Every time we go online, we expect the web to give us something new. Some news we receive “automatically”, like the e-mail messages from your friends or newsletters from your favorite website. Other information doesn’t come easy. To find it we often have to make a search.

The search is what modern Internet relies on. Searching engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN has become an integral part on everyday life online. Can you imaging yourself digging through billions and billions of web pages looking for, once we’re into printers, the specification of a new printer or printer cartridge compatibility? Neither can I, and that’s why we all love searching engines – they are here for us trying to provide most relevant results.

However, it’s not only the search engines that are expected to provide effective search.

Now let’s fancy another situation: you’re up to buying something online, let it be toner cartridges (remember, we’re still into printers). If you have a favorite printer cartridges store, you would go there and make a purchase. If you don’t have a favorite store, I suppose you would use a searching engine to find one, and let’s suppose you have. What you’ve just done is made a search — selected one shop from thousand of others. The only thing left to do is to find those very cartridges for you particular printer.

Do you know how many ink and toner cartridges exists? I’ m not sure there is an exact figure, but for what I know, average online printer supply store sell 3-5 thousand cartridges. I believe no one argues that every online store selling more than even a hundred different items should have a good search, or, at least, have the products categorized convenient and well. You would get to like a store where you can find the product you need fast and easy, wouldn’t you?

What I’m going to tell you is not just singing praises to the online store of Toner Cartridge Depot. In fact, this printing supplies outlet does feature powerful search and handy navigation. Treat it like a guide to shopping with Toner Cartridge Depot.

So, let’s assume you got to this store while searching for printer cartridges. What’s next? From now on you have several ways to find your supplies.

The Catalogue

On the main page, right before your eyes is the list of manufacturers/brands.

Generally, these are who made your printing device you are looking supplies for (though there are some who don’t make printers themselves, but only cartridges for other’s printer). Clicking the required brand (say Hewlett Packard) will take you further to next page.

Here you can see types of devices produced by given manufacturer and model families existing for each type. The printer’s family name is usually written on its case. For instance, if you have an HP Color LaserJet 4500 printer, “Color LaserJet” would be the family name. Select your model family to move on. You landed on a page with a list of models existing within given model family.

Now you are one click away from the supplies you need. All you have to do is to select your printing device model. If you are not sure what the model’s name and number are, check them on the front panel of device’s casing. So choose the model and see what supplies we got for it. Apart from genuine supplies, a range of compatible and remanufactured cartridges is often available for some most popular printer models. As a rule, they are a bargain purchase, so you may consider them as well.

The Quick Supplies Finder

This is a very handy navigation tool that allows you to find printer cartridges pretty much like in the Way 1, unless you don’t need to move from one page to another. Quick Supplies Finder is a set of three dropdown menus: the first menu selects a brand, the second one selects a device type, and while the third menu helps you chose your model. Having chosen the model, you will be transferred to a page containing supplies for that printing device model.

The Search

Finally, Way 3, the highlight of today’s performance, the Toner Cartridge Depot search algorithm. This is a small input field in the top bar in upper-right corner of a page, but it’s more than meets the eye.

The search is easier when you know what you are looking for, be it printer model or printer cartridge number. You simply enter one or the other into search filed and press enter. Should there any matches, you will see them in search results.

But what if you, somehow, don’t know either model of your printer or the cartridge number? That’s pretty unusual situation, but the search rates just all right against general queries. Let’s suppose, you have some laser printer by HP and you ran out of color toner. Natural thing to search is “color toner cartridges for HP”. Voila! The search returns only color cartridges for laser printers made by HP. Additionally, you can narrow your search by several criteria like color, brand, supplies yield, condition and type. Oh, almost forgot! Also, you may sort the search results by order, description, price or quantity to be added.

In given example below, you can specify the exact color of the toner cartridge you need and its condition:

You can try entering any other queries of your choice or need. You are welcome to let us know if you get unexpected results.

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Here is another example of expanding application of inkjet technology. Last week Hewlett Packard announced that it had used its ink-jet printer cartridge technology to create a patch that releases drugs through the skin in a controlled and painless way.

