Each category of inkjet printers and MFP users has different requirements for functionality, speed and design, as well as various volumes of printing. Yet, all users want printing to be as cost-effective as it gets.

Taking into account the different needs of users in the print volume, as well as the growing importance of cost-effective printing, Epson offers in 2010 a new system of marking cartridges Epson inkjet printers and MFP:

M – standard capacity cartridges are available for those who print a few times a month or less. The ideal solution for low volume printing.

L – High capacity toner cartridges for those who print often enough, for example, every week. A balanced solution for regular work with printers.

XL – cartridges extra-high capacity for those who print frequently and in large volumes. A unique opportunity to save on a constant work with a printer or MFP.

The new labeling is available for all new Epson Stylus and Epson Stylus Office printers and MFP released on the market in 2010.

According to the feature, the Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program was launched in 1990, then the first of its kind. Eight years earlier, in 1982, Canon came out with the first personal copiers that made use of replaceable all-in-one toner cartridges. In line with the company’s thrust towards “living and working for the common good,” as well as having gained awareness regarding environmental issues such as the reduction of waste and the effective use of resources, the Toner Cartridge Recycling Program was introduced.

In the twenty years since its inception, the Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program has expanded its reach, collecting empty cartridges in 23 countries worldwide. As of June 2009 Canon has reportedly gathered about 220,000 metric tons of used toner cartridges – tons saved from ending up in landfills!

The Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program is described as “a zero-landfill program in which every component of the used cartridges that the company collects is reused, recycled or recovered”. Canon manufactures its cartridges such that closed-loop recycling is possible; the product is designed with the concept of recycling in mind. Hence, reusing the components is facilitated and plastic components may be recycled to make new products with “equivalent levels of quality.”

Below are key milestones that constitute 20 years of cartridge recycling by Canon:

1990 * Start of toner cartridge return program (Japan, U.S.A., Germany)
1991 * Start of recycling at Canon Dalian Business Machines (China)
1992 * Canon wins Grand Prize at 1st Global Environmental Awards (Japan)
* Start of closed-loop recycling for plastic
1994 * No. of countries where toner cartridges collected increases to 21
1997 * Start of recycling at Canon Virginia (U.S.A.) and Canon Bretagne (France)
2001 * Start of Web-based cartridge return application procedures
2002 * Start of recycling at Canon Ecology Industry (Japan)
2003 * Collection volume of toner cartridges reaches 100,000 metric tons
* Zero-landfill recycling system realized through four global recycling bases
2005 * Start of Bellmark return program (Japan)
2006 * Canon wins 3R Award from Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (Japan)
2007 * Canon wins 4th Eco-Products Awards Chairperson’s Award (Japan)
2008 * Collection volume of toner cartridges reaches 200,000 metric tons
* Canon wins FujiSankei Group Award at Global Environmental Awards (Japan)
2010 * 20th anniversary of Canon Toner Cartridge Recycling Program

“Whoa!” you might say, “best printers of 2006 at the end of 2009?” — “Yes, why?” we’d reply, “they are still as good as back then, yet they are now a time-proven choice for those on the look for a printing device.”

That having been said, let’s get down to our today’s participants.

The Black-and-Whites

In the Black and White Printer category the HP LaserJet 5200 was picked as a winner by voters at SmallBusinessComputing.com. This machine prints 35 pages per minute, support standard double-sided and wide-format printing, as well as the Instant-On technology, which lets the first page out in 10 seconds after you pressed the power button.

The printer uses the HP Q7615A cartridge with 12,000 pages yield that may easily cover the recommended monthly print volume of 2,500 to 10,000 pages.

The runner-up is the Samsung’s ML-2571N. This printer comes with a 400MHz processor and not expandable 32MB of RAM, which allows for 24 ppm printing speed. It has USB, Ethernet, and an IEEE 1284 parallel connector, so even old computers can connect to it.

The ML-2571N ships with a so-called starter toner cartridge, which prints only 1,000 pages. The standard Samsung ML2010D3 toner cartridge yield 3,000 pages. That’s really a standard resource for the printer of this level.

The Colors

The Best Color Printer category is presented by HP Color LaserJet 2605dn being the winner and Xerox “The Runner-up” Phaser 6120.

Why the Color LaserJet 2605dn? a) It’s a professional, network-ready color printer b) with top speed of 12ppm for black and white and 10ppm for color c) with 64 MB of built-in expandable to 320 MB memory, d) hi-speed USB port and built-in Ethernet print server, e) etc.

Each of the HP Color LaserJet 2605dn toner cartridges (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) is designed to last for around 2,000 pages and the black cartridge good for 2,500.

