The Air Box II removes air bubbles from the following cartridges decreasing streaks in printing.
Slot 1 Lexmark 1 (18C0781) / 2 (18C0190E) /14 (18C2090) /15 (18C2110) /23 (18C1523) /24 (18C1524) / 28 (18C1428) / 29 (18C1429)/31 (18C0031) / 32 (18C0032) / 33 (18C0033) / 34 (18C0034) / 35 (18C0035E) / 36 18C2130 / 36XL (18C2170) / 37 (18C2140) / 37XL /40 (18Y0340) / 41 (18Y0141) / 43 (18Y0143) / 44 (18Y0144)
Slot 2 Canon PG-37 / PG-38 / PG-40 / PG-41 / PG-50 / PG-51 / PG-52
Air pressure can be supplied by a simple auxiliary pump, syringe, or compressed-air source regulated to 0.5 bar (7.0 psi). If you do not have a compressed air source, you can easily generate sufficient pressure by blowing into the tube.
Standard vacuum tools of leading manufacturers are normally generating a vacuum of 80% maximum, that means a negative pressure of –800mbar. Furthermore it can be assumed, that the vacuum holding time of the system prior to the refilling process is not sufficient to create the same vacuum inside the cartridge as it is existing within the vacuum chamber. The design and diameter of the ink feed lines as well as the density of the foam is different with each type of cartridge. According to that, each cartridge needs a variable amount of time to reach the same vacuum as created inside the vacuum chamber.
Available refilling machines to refill cartridges under vacuum are designed to work efficiently in terms of time, cost and space. A cartridge is to be refilled in the shortest possible time to its maximum weight. Despite of the high acquisition costs for these machines, most of the designed components are technically not constructed to obtain an ideal environment for the refilling process in order to refill cartridges without air bubbles. To reach this aim, bigger pumps, more energy and, first of all, more time is required.
Considering the mentioned facts it can be assumed that each -even carefully- refilled cartridge contains air bubbles.
By using the AirBox, air bubbles at the print heads can be removed and thus streak-free printouts are achieved.
The AirBox is easy to use. After each refilling process the cartridge is pressed into the elastomer insert (print head at the top). A slight pressure is created within each color-tank by feeding compressed air through the AirBox using a pump (e.g. fish tank pump, pump capacity at 1 Bar / 10 psi, additionally purchasable).
The slight pressure makes sure that the existing air bubbles at the print head are pressed out of the print head together with a small amount of ink ( <1/100g )
This leaking ink has to be removed using a lintless cloth. Each single color chamber can be selected by using the respective valve. The air bubbles can easily be removed out of the chambers - one after the other.
