| 1. |
After a short period of use
the write speed of the drives need to be slowed
down as they settle and bed in, usually unevenly.
Although the maximum speed of the drives may
be 52X, as time passes you will see higher
and higher write failures - slowing them down
reduces the number of failed discs. |
| 2. |
Robotic arms can jam or mis-pick
causing the machine to stall midway through
a job. Especially annoying when you need to
print a lot of discs overnight to find just
10 printed the next morning! |
| 3. |
Ink level reporting is a problem
for many machines on the market. Some have
no "true" ink level and make a guess
as to how full the cartridges are. This poses
2 problems, the first is that you end up throwing
away half full cartridges because the machine
says they are empty when they’re not,
and secondly to combat this, you turn off
the ink monitor and then waste discs because
the ink has run out and you didn’t notice!
|
| 4. |
Inkjet nozzles can become blocked
during a print run, leaving white lines and
wasting CDs, and because the machines cannot
tell when the print quality deteriorates they
won’t stop automatically. |
| 5. |
If colour consistency is important
then buying expensive branded (Epson, HP,
Canon, etc) cartridges may be the only option
as you can never be sure what is in a compatible
or remanufactured cartridge. |
| 6. |
Depending on the combination
of ink and printable CD surface, certain colours
printed side by side can bleed into one another
– black and yellow are particularly
bad for this. |
| 7. |
The ink used in these printers
is water soluble which means that printed
discs can be smudged easily with a splash
from a coffee cup or the wipe of a moist finger!
Inkjet printed CDs should be sealed with a
protective lacquer after printing, or you
could use the more expensive 'watershield'
discs instead which require no protection.
|
| 8. |
It sounds obvious, but the
higher the print resolution (and you do want
them to look good) the slower the disc throughput
and the more ink you will use. It has been
known for a single tri-colour cartridge to
last for only 40 discs when printing a single
all-over colour, and combined with an output
of only 25 discs an hour, it can be slow going
and expensive when you need to print 500 CDs!
|
| 9. |
Most CD duplicators and printers
use standard off-the-shelf drives and inkjet
printer mechanics - from manufacturers such
as Epson, HP, Pioneer and Teac - which are
designed for occasional, not continual use.
As these parts start to fail or wear out,
duplication systems become harder to repair
as the manufacturers replace and upgrade their
ranges, making the need to replace the duplicator/printer
more likely. |
| 10. |
Due to their extremely specialised
nature, the manufacturers of CD duplication
and printing systems are usually small companies
with limited resources, so getting fast turnaround
repairs can be difficult. Be prepared for
machines to be away for a week or two. |