Our vice-winner, the Xerox Phaser 6120, also has features to bolster:

• Printing speed of up to 5 ppm in color and up to 20 ppm in monochrome
• 2,400 dpi enhanced resolution
• Standard network connectivity
• 128 MB memory as standard

There are two sets of color toner cartridges for the Phaser 6120. Color cartridges of standard yield set last for up 1,500 pages, while their higher yield sibling contain 3 times more toner for 4,500 pages. The black cartridge comes with singles yield type of 4,500 pages per cartridge.

The Multi-functions

Finally, the ones that do it all – print, scan and copy – the Multi-functions. This comes as no surprise the HP is the winner again with its Officejet 4315 All-in-One.

The HP’s jack-of-all-trades is cheap, compact, stylish and does color printing – what else is needed for a small or home office? However, it still has one drawback – the scanner is sheet-fed, not flat bed, so you can’t scan books with it. The print and copy speed is 20 pages per minute for black only and up to 14 ppm in color. According to HP, the 4315 can easily handle up to 1,500 pages a month.

The HP Officejet 4315 supplies account for a pair of black inkjet cartridges of smaller and larger yield (150 and 220 pages respectevely) and single color cartridge that lasts for 140 standard pages.

A Xerox machine holding the second prize has also become a common sight. This time it’s Xerox WorkCentre 4118. The runner-up is different from the winner in many ways. It’s a laser, and it’s monochrome, which, by the ways, generally suggests lower cost per page. It features a flatbed scanner, which does enable you to scan books and magazines. The Xerox also has a larger paper feed tray to hold 550 pages (compared to 100 sheets of the HP printer).

As any laser printing device, the WorkCentre 4118 consumes toner cartridges to makes prints. The only piece of supply required is Xerox 006R01278 toner cartridge, and you can print as many as 8,000 impressions with it.

In an effort to reduce this tremendous amount of nature’s raw materials, PRC Technologies, a division of Print Recovery Concepts Inc., announced a real environmental breakthrough. PRC has developed a way to make toner powder out of soybeans.

PRC reports the new cartridges will carry SoyPrint brand label and be available for the most popular laser printers at prices comparable to brand name versions. Soy ink has been available for some time, but this is the first soy toner cartridge for laser printers.

According to PRC, the company has been extensively testing new toner for months for the print quality and number of pages per cartridge to match brand name versions. The company says soy toner is absolutely harmless to the printers.

More information is available on http://www.soyprint.net/.

In European Union countries an appropriate law came into force which makes overpackaging illegal. As part of the Europe-wide rules on packaging, packaging must now be manufactured so that “its volume and weight is limited to the minimum adequate amount to maintain the necessary level of safety, hygiene and acceptance of the packed product for the consumer.”

In Germany, for example, you can see a distinct difference in the way products are packaged. The same products you can buy in the United States are available there with less packaging, less-toxic or non-toxic components and more recyclability because manufacturers must comply with federal laws that require them to design their products for the environment, not the dump.

Historically, the United States hasn’t been big on that kind of federal legislation. This is the land where the consumer is king or queen, so it’s up to us to make this kind of change happen.

One-third of American garbage is packaging materials, according to the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington.

And there’s not necessarily a good reason for it. Many companies are simply following convention and haven’t looked into better ways to package their products.

Not only is minimal packaging better for the environment, it also costs less to produce. Companies can save a lot of money when they reduce packaging.

Printer cartridges add to the problem of overpackaging, too. This picture speaks for itself:

The small grey object you can see in the middle of the picture is an ink cartridge, most of the rest of the stuff you see is waste. The cartridge comes in a small sealed plastic pouch, which is in a box with various papers. This is then packaged in an entirely unnecessary plastic container which is virtually impossible to open.

This is one thing.

Another thing is that when you buy ink and toner cartridges online, seller often add styrofoam packing peanuts or other filler to prevent possible damage of cartridge in parcel. Taking into account that a toner cartridge box usually already contains protective filler (for instance, HP toner cartridge is surrounded by an air-filled safety “jacket” in box), it even increases overpackaging and, eventually, lanfill.

More important is that these styrofoam packing peanuts cost you additional money.

However there are some advices to reduce packaging waste, be more ecologically consious and also save some movey:

• Avoid snacks and other foods wrapped in individual serving sizes. Instead, buy bigger bags of the snacks and put smaller servings in paper bags.
• Buy personal hygiene and home-cleaning products in bulk when possible.
• Buy cereal in bags instead of boxes, which usually contain bags inside.
• Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of those packaged in Styrofoam trays and shrink-wrap. Fix your own fresh-fruit cups instead of buying cut-up fruit in plastic containers.
• Avoid buying products packaged in blister packs (molded plastic attached to cardboard.) Although sometimes blister packs serve a hygienic purpose (making sure cosmetics or medicines aren’t tampered with, for instance), they are often unnecessary.
• Use fewer individual serving-size bottles of water and juices.
• Buy ink and toner cartridge at Toner Cartridge Depot.

