CLF1 and CLF2 are high potency cleaning fluids designed to dissolve any residue of ink in the printer tubes, dampers, and print heads. It is the strongest cleaning fluid on the market. It does not merely rinse the system, it dissolves the ink.

New Printers:

You may think because your printer is brand new you can place any ink into it. What you need to know is all printers are tested at the factory to make sure the heads are aligned and firing properly. Ink is drained from the printer, but not cleaned with cleaning fluids; thereby, leaving ink deposits in the heads. If you are going to use a third party ink, it may not be compatible with the OEM (Epson) Pigments, which can result in a blocked head. Even our most powerful cleaners may not be able to clear the blockage. This is why we recommend using our CLF1 cleaning fluid before placing third party inks into a new or used printer.

Cleaning:

We cannot stress enough the importance of proper maintenance needed for inkjet printers. Printer companies do not stress the care and cleaning of your printer. Just as you change the oil in your car every 3000 miles to keep it running, so does  an inkjet printer need care and maintenance to keep it running as well.

Preparation for ink change over:

Download Instructions:

Epson 7600/9600 change over:

Epson Printers are pre-tested with the ink designed for their printer and are not cleaned out with a cleaning fluid. You should use our CLF1 and CLF2 are high potency cleaning fluid to dissolve any residue of their ink in the print head and print lines. It is the strongest cleaning fluid on the market. It does not merely rinse the system, it dissolves the ink. Each ink manufacturer formulates ink with different elements that are often conflicting to the OEM ink. The cleaning procedure is of little effort, but so important. To keep your printer running longer it is advisable to run our cleaning fluid at least once a year no matter what ink your use.

CLF2 is a tinted version of CLF1 designed to be used to to check nozzle firing.

Our Bulk Ink Systems for the Epson 7600, 9600, and 4000 as well as the systems for the Mimaki, Roland, and Mutoh Printers come with cleaning fluid and directions.

ClF1 is designed for cleaning Dye, Pigment, and Dye Sublimation Inks. It is not intended for solvent inks.

Potential Problem:

All Pigment Inks exist is a colloidal suspension and are thicker than dye and water. When the printer is not used often enough the pigment ink dries out on the docking station pads as well as on the bottom of the heads, which reset on the docking station pads. This can cause the nozzles to become clogged. This can also happen with dye printers.

Ink maybe thought of as a perfectly pure liquid, but after having performed repairs on printers using OEM ink, I have found small particles captured by the filter on the damper. One of the functions of the damper is to filter ink preventing any particles from being trapped in a nozzle. The damper sits on top of the head in all wide format printer. The more ink that gets passed through the damper, the more likely the chance for a particle build up. As the particles build up in the damper, ink flow is restricted and drop out occurs.

Remedy:

For every day handling. Get an eye dropper bottle and fill it with cleaning solution each night before shut down, place a couple of drops of cleaning fluid on the docking station pads. This will moisten the pads and break up any ink particles. Caution: Do not over soak the pads. It can cause a capillary action where the ink gets sucked back into the heads.

To help clean the docking you can soak it with CLF1 and leave the solution on it for at least 10 minutes. Then dry the pads by dabbing a paper towel or a lintless cloth on it.

Once a year or every six months depending on printer usage, it would be advisable to run cleaning fluid through the lines and dampers. If you know how to replace or clean the dampers by themselves do so.

In the near future we will have graphic instructions describing the procedure of removing dampers.

ClF1 is designed for cleaning Dye, Pigment, and Dye Sublimation Inks. It is not intended for solvent inks.