An
ink cartridge or
inkjet cartridge is a replaceable component of an ink jet printer that contains the
inkAn ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill...
(and sometimes the print-head itself) that is spread on paper during printing.
Each ink cartridge contains one or more partitioned ink reservoirs; certain manufacturers also add electronic contacts and a chip that communicates with the printer.
Most consumer inkjet printers, such as those made by Canon,
HPHewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP has its United States offices at the former old Compaq Campus in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, Latin America offices in Miami-Dade County, Florida,...
, and
LexmarkLexmark is an American corporation which develops and manufactures printing and imaging solutions, including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, printing supplies, and services for business and individual consumers...
(but not Epson) use a thermal inkjet; inside each partition of the ink reservoir is a heating element with a tiny metal plate or resistor.
An
ink cartridge or
inkjet cartridge is a replaceable component of an ink jet printer that contains the
inkAn ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill...
(and sometimes the print-head itself) that is spread on paper during printing.
Each ink cartridge contains one or more partitioned ink reservoirs; certain manufacturers also add electronic contacts and a chip that communicates with the printer.
Thermal
Most consumer inkjet printers, such as those made by Canon,
HPHewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP has its United States offices at the former old Compaq Campus in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, Latin America offices in Miami-Dade County, Florida,...
, and
LexmarkLexmark is an American corporation which develops and manufactures printing and imaging solutions, including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, printing supplies, and services for business and individual consumers...
(but not Epson) use a thermal inkjet; inside each partition of the ink reservoir is a heating element with a tiny metal plate or resistor. In response to a signal given by the printer, a tiny current flows through the metal or resistor making it warm up, and the ink immediately surrounding the heated plate is vapourised into a tiny air bubble inside the
nozzleA nozzle is a mechanical device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits an enclosed chamber or pipe via an orifice....
. As a consequence, the total volume of the ink exceeds that of the nozzle. An ink droplet is forced out of the cartridge nozzle onto the paper. This process takes a matter of milliseconds.
The printing depends on the smooth flow of ink, which can be hindered if the ink begins to dry at the print head, as can happen when an ink level becomes low; dried ink can be cleaned from a cartridge print head, by gentle rubbing with
isopropyl alcoholIsopropyl alcohol is a common name for a colorless, flammable chemical compound with a strong odor...
on a swab or folded paper towel.
The ink also acts as a coolant to protect the metal-plate heating elements: when the ink supply is depleted, and printing is attempted, the heating elements in thermal cartridges often burn out, permanently damaging the print head. When the ink first begins to run thin, the cartridge should be refilled or replaced, to avoid over-heating damage to the print-head.
Piezoelectric
All Epson printers use a piezoelectric crystal in each nozzle instead of a heating element. When current is applied, the crystal changes shape or size, forcing a droplet of ink from the nozzle. This allows use of inks which react badly when heated, and can produce a smaller ink drop in some situations than thermal inkjet schemes.
Variants
- Typically, two separate cartridges are inserted into a printer: one containing black ink and one with each of the three primary color
Primary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For human applications, three primary colors are usually used, since human color vision is trichromatic....
s. Alternatively, each primary color may have a dedicated cartridge.
- Some cartridges contain ink specially formulated for printing photographs.
- All printer suppliers produce their own type of ink cartridges. Cartridges for different printers may be incompatible — either physically or electrically.
- Since replacement cartridges from the original manufacturer of the printer are often expensive, several vendors produce "compatible" cartridges as less expensive alternatives. These cartridges sometimes have more ink than the original OEM branded ink cartridges and may produce the same, better, or inferior quality, depending on a variety of factors, including the vendor's ability to duplicate the ink formulation in all respects.
- Some cartridges have incorporated the printer's head (examples include HP, Dell
Dell, Inc. develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 76,500 people worldwide ....
, and LexmarkLexmark is an American corporation which develops and manufactures printing and imaging solutions, including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, printing supplies, and services for business and individual consumers...
). The precision parts required generally make the cartridges more expensive, but the printers are cheaper since they don't include the precision print head. Other cartridges don't include the print head and so can cost less, though the printers tend to be somewhat more expensive (Epson is an example).
Pricing
Typically, ink cartridges are expensive, sometimes a substantial fraction of the cost of the printer. Many people, therefore, use compatible ink cartridges (from a vendor other than the printer manufacturer); these can sometimes match the quality of the original at a reduced price. The high cost of cartridges has also provided an incentive for counterfeiters to supply cartridges falsely claiming to be made by the original manufacturer. Another alternative involves modifications of an original cartridge allowing use of
continuous ink systemA continuous ink system , also known as continuous flow system , or bulk feed ink system, is a cost-effective replacement for ink-jet printer cartridges. In contrast to conventional cartridges, a CIS/CFS uses very large ink tanks, which are connected with tubes to the printhead nozzles...
s with external ink tanks. And some people choose to use aftermarket inks, refilling their own ink cartridges using a kit including bulk ink.
