Epson T032120, T032220, T032320, T032420, T032520 Service Manual

Refilling the Epson T032120, T032220, T032320, T032420, T032520, T042220, T042320, T042420, T042520 ink jet cartridges.

We have spent a great deal of time learning about the inner working of these particular cartridges. Having taken apart some 20 cartridges and torn apart two printers has given us a unique perspective as to how well the cartridges were designed.

The C80 cartridges are designed to work without the need for sponges. This is done though a series of chambers that contain air an ink. The multiple chamber cartridge works using pressue and is (in my opinion) a most impressive cartridge.

Below is the magenta cartridge that has had its side wall remove. This is the wall opposite the label side. As you can see there are chambers and paths throughout the cartridge. At first glance this is all very confusing.

The cartridge has several distinct chambers that allow ink to flow in a regular pattern throughout the cartridge and actually allow ink to move UP the cartridge. Below you can see the six chambers as we defined them.

The largest chamber which appears above in very faint yellow runs throughout the cartridges and contains more ink than the entire remaining portion of the cartridge combined. Below you'll see the amounts of ink in cc's (cubic centimeters). If you are wondering how accurate these numbers are, we believe these to be plus or minus no more than .2cc

The total volume of ink as we have withdrawn from the cartridge does not exceed 18cc. We believe though that this may be as much as 1cc higher than the actual amount of ink.

In contrast to how much ink is in the cartridge is how much of the ink is usable. In all of our testing no cartridge after use contained less than 4cc. This means that the usable ink within the cartridge is about 14cc.

The remaining 4cc was trapped or sat in the red and blue portions of the cartridge. We expect that this was part of the process that ensured that no air was capable of getting into these chambers and ink flowed properly.

Ink from the bottom of the cartridge actually flows up the cartridge. To the best of my knowledge this is the first ink jet cartridge that does not use gravity to feed into into the print head area or exit port if you will.

The path as show above starts at the bottom of the cartridge and works its way up a small tube. Once in the tube it exits out into a chamber (second level of cartridge on far right) where it feeds into another chamber (chamber directly to the left) and yet another two chambers before finally working up another tube. Finally the ink exits this side of the cartridge (show below) through the only sponge material.

The ink is passed back into this side of the cartridge and then enters the circular area. Once in this area it once again feeds into the other side of the cartridge before entering the exit tube. (shown below)

OK. Now you see that this is a very complex cartridge. There are several fail safes that make refilling these cartridges a bit difficult. The first fail-safe is the "plastic vent puncture pin" located on the lower left portion of the picture with the yellow arrow. Once you insert a cartridge into your printer the pin punctures the plastic covering the air vent (show with red arrow)

The original fill holes of the ink cartridge are on the bottom of the cartridge. This makes the standard "use the same holes as the manufacturer did" a bit difficult. The holes would need to be completely sealed for proper use.