The company said it has entered into a licensing agreement with Crospon, an Irish medical device developer, who will manufacture the invention and make it available to pharmaceutical firms as soon as 2010.

Patches that deliver medication through skin has long been around, for instance smoking patches. However they didn’t work for drugs that can’t be absorbed through the skin, and could only provide continuous flow of just one medication.

The new patch acts very much like a ink cartridge that squirts different colors. It uses micro-hypodermic needles controlled by a microprocessor to deliver particular drugs below the skin several at specified doses and time. This allows for timing sensitive medication delivery, which means it can be used for the treatment of diabetes, cardiac disease or hormonal imbalances.

The price of the patch is expected to be relatively inexpensive because it is based on the same technology that has long been employed in HP ink cartridges.

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Researchers from IBM Corporation in collaboration with scientists from ETH Zurich Science and Technology Universityannounced the development of a new printing method that allows placing nanosize particles on a precise location.

The technology makes it possible to manipulate particles smaller than 100 nanometers, which delivers resolution equivalent to 100,000 dots per inch. Compare that to maximum resolution of 1,500 dots per inch of current offset printers.

IBM cautions the technology has many years to pass before any commercial application is possible. So far, they demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed method by printing an image of the sun. Back then in the 17th century, the sun was alchemist’s symbol for gold, so the researchers used 20,000 gold particles, 60 nanometers in diameter each, to create the image (courtesy of IBM).

This printing process is expected to have a dramatic impact on biomedicine, electronics and information technology, according to ScientificAmerican.com:

Still just a conceptual construct, the nano-printing process could be applied to biomedicine to help screen for diseases by graphically illustrating the locations of, say, cancer cells or heart attack markers in a patient’s body.

In the information technology world, nanoprinting could be used to achieve the controlled placement of catalytic seed particles for growing semiconducting nanowires. Such nanowires are promising candidates for future transistors in microchips.

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Oki Data the other day announced new black and white printers – OKI B2200 and OKI B2400 Series. According to the company, the new printers are both the fastest and smallest in its class and designed to replace inkjet printer in small and home offices. Oki Data is marketing the devices as printers “ideal for those who are tight on budget and space, but can’t sacrifice productivity”.

The B2200 and B2400 Series printers are small, indeed. They measure space saving 12.6” x 8.0” x 7.1”. Given the size, printers demonstrate fastest speed in their class of up to 21 pages per minute at resolution of 1200 x 600 dpi. B2200 and B2400 Series prints the first page in just 6 seconds.

The B2200 and B2400 Series monochrome printers include models with and without standard networking capabilities. Estimated retail prices are $149 for B2200, $229 for B2200n, $179 for B2400 and $249 for B2400n. The printers are available starting from September in North and South America exclusively through OKI Printing Solutions authorized solution providers.

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Epson unveiled two new compact photo printers – PictureMate PM260 Dash and the PictureMate PM290 Zoom – targeting the home users who don’t want to go photo store to get professional photo prints. Both devices are selling for $99.99 and $199.99 respectively.

The two new PictureMates are capable of printing 4×6-inch borderless pictures as fast as 37 seconds per picture. Both printers feature 3.6-inch color LCD displays that allow choosing and editing the photos to be printed. Some basic editing options are available to help improve images by removing the red eye effect or cropping unwanted segments out. The two devices offer 18 page layout options, including five new portrait layouts, all without needing a computer. Also, color filters are supported to create monochrome and sepia-toned prints.

Epson PictureMate PM260 Dash and Epson PictureMate PM290 Zoom are PictBridge-enabled and have built-in memory card slots for most popular memory card types. The printer can also be enhanced with a Bluetooth module for wireless image transfer.

What makes one compact photo printer different from the other, is that Epson PictureMate PM290 Zoom has a built-in CD-recorder, so images can be recorded directly to a CD from memory card.

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When searching for printer cartridges, you are likely to stop at reliable source offering best price. Deciding on the reliable source may be a matter of taste or experience (personal or second-hand) and that is a subject for a separate discussion. Best price is something more objective. Looking for the best price, you may often come across so-called remanufactured cartridges. They cost the cheapest, so a natural question rises – if they are as reliable as they cost? Let’s have a look at what remanufactured cartridges really are.

