Archive for April, 2011

HP inkjet technology is pretty cool

HP inkjet technology is really pretty amazing.  If you take a close look at how HP (also known as Hewlett Packard) inkjet cartridges work, you will see how innovative this company really is.  Ink droplets are jetted out of tiny holes in the bottom of the cartridge (called print-heads), at a speed of around 30 mph.  And the frequency that they are jetted? According to HP, more than 25,000 times per second! These print heads get electrical signals from the printer about how much ink droplets to jet, and at what specific part of the page.

The latest printer ink from Kodak inkjet – a shift from the cheap ink approach?

Kodak has just released the Kodak ink  #30 and #30xl inkjet cartridges for their newest inkjet printer – the Kodak ESP 310 All-in-one.  The cartridges look suspiciously similar to the previous Kodak inks, the Kodak #10 and 10xl. So whats behind the “new” release?Well, lets take a step back and look at Kodaks entry into the inkjet market about 1 year ago.   Kodak jumped in to the multibillion dollar printer ink business by advertising that they will be different.  Cheap ink cartridges, but “fairly priced” (aka expensive relative to the competition’s) printers. They aggressively advertised how cheap their inks were, at $9.99 for black and $14.99 for a color ink cartridge.  It is true that their ink cartridges were cheaper than the competition, but not by as much as they were claiming.  HP fought back at their advertising and forced Kodak to change how they were advertising.Fast forward to today.  Kodak launches their new printer, the ESP 310, and the price? Just under $100.  Kodak is expected to release other printers as well for these ink cartridges, like the ESP C110 and C315 . Their first set of printers which ranged from $150 to $300, so it sounds like they are moving back to the traditional ink model – sell the printer cheap, and make it up on the ink.  So how expensive are the ink cartridges?  The Kodak 30 is around $10 black and $18 color, and the 30xl are around $20 black and $35 color.  But the real measure of cost is the CPP or cost per page.  Unfortunately, there is no easy way to compare Kodak with the competition because Kodak is conveniently using a different way to measure page yield that no other inkjet printer manufacturer uses! They are using the ISO/IEC 19752 standard method, which is confusing and does not allow one to compare apples to apples so to speak (i wonder why the phrase apples to apples came to be? why not “ink to ink”?).  Anyway, maybe HP has a point to object to how Kodak calculates its ink yields for use in its aggressive marketing about its cheap ink cartridges and cheap printer ink.Oh and one other thing for Kodak ink refills users – the Kodak 30 color cartridge uses 5 colors as compared to the Kodak 10 black which uses 6 colors (the omitted color is the photo black ink).  Another difference between the Kodak 10 and Kodak 30 ink cartridges is that the chips are different.  So if you want to refill your Kodak 30, you will need a new replacement chip specific for the Kodak 30, and a refill kit with inks that will work on the Kodak printers.  Uni-Kit has released a refill kit for the Kodak 10 and the refills for Kodak 30 are on their way (same ink, different chip).

Prices going crazy for toner

How about the new Lexmark toner cartridges for the Lexmark C930 or C935n?  (the “n” by the way stands for network).  $300+ per cartridge for an original toner cartridge.  You can find remanufactured versions for around $200 or slightly less, thats a handsome $100 off.  Or you can refill them for under $100, saving you about $200. Toner refills are not as common as buying new cartridges, but for 1/2 the price, they are very good money savers.  The toner refill kits from Atlantic Inkjet will work on almost all major laser toner printers, and usually save customers between 40 to 80% as compared to buying store bought replacement cartridges.

The first cartridge I ever refilled

This is the story of someone who began refilling their own cartridges, and through that experience went into the business of selling refills and the idea of refills to others.In the early 2000’s, my cartridge ran out of ink.  It was a Canon BCI-21 series cartridge (printer was a Canon MultiPass, taking a BCI-21 black and BCI-21 color ink cartridge).  The 2 cartridges could be substituted with the thicker Canon BC-20 inkjet cartridge, which would offer more black ink and require that the printer prints in monochrome mode (black only).A set of new inkjet cartridges from the college bookstore cost around $40, a heavy price for a college student, and about 1/2 of what a new printer would cost.  In fact, you can pick up a printer for as low as $60 today (for an inkjet printer).  Taking a closer look at the inkjet cartridges, a light bulb went off…

How do people select a printer thats good for their needs?

Here is a story that was relayed today by a customer.  A very informed customer that is that cares about saving money and refilling his printer ink.Today I walked into Best Buy, and browsed the printer section.  I asked the customer service rep what printer he would recommend. He wasn’t sure how to answer me, or what questions he should ask me to ascertain what elements or functions of a printer I am most interested in.  He coughed, said a few unrelated things, and beckoned someone to help.  That someone was very “cool”, called me dude, and also did not ask me any questions.  He just zoomed past the printer aisle (passing by at least 10-15 printers on the way, mostly inkjet by the way – not sure why laser toners don’t feature as much on Best Buy shelves), and quickly pointed to 3 printers: a Canon, an Epson and a Lexmark (called Genesis).  I said “why did you suggest these 3?”, he said “Because they are newer and cool.  But it depends on how much printing you do”.  Go figure.  Anyway, I thanked him for his time, and began to do some investigating myself.

Glossy Optimizer Inks

Did you know that some printer ink cartridges use Glossy inks? Glossy optimizer inks are used in some very unique printer cartridges, specifically and most popular models are the Epson R800, Epson R1800 and Epson R1900.  Also the Kodak #10 and #30 (which are the newest Kodak ink cartridges) also use the Glossy inks.  These glossy inks are hard to find, but Atlantic Inkjet has released them in different sizes and also part of the Atlantic Inkjet Kodak ink refill kit. Just search our Atlantic Inkjet site for Kodak ink refills.

Lexmark toner refills released for new printer models

Atlantic Inkjet has released its new line of toner refill kits also known as toner refills for popular printer models, including the Lexmark C772dn (a Lexmark printer that uses the same cartridges and therefore the same refills as the Lexmark C772 / C780 and C782 series toners).  Also popular are the toner refill kits for the Brother TN-450, one of the new line of Brother monochrome printers which are quick, efficient and a good value for the consumer.  The Atlantic Inkjet refills for the Brother TN-450 can be used in any Brother monochrome printer such as the Brother HL 2230, the HL 2240 and HL 2270.  The refill comes with 75 grams of toner powder, enough for 1 full high capacity refill.  Many other toner refill kits have been added to Atlantic Inkjets catalog so check in to find a printer ink or toner refill thats right for your printer.