Think Ink

Ever since the introduction of wide-format, color-inkjet graphic printers in the mid 1990s, ink developers have worked to take advantage of the high margins associated with the ink supplies for these printers and provide lower-cost third-party aftermarket inks to owners of these printers. Initially, they provided dye-based inks for the first wide-format printer, called the Encad NovaJet. As the deficiencies of the dye-based inks became more and more apparent, efforts were made to produce a pigment ink set for these printers. Waterfastness and lightfastness of the dye-based inks produced outputs unacceptable for use in outdoor applications, where much of the signage products were expected to perform. In this article, I will share my views on the current state of this aftermarket business and provide some advice when considering an aftermarket solution.

HP 5000/5500 DesignJet series printers
Estimates have been made that 250,000 HP 5000 printers have been installed. They have been the workhorses for beverage distributors as well as many graphic print providers and in-house graphic service organizations for nearly 10 years. Estimates are as high as 60 percent for these printers that use pigmented inks to produce their graphics. The ink and printheads for these printers are provided as separate items to be replaced as needed. The ink cartridge contains a chip that functions to manage and measure ink utilization and notifies the printer when the ink is about to run out.

Replacement ink systems for the venerable HP Designjet 5000/5500 printer series are widely available, but ink sets for its replacement, the HP Designjet Z6100 series, have not yet been developed (though they are expected soon).

In providing an aftermarket alternative, several legal issues must be considered if the provider of the aftermarket ink solution wishes to avoid successful legal action by the OEM. First, the ink cartridge must be remanufactured. A clone cartridge cannot be used without legal problems. Both of these approaches have been litigated, and the legal situation appears to be clear. So the empty cartridges must be collected, refurbished and then filled with compatible inkjet ink.

The refurbishing process requires cleaning, replacement of the ink bag and chip, and other components within the ink cartridge. This process requires skill and is not easily done by the owner of the printer. To achieve reliability comparable with the new HP-manufactured cartridges, a battery of tests must be performed to verify that a remanufactured cartridge will perform properly with failure rates no worse than new HP ink cartridges. Second is the ink itself. The ink used by HP in the 5000 series cartridge is a sophisticated product. In an effort to determine a suitable ink set for one of my clients, I initiated a testing program to determine what ink, if any available on the market, could meet these criteria. Only one ink set did. That ink set is produced by an OEM ink manufacturer with the technology to produce inks that in nearly every way mimicked the HP ink. In addition, they have patents that cover the design and manufacturing of the ink so that they were not vulnerable to successful lawsuits by the OEM. The ink manufacturer should provide the seller of the remanufactured cartridges indemnification against law suits by the OEM. If they are successful, they will be sued by the OEM, even if there is no real basis for a lawsuit. Frequently, it is a basis for negotiation of a royalty.

Some ink producers and cartridge remanufacturers claim that their inks are “better” than the OEM. This may be a different color gamut or longer print longevity. The true benefit of using a remanufactured ink cartridge is not better performance for most users but a lower cost with as close as possible to identical performance in the printer. If the remanufacturer requires a flushing before using their ink, beware. It is not likely to be a good choice. If the colors are different, either in strength or if different pigment chemistries are used, the color profiles of the printer will need to be recalibrated to produce similar results. Identical results to the OEM inks will not be possible. The pigments must be the same chemistry. Ideally, the cartridges should be “plug and play,” allowing mixing of inks and use of some OEM and some remanufactured cartridges in the same printer at the same time. This gives the print provider maximum flexibility and allows him to take advantage of the lower cost without any interruption to his work flow.

The good news is that such a solution is available for the HP 5000 series DesignJet printers, so print providers can take advantage of the cost savings.

HP Z6100 DesignJet printers
Unfortunately, to date, I have not seen a good aftermarket solution for this new HP printer designed to replace the aging 5000 series printers. Chip issues have not been resolved, according to remanufacturers. I expect in time they will be resolved, but we must wait a while longer for this solution. The ink chemistry is ready, I am told, so the remanufacturers will be ready when the chip issues are solved.

Epson and Canon printers
While the HP printers generally are used in the sign and poster market, the Epson and Canon printers largely are used in the higher-end fine art market. Here the difficulties in providing a matched ink set that performs identically are much greater, and the installed base is much smaller. Alternative ink sets for providing grayscale black and white printing and printing edible inks are available, but wide-scale aftermarket ink sets for these printers are not as readily available as for the HP 5000 series.

Be careful. There are a lot of poorly produced remanufactured ink cartridges on the market. Make sure that the provider of the cartridges backs up its claims with warranties, so should you purchase a substandard remanufactured cartridge, it will be replaced with a good one and perhaps a replacement for the printhead it probably damaged.