The very idea of remanufacturing is to make an old thing work just like a new one. Yes, this is mean that a remanufactured cartridge was used before but has bee recovered to perform and provide same level of quality as the brand new cartridge. So, how do they transform an old cartridge into new one?

First of all, empty cartridges are collected (through purchase, donation or otherwise) and sent to a remanufacturing plant. At the plant, the cartridges are completely disassembled into components and carefully examined. A laser toner cartridge usually consists of several parts placed into cartridges case: toner hopper, developer unit, drum unit and cleaning blades.

Developer unit is made up of negatively charged beads that roll through the toner hopper. The beads pick up the toner and then release it on the electrostatic image of the drum unit. Drum is then rolled over a sheet of paper, transferring the image there. Cleaning blades are used to cleanse residual toner from the drum.

Examination must be conducted to determine what parts are worn and require replacement. The cartridge shell can be re-used indefinitely with no effect on the level of performance of the cartridge. There is usually no need to replace the shell, unless it’s somehow seriously damaged. All other parts get worn over time and are replaced with new components.

Now we have a set of examined and tested cartridge components. From this point on the remanufacturing process is no different from making new cartridges. The parts are assembled into a shell to make up single unit, which is then filled with printer toner. After that the cartridge is tested for consistency to ensure the cartridge provides the proper level of performance and quality.

OK, the remanufactured cartridges are good. Why are they so cheap anyway? Let’s consider this issue. Remanufacturing a cartridge requires less energy that producing one. It doesn’t involve processing of materials and, before that, acquisition of them (three quarts of oil are required to produce a cartridge). Most cartridges are remanufactured locally, so no costs for overseas transportation (brand new cartridges are produced in Asia).

There is something else on remanufactured cartridges.

You, probably, heard rumors about remanufactured cartridges being this and that. Indeed, there are some myths wandering around about remanufactured cartridges and to dispel them I’m going to cite some of the myth provided in a document by www.consumerchoice.info to dispel them.

1. Use of remanufactured cartridges will void your computer warranty.

In USA, UK and Australia, Fair Trade Laws absolutely prohibit making use of a specific product a condition of a warranty unless the product is provided at no costs to the user.

2. Remanufactured cartridges are inferior to new ones.

Government, major corporations and independent testing laboratories certify that properly remanufactured toner cartridges perform as well or better than cartridges
made and sold as new by major printer and cartridge makers.

3. Empty cartridges you return to HP, Lexmark and others are reused.

Only 20% of empty cartridges are recovered by anyone.

Independent cartridge remanufacturers recover more empty cartridges than all of their original makers combined.

HP/Canon grinds them into powders that are then made it to pellets for use
in making low grade plastic products such as CD cases and cup.

4. Defective toner cartridges damage printers causing expensive repairs.

Toner cartridges are largely self-contained and make limited contact with the parts
of printers.

The worst that happens is that toner from a failed cartridges must be removed from the printer. All cartridges deposit some toner inside of their printers.

Properly remanufactured cartridges do not damage printers or create more wear than cartridges that are properly assembled by or for printer makers.

5. Remanufacturers reuse toner in their cartridges.

If they did, none of the cartridges would work!

Toner becomes contaminated during the printing process by paper dust
and electrical charges rendering it unusable.

Every cartridge model requires a different toner formulation. Combining
contaminated toners would compound problems.

6. Remanufacturers just replace the toner in cartridges.

Professional remanufacturers replace every worn or damaged component in their cartridges.

Many parts are failing at the end of their initial use as a result of engineering
decisions made in Japan and China.

As a general rule, the lower the price, the fewer parts have been replaced.

If the seller does not want you to return your remanufactured empty, most of the parts are beyond reuse because they didn’t replace any before they sold it to you.

Single reuse remanufacturers are cheating you and the environment.

Hopefully this information will help you make a smart choice when buying remanufactured toner cartridges.

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Now, let’s get back from the world of innovation technologies to printer maker releases.

The Compact

The Stylish

The Sexy

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