conductivity calibration

Hey all,
I don't have access to a conductivity meter, and I am wondering if anyone has tried this :
I have been told that, starting with calibration cans and a fresh ink build, that adding a drop of IA will raise the conductivity 9 pts. It seems kind of a small amount of IA, or I was confused and the person meant a dropper full. How much is a dropper full ?
I haven't been able to contact the person that told me.
Any thoughts ? Press is 3050.

 

It's a crapshoot. 1 full dropper can raise it anywhere from 3-9 points. A dropper full is the tube and part way into the ball of the part you squeeze. I went some 4 years without a meter. Press would get to the point where the conductivity was really off a lot. Very low in fact while the press software showed normal ranges. Yes a meter is costly $2000 but it's real nice to have. Finally got the boss to get one for us. No issues what so ever. No guessing games or ink troubles.

 

More info........a dropper holds about 1/32 oz. So 4 droppers are 1/4 oz and so on. My press is set as follows for conductivity.
Y-110
M-80
C-65
K-90
Next my measured conductivity with meter and how many droppers of IA added.
Y-108 with 12 droppers
M-76 with 9 droppers
C -66 with 7 droppers
K-84 with 9.5 droppers.
This is close enough where the machine can fine tune the calibrations and I have no issues at all. These are pretty consistent month to month when we do maint. But I still use the meter to be sure I'm in the ballpark. The age of the Image agent does not seem to be a factor old or new. In fact if it's a older bottle it may give me a point or 2 more. Go figure.

 

Thank You ! Very helpful. As it turns out, the problem i was having wasnt ink related, but your info is invaluable as i dont have a prayer of getting a meter. If i could ask, did you have to buy your meter from HP ?
Also, your numbers coincide with the default settings of my machine, with the exception of the cyan. The default is 85 or 80 i think. Perhaps a different machine or different software version ? Anyhoo, thanks again for sharing your knowledge !

 

Yes indeed it's a HP meter. Was told by various people only the HP meter was compatible. My Cyan used to be set around 80-85 as well. Was having some issues and HP said to try 65 and it's been good for years. My machine is a 5600 and also has white ink. But the old one was a 3500 and numbers were about the same. Think software is 7.8. can't remember exactly. Anyway glad to help! Have a good one.

 

Hi the best measured fixture and to the point is use a syringe and ratio is 1ml equal to 4point of conductivity
It meen if you need conductivity 80 then divide it by 4 then you get 20 so you have to put 20 ml of imaging agent ...It works great you can use a 40 ml syringe

 

Ok cool. thanks Raju. Liking all of this for reference.