| OPERATION
AND MAINTENANCE
With
the Photosmart software installed the printer is ready to go.
Having already operated the main paper tray during calibration
I was curious to try the Specialty Media Tray with some fine
art paper. The procedure here is to lower a small tray that
is in an upright position by default when the main tray is
in use. Upon lowering the tray the printer cycles and prepares
itself for manual feeding and for the use of thick media.
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Ready for manual feeding with the tray
in the down position |
The LCD will instruct you to feed a single sheet into the
specialty media tray. HP has made this a foolproof process.
Simply load the paper through the front of the printer until
the edge facing you and the right side are lined up with
two dashed-line indicators on the face of the tray.
At
right you can see Hahnemühle
Smooth Fine Art paper being fed into the B9180.
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The
paper is then lined up with the dashed-line indicators.
Once
the paper is lined up press the "OK" button
on the printer console and the paper is fed into the carriage.
For this type of feeding you must ensure that the printer
is not up against a wall or other obstruction. A clearance
of at least 12 inches behind the printer is recommended.
If you plan to use 13x19 paper you may need even more room
in the rear.
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A TIP FOR WHEN PRINTING WITH FINE ART PAPER
Many
people are often at a loss as to
how
to determine
which
side
of the
paper is the print side. Lightly moisten the very tip of your
finger and run it lightly on the surface of the paper on both
sides. Do this at the very edge of the page so as not to harm
the printing surface. The printable side of the paper will
feel tacky compared to the back of the paper. This works with
any
coated fine art paper, and of course, if you are using a non-coated
paper you just select the side that is free of any surface flaws.
ON CLOGGING
On the issue of clogging and head cleaning HP has worked to
address this in two ways. The B9180 is designed to remain turned
on at all times. When it is idle it conducts self tests on a
regular schedule and will go through a cleaning process if it
detects even the slightest clog. This saves considerable amounts
of ink as the HP has the capability to single out the clogged
head and flush only that color. This is a totally different approach
than Epson which requires user initiated head cleanings and requires
that all the colors flush all the heads at once, thus wasting
ink on the clean heads.
The other advancement from HP is the way they designed the ink.
The pigment particles are coated with a resin (which helps with
eliminating gloss differential) and then are negatively charged.
This negative charge produces a natural repulsion between each
particle curbing the tendency for these particles to clump together
and cause clogging. HP calls this Electrosteric Encapsulation.
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