Current State of Piezography

an opinion: 06/07/2024

It is no longer possible to purchase a new EPSON printer model in the USA that can be used with 3rd party ink cartridges. Trump's dismantling of the Department of Consumer Protection in 2018 created a scenario in which printer OEMs have taken advantage of to block the use of 3rd party inks in their new printer models. As it pertains EPSON, there is no workaround to these consumer blocks. We do not expect there to be either for a perfect storm of reasons.

It is the new reality and not one that will be remedied any time soon as it may take a decade or longer for the Department to gain enough momentum to begin again to protect inkjet consumers. Currently under rebuild during the Biden Administration it is focusing on financial crimes; the reason it was dismantled in the first place. So, this does not bode well for USA inkjet consumers who wish to buy new printers for more creative purposes than the use of OEM inks permits.

So what can you do about it if you want to produce the higher standards that Piezography offers and you do not already own an EPSON printer that can be converted? Read on......

Those EPSON printer models that you currently see supported on our website with inks are the last of the EPSON models sold into the North American market that can be used with 3rd party. Where you may see models like the P10000, P20000, and the latest models you will not find that we sell any ink products for them because we can not. There is no ifs or ands about this. It is just the way it is in North America. It is different in Europe and China where they have governmental departments to enforce consumer protection law.

The best example is that the SureColor P700 and P900 printers sold in Europe (or in China as P708 / P908) work with a simple chip resetter. We now have refillable ink cartridges and chip resetters for the European P700 and P900 printers and you can run Piezography and ConeColor and UV45 inks in these printers if you purchase one from Europe and have it shipped over or carry it back as luggage. You attach the European OEM chips to these carts and reset them when they read empty. However, the P700 and P900 sold in North America will not work with these European cartridges and chip resetters.

This leaves a new PIezography customer who does not have a convertable printer to seek a used printer. For a Piezography user this is actually much easier than for a ConeColor customer because most used printers often have one or two bad channels which is why they are being sold “as is”. In many cases, these can work perfectly for Piezography and can often be purchased at a steal or carried away for free. There is a guide below that indicates what versions of Piezography will work with printers with various amounts of working ink channels.

At the same time, PiezoFlush has been known to work miracles freeing up channels that were otherwise considered to be permanently clogged. The investment in a PiezoFlush flushing system can be worth it. We advise you to read our nutshell approach to using PiezoFlush on used large format printers. Someone else’s misery machine may be your new Piezography dream machine.

There is a caveat to buying used P6000, P7000, P8000 and P9000 printers. These printers can only be used with cartridge chip serial numbers that have not been previously used in the printer. There have only ever been minted 10 series of 3rd party chip serial numbers worldwide. Therefore, if you purchase one of these used printers that has been used with 3rd party inks the likelihood is that you will not be able to use it with 3rd party inks because the cost of your purchasing a number of our chips to find which have not yet been used will be prohibitive and we do not sell chips to have them returned to us. You must ascertain this important information before purchasing: has it been used with non-EPSON inks? or if it has is there a record of what chip series have been used? and are there enough remaining series for your use? While these printers can be returned to OEM ink usage, the memory of their 3rd party chip usage can not be purged.

Just a note to say that when EPSON ran out of smart chips for these printers they introduced a new firmware upgrade that must be installed in order to use the new EPSON ink carts. While the printer will no longer accurately track usage of the new EPSON ink carts the new firmware still tracks usage of smart chips such as the ones we provide.

The cost of making one of these P6000, P7000, P8000 and P9000 printers into a China region printer model (which allows chip resetting) is about $1,800 and involves removing and replacing the printer’s main board with a main board from the China region and then setting the printer’s language to English. After this the printer can be used with a simple chip resetter. Where we have supplies for these printer models in China it takes us a few weeks to obtain a main printer board. So your best move is to purchase a used P6000, P7000, P8000 and P9000 which has only been used with EPSON inks as we have 10 series of serial numbers for their use.

The used P800s sold in North America are also tricky in that they are recording chip serial numbers. However, no 3rd party chips have ever been produced for these that work in North America. Instead a chipless firmware solution is available but requires borrowing someone’s Windows PC to install it. It is a low cost solution to opening up the P800 for use which you can read about here.

