sides of the paper at the trailing end to try to avoid the strikes.  That has not always worked, and I've recently moved to the 5 setting with better results so far. I'm printing up several portfolios right now, so I'm really putting the printer through its paces.  I do like this printer.  --Barbara

[mac_paolo]

With Canson Platine (a 310gsm paper; I don't know its thickness in mils), and the R3000, I've had to go to a paper thickness of 5 and the wide platen gap to avoid headstrikes.  At the 4 setting, and wide, I often, but not always, had headstrikes.  The ink would smear at the edge of the paper, at the end of the print.  I am printing sheets, and often slightly bend back the sides of the paper at the trailing end to try to avoid the strikes.  That has not always worked, and I've recently moved to the 5 setting with better results so far. I'm printing up several portfolios right now, so I'm really putting the printer through its paces.  I do like this printer.  --Barbara

Have you tried the front feeding?
I had head strikes with standard platen gap (with wide I had none, but the acutance got worst).
By feeding in the fine art front feeder I can set standard platen gap and get zero issues.

Paolo

[philbaum]

Yes, its confusing, one would think they would explain that in the short manual, but no.


Someone explained it in a thread here on lula, the entry for the mm paper thickness is for the paper feed functionality, while the platen gap (the gap between the nozzle head and the support under the media) has to do with the printing zone (also where the strikes occur).  My 18 mil canvas calculates out to a "5" paper feed thickness, and i only use "standard" platen gap with it.  I tried the "wide" platen gap with the canvas and the printing wasn't quite as sharp, which i think the manual noted. 

I left some 23 mil Epson canvas loaded in the printer overnight, and the next day it resulted in head strikes.  Apparently, the roller pressure (my guess) is enough to cause some distortion over a period of time, and when that feeds into the printing zone, strikes occur.  So anyway, i always unload canvas after i stop printing for the day.

[BarbaraArmstrong]

Paolo, thanks for the suggestion.  I'll see what results.  --Barbara

[hugowolf]

With Canson Platine (a 310gsm paper; I don't know its thickness in mils), and the R3000, I've had to go to a paper thickness of 5 and the wide platen gap to avoid headstrikes.  At the 4 setting, and wide, I often, but not always, had headstrikes.  The ink would smear at the edge of the paper, at the end of the print.  I am printing sheets, and often slightly bend back the sides of the paper at the trailing end to try to avoid the strikes.  That has not always worked, and I've recently moved to the 5 setting with better results so far. I'm printing up several portfolios right now, so I'm really putting the printer through its paces.  I do like this printer.  --Barbara

The only data I have on Canson papers is:
Arches Aquarelle Rag 240 g/m2 = 18,42 mil, 468 µm
Arches Aquarelle Rag 310 g/m2 = 23,38 mil, 594 µm
Edition Etching 310 g/m2= 18,65Mil, 479 µm
Rag Photographique 310 g/m2 = 18,34 mil, 466 µm
Montval Aquarelle 310 g/m2 1 = 19,52 mil, 496 µm
... where 500 µm = 0.5 mm

I haven't measured Platine, but 5 should be correct.

Brian A

[BarbaraArmstrong]

Well thank goodness.  Reading the comments here, I'd begun to worry that I'd invoked a softness (though I hadn't noticed a problem) in my prints through a too-thick paper setting.  Thanks for the feedback.  --Barbara

[schrodingerscat]

Greetings all -

Sorry for the delay. There's an old Chinese curse - "May you live in interesting times", and it's been a bit too interesting lately.

Thanks all for your replies. Seems that they could have just used .001 increments for the setting instead of that wanky whole digit with odd annotation scheme. Tho it seems to not do much, will fiddle with it and see what happens.

While not getting any indication of head strikes on the print, it occasionally makes a scratchy sort of sound, like something being dragged across the paper. Suppose I'll get used to it. The Epson tech did indicate that widening the platen gap moves the head higher above the paper(for thick paper it seems), and if doing so with paper that may not need the extra headroom(pun intended), it reduces the resolution. Like moving a spray can further from the surface. See no reason to have to do this with the RR Satin.

Now if I could only figure out where all that Matte Black ink is going...