The list of the HP’s breakouts includes:

• ColorSphere Toner
• Dual Drop Volume Technology
• Enhanced ‘Low Melt’ Monochrome Toner
• ColorLok Media
• XL Inkjet Print Cartridges
• Simple Black range of cartridges
• Dual Pack LaserJet Cartridges

Now let us see what is what and who is who.

HP ColorSphere Toner

This is a formulation of toner that, according to HP, “will deliver 117% higher gloss, and 39% wider color gamut, previously unseen in HP Color LaserJet printing.” The ColorSphere toner allows customers to “greatly improve print quality for documents”, and produce – for the first time – realistic photos.

I always candidly admired the ability of manufacturers to precisely measure immeasurable things. Like “your skin will become 37% smoother” or “your hair will become 41% shinier.” However, it’s would be a good thing if HP gets to make laser printers produce realistic photos.

HP Dual Drop Volume Technology

This technology developed for HP Deskjets enables finely detailed graphics and images, without the need for the lighter, photo dye-load inks used in 6-ink printing. Blame it all on the improved half-toning process which enables smooth gradations and outstanding color accuracy for new HP Deskjets. The new inks optimized for porous photo media, so we get instant-dry prints with improved water and smudge resistance.

New Enhanced ‘Low Melt’ Monochrome Toner

This is HP’s cutting edge toner technology developed to provide consistent quality and reliability at high print speeds (up to 62 pages per minute). The new toner formulation increases the precision of toner placement; it also requires 15% less power to reach fusing temperature. This results in a 10% to 15% more efficient energy consumption per page by printer.

HP ColorLok Media

With ColorLok technology HP approached sharpness and brightness of printed images from another side – the paper. The technology prevents inks from penetrating too deeply into the sheet, thus higher optical density and “up to 60% bolder blacks” and “up to 30% brighter colors.” Also, it makes inks dry faster up to nine times.

XL Inkjet Print Cartridges

Such cartridges are able to print up to more than three times the number of pages compared to their standard print cartridge counterparts – delivering cost savings of up to 47%. So far HP is launching XL tri-color inkjet cartridges

• HP 22XL
• HP 60XL/818XL

and XL black inkjet cartridges

• HP 21XL
• HP60XL/818XL
• HP 901XL,

which allow HP inkjet printers and All-in-Ones user “even more choice and value”.

HP Simple Black range of cartridges

HP also announced the expansion of its Simple Black ink cartridge range to include 4 more products to its existing lineup. The HP Simple Black Cartridge is a lower-priced alternative specially designed for customers who want draft-quality for everyday printing e.g. draft contracts for proof reading, in return for significant cost savings.

Dual Pack LaserJet Cartridge

Toner cartridges aren’t missed out either. HP introduced 4 new Dual Pack options:
C4127D
C8061D
Q1338D and
Q2612AD black cartridge Dual Packs.
The trick with HP’s Dual packs is that they are said to cost up to 37 percent less, while having three times the print volume over standard cartridges.

Monochrome laser is the most common printing technology for offices. According to HP, replacement of a toner cartridges renews 2/3 of the whole printing mechanism. So it’s worth making sure the cartridge you buy is not a freud.

For demonstration purposes we used HP Q2612A and C7115T toner cartridges. Here are several signs to tell you the cartridge you hold is a genuine HP toner cartridge:

• specific location of the hologram label
• air-proof package of the cartridge inside the box
• protective tape in cartridge
• production codes on the cartidge casing and on the box

Identifying original HP laser toner cartridges

1. Location of the hologram label

HP toner cartridges have same type of holograms as we saw before, plus they have production codes on labels. On toner cartridge box, holograms are located at the joint of the box and a tear-off stripe. So, upon opening, a part of hologram label is torn off with the stripe, the other part remains on the box, as shown below:

2. Air-proof package of the cartridge inside the box

Inside the original box, cartridges are always air-proof packed so they could reach any corner of the world intact. Or so that technical personnel could play football before the installation

3. Protective tape in cartridge

The very cartridge always has a protective tape that separates toner hopper from magnetic roller. In some cartridges, this tape may have a plastic tip soldered to the cartridge case. As it does in C7115A, for instance.

4. Production codes on the cartidge casing and on the box

Another important level of protection is production codes drawn on both the box and the cartridge. It is allowed that first 5 symbols of the production code on the cartridges box match first 5 symbols of the code on the cartridge inside the box. The difference in ending symbols should not be taken as a sign of forgery.

The production code on the C7115A cartridgs and its box is identical – 7G128M2Bk:

Knowing these 4 distinctive signs you can easily tell an original toner from a fake. And remember, there is always a reliable source of original HP toner cartridges at hand.

Take care and don’t let yourself be tricked!

Remember, the cartridges are responsible for 90% of the printouts quality regardless the type of printing – matrix, inkjet or laser.

The thing is, along with original cartridges (produced by a company for own printers) and compatible cartridge (produced