All of the older models work in various ways with simple chip resetters or chip resetting cartridges which we provide.

Probably the best solution right now is the preponderance of SureColor P7000 and P9000 printers that have a tendency to clog with the use of EPSON inks. When a color printer loses a single channel it can no longer be used to print color. Its owner faces a multi-thousand dollar repair or it is in many cases going to be pushed to the corner and a new printer purchased. Most communities in the USA make it difficult for a consumer to “trash” a large electronic printer. These are the printers that are ripe for acquiring often for free Although in which case “free” may mean carrying down two flights of stairs and loading it yourself into the back of a SUV.

USED Printer Strategies

The P7000 and P9000 have 10 ink channels used by 11 ink positions. The MK and PK share the same ink channel and are switched in the ink selector unit above the print head.

If there is a loss of a single ink channel the printer can be used perfectly for Piezography Pro inks (the 9 ink edition).
If there is a loss of two ink channels and neither one is black, the printer can be used perfectly for Piezography Pro inks (the 9 ink edition).
If there is a loss of only the black ink channel, the printer can be used perfectly for Piezography Pro inks (the 9 ink edition).
If there is a loss of two ink channels and one of them is either MK or PK (but not both) the printer can be used perfectly for Piezography Pro inks (the 9 ink edition).
If there are only 8 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for Gloss Only Piezography Pro and also digital negatives.
If there are only 7 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for Matte Only Piezography. OR it can be used to make digital negatives and the 3-ink version of direct to plate; but not Piezography prints.
If there are only 3 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for 3-ink version of direct-to-plate photopolymer photogravure.
If there is only 1 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for 1-ink version of direct-to-plate photopolymer photogravure.

The P6000 and P8000 have 8 ink channels used by 9 ink positions. The MK and PK share the same ink channel and are switched in the ink selector unit above the print head. The 9 ink edition of Piezography Pro was designed for these two printer models.

If there is a loss of a single ink channel that does not include black, the printer can be used perfectly for matte only or gloss only printing (but not both). If gloss only it can include digital negatives.
If there are only 7 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for Matte Only Piezography. OR it can be used to make digital negatives and the 3-ink version of direct to plate; but not Piezography prints.
If there are only 3 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for 3-ink version of direct-to-plate photopolymer photogravure.
If there is only 1 working ink channels, the printer can be used perfectly for 1-ink version of direct-to-plate photopolymer photogravure.

Because the 3880, P800, Pro 7890 and 9890 follow the ink scheme of the SureColor P6000, P8000 the same logic applies as it does to those models.

Because the Pro 7900 and 9900 follow the ink scheme of the SureColor P7000, P9000 the same logic applies as it does to those models.

Piezography inks in comparison to EPSON inks are much easier on print heads and relatively maintenance free in comparison. One thing you should not consider is leaving a chipped, but empty cartridge in a print channel that is not functioning. That can affect the channels adjacent to it. Always keep ink or better yet, PiezoFlush in the unused ink channels. And in time there may be some possibility that the PiezoFlush frees a channel.

We do not have much hope for nor expect there to be solutions for new model EPSON printers sold in USA in the future. The main reason is that semi-conductor companies have no interest in making investments into designing chips to circumvent OEM anti-3rd party chip schemes because investments are better off spent in the more lucrative and higher demand AI chip production. Also, the reduction in use of printers designed for photographic and fine art printing has caused this market to no longer be lucrative to 3rd party chip manufacturers as it was in the 2000s and 2010s. Today the majority of photographers and fine artists are “printing” their images to social media and websites. The need to actually physically print their work is not a requirement today for masses of people to see the work as it was 20 years ago. The market for ink for the OEMs in the photo and fine art markets is a fraction of what it is in other new sectors now. The perfect storm so to speak for an inkjet creative has occurred.

We are living in the age where inkjet is quickly becoming an alternative medium and the availability of inkjet printers in the future is not a certainty for anyone. That lays solely in the hands of corporate decisions makers based on profits from a market now driven by social media. Time will tell. For those who love printmaking – it is always a good time to seek out ways in which to be creative and to explore and a used bargain printer with a few channels can be turned into a true printmaking machine.