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Printer repairs on the increase due to refilled cartridges

Cartridge.co.za has formed a strategic partnership with Perform Set Technologies, a company that specialises in printer maintenance, in an effort to understand the relationship between the use of re-filled cartridges and the frequency of printer repairs.

Often, the only reason why consumers resort to the use of refilled cartridges, is because they believe that refills will reduce their printers running costs, but there is a suggestion that this may be counter balanced by an increase in the maintenance costs of the very same printers that use these refills.

Initial findings by PS Technologies suggest that over 40% of all inkjet printer repairs are due to the use of non-original inks. The most common failures caused by these cartridges are damage print heads, blocked nozzles, blocked cleaning stations and ink leaks onto electronic components. These types of faults seem to be increasing proportionally to the increase in the popularity of re-filled cartridges, and therefore highlight the need to perform a study on the relationship between the two, and the cost implications to the consumer.

PS Technologies points out that these damaging effects are not only prone to inkjets but to laser printers as well. Initial reports are showing a decrease in the life of the fuser units found in laser printers that are using refilled cartridges, compared to those that are using original toner.

Cartridge.co.za reports that this decrease in the life of the fuser unit rollers might be explained by the different properties between original toner and the toner used by refill manufacturers. Ask any printer manufacturer and they will tell you that a large portion of their R&D is spent on developing their toner and ink, to not only increase the yield and print quality of the cartridge, but also to reduce the wear and tear on the parts that come into contact with the toner and ink. This is clearly evident when sampling the micro-fine toner as produced by printer giant, HP, which draws a fine line between a solid and a liquid.

This micro-fine toner is so fine, that its properties have characteristics only normally associated with liquids. These properties will unlikely be found with compatible toners used to refill the same cartridges. These findings could suggest that non-original toner manufacturers may be focusing on achieving a similar print quality to that of original toner, but perhaps at the cost of increased wear on other working components inside the printers.

It also stands to reason that the finer the toner is, the more of it can be packed into the cartridge, and therefore the higher the yield that can be achieved.

Cartridge.co.za believes that studies, such as those that PS Technologies has been commissioned to do, may provide much needed facts and figures, to help the consumer make better-informed decisions when faced with the daunting task of reducing printing costs while maintaining print quality and more importantly, minimising down time.

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Editorial contacts

Jos'e Carvalho
Cartridge Warehouse
(011) 803 4987
jose@pstechnologies.co.za