Filling ‘Virgin Empty’ Bag Cartridges (e.g. for Epson 7000 and 9000 etc)

For the Epson 3000, 5000/5500, 7000/7500 & 9000/9500, please flush/purge all remaining ink from the feeding tubes by using a cleaning fluid. The Jet Jrano cleaning fluid is a clear, anti-bacterial, cleaning fluid that is extremely safe in passing through your feeding tubes and print head and acts to flush the remaining ink out of your system, while lubricating the lines. (In the Epson 3000, it is our understanding that about 5% of ink remains in the feeding tube. This translates to about 3.4 to 3.8 ounces of ink). To use the cleaning carts effectively, we strongly recommend you follow our Large format printer tips. You can then feel comfort to know that you will be imaging 100% of your new choice of inks, and you will achieve optimal performance from your inks. If you do not flush out the previous ink from your printer, when the two different ink sets meet at the nozzles, it will likely produce banding, as some nozzles are firing one type of ink, and other nozzles firing another. It is even possible that the two sets of ink are incompatible and could clog the printer. This is why we recommend cleaning the old ink out first!

Step 1: How to fill your bag ‘Virgin Empty’ Cartridge

Things to be SURE of:

• Fill the right color in the right cartridge :-) each cartridge is tabbed/keyed for a specific slot. Each cartridge will typically have some marking on it to identify the right ink position (e.g. BK = Black position).
• Do NOT put more ink in each cartridge than suggested
• Make sure to pull back some ink into the syringe when you are finished filling, to assure that you do not leave any air pockets in the cartridge
• Make absolutely sure NOT to put the needle more than 1/2" into the fill hole (but do make sure then needle goes into the self closing fill hole at least 1/2" inch). We strongly recommend that you cut one of the plastic needle protectors such that it leaves only 1/2" of the needle to protrude through.
• Do you best not to shoot air from the syringe into the cartridge. This is best done by pointing the syringe/needle down and, as you are slowly squeezing the ink into the cartridge, stop before the ink depletes from the syringe

Getting Started:

We suggest to place ink into a small cup first, to fill your syringe from: Fill the syringe with ink and stick it in to the center hole of the cartridge perpendicular to the hole. If you do not put the needle in straight, you could puncture the bag or damage the seal: (it is the hole that has the black plug with a little hole for your needle to fit in. This is a self closing hole).

• The 3000 (CMYK) takes 96ml of ink per cartridge
• The 5000 (YK) takes 96ml of ink per cartridge
• The 5000 (Cc/Mm) takes 62ml per color
• The 7000/7500 (CcMmYK) takes 96ml of ink per cartridge
• The 9000/9500 (CcMmYK) takes 195ml of ink per cartridge Get a large syringe, or it gets to be a lot of work. We offer 20ml and 60ml syringes. BE SURE you don’t insert the needle more than half an inch into the fill hole, or you may puncture the bag inside. At the absolute minimum, wrap tape around the needle at the 1/2" inch depth so the needle cannot go any further than that into the cartridge. (However, we strongly recommend that you cut one of the plastic needle protectors such that it leaves only 1/2" of the needle to protrude through). Be sure the needle goes into the plug, but at a maximum of 1/2" inch into the self closing fill hole! AFTER you have filled the cartridges with the appropriate amount of ink, withdraw about 4 or 5 cc’s of ink from the cartridge. This assures you have gotten all of the air out of the bladder.

If you have created a notorious air pocket (don’t hit yourself, it happens to the best of us) in any of the cartridges, please run a cleaning cycle, or 2. This should pull/suck the air pocket out. If you have a nasty air pocket, it is possible when you first run your "test pattern" that the air pocket will shoot out too much ink from that color cartridge (sometimes will cause a dripping of ink). Simply do a cleaning cycle until the air is removed.

With careful refilling, we would expect bag-filled cartridges to be refillable 3-5 times before they need replacement.

Based on a document ©MediaStreet

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