Some printer manufacturers set up their cartridges to interact with the printer, preventing operation when the ink level is low, or when the cartridge has been refilled.. One
Which?Which? is a product-testing and campaigning charity with a magazine and website run by Which? Ltd...
researcher who over-rode such an interlocked system found that in one case he could print up to 38% more good quality pages, even though the chip stated that the cartridge was empty . In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, in 2003, the cost of ink has been the subject of an
Office of Fair TradingThe Office of Fair Trading is a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforces both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the UK's economic regulator...
investigation, as
Which? magazine has accused manufacturers of a lack of transparency about the price of ink and called for an industry standard for measuring ink cartridge performance .
Which? stated that some cartridges cost over seven times more than vintage champagne per millilitre .
Consumers are often surprised at the price of replacing their printer cartridges, especially when compared with that of purchasing a brand new printer. The major printer manufacturers, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Dell, Canon, Epson and Brother, often break even or lose money selling printers and expect to make a profit with the printer sale by selling cartridges over the life span of the printer. (A "razor and blades" business model.) Since much of the printer manufacturers' profits are from ink and toner cartridge sales, some of these companies have taken various actions against aftermarket cartridges.
Refills and third party replacements
A sufficient number of consumers to support a substantial after market (ink vendors, ink cartridge refillers and remanufactures, replacement cartridge makers) opt out of buying original manufacturer ink and cartridges. ed cartridges from third parties to save money over buying new cartridges. This is much cheaper (eg, when refilling as one need only buy the ink and some other small raw materials), and a whole industry has grown up around this idea. The legality of this industry was brought to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Kentucky* Western District of Kentucky...
in the case of
Lexmark Int'l v. Static Control ComponentsLexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 , was an American legal case involving the computer printer company Lexmark, which had locked its printers using a microcontroller so that only authorized toner cartridges could be used...
. The Court ruled that reverse-engineering the
handshakingIn information technology, telecommunications, and related fields, handshaking is an automated process of negotiation that dynamically sets parameters of a communications channel established between two entities before normal communication over the channel begins...
procedure to enable compatibility did not violate the
Digital Millennium Copyright ActThe Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
.
There are several qualities and types of refilling, some of them being safe and successful, while other types can ruin the printer and/or give bad quality prints. Options include taking empty cartridges to "refillers" or "remanufacturers" who pump in new ink or buying store-branded ink and doing it themselves..
Another option is for the consumer to refill the cartridges. Instructions for most cartridges are available on the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
, as well as sources who sell "bulk ink" in pints, quarts, and even gallons. This can be extremely cost effective if the consumer is a heavy user of cartridges. is sufficient to fill approximately 15 to 17 large capacity cartridges.
Generally speaking, Canon,
DellDell, Inc. develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 76,500 people worldwide ....
, HP, and Lexmark cartridges are not difficult to refill, while Epson cartridges usually require purchase of a chip resetter to reset the counter chip built into many Epson cartridges. And some, or maybe all, Brother printers have scanners, which continue to register a cartridge as "empty" even if refilled. Since refilling involves handling ink, it can be inherently messy until experience has been acquired. Alternatively, 3rd party manufacturers have been offering refillable cartridges with auto reset chip to simplify the refilling process. These refillable cartridges are environmentally friendly and often easy to further refill.
Laser toner or inkjet cartridges sold as "remanufactured" are usually re-filled cartridges, although many third-party newly manufactured "compatible" cartridges exist. Inkjet cartridges sold as "compatible" are typically newly manufactured cartridges. Inkjet cartridges sold as "Remanufactured" are cartridges that have been used at least once by a consumer and then refilled by a third party.
See also
- Cartridge (electronics)
- Arizona Cartridge Remanufacturers Association Inc. v. Lexmark International Inc.
Arizona Cartridge Remanufacturers Association Inc. v. Lexmark International Inc. was a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which ruled that an End User License Agreement on a physical box can be binding on consumers who signal their acceptance of the license...
- Inkjet refill kit
An inkjet refill kit is a set of tools and a certain amount of ink used to refill ink cartridges. The specific tools and the amount or type of ink depends on which cartridge the kit is designed for...
- Razor and blades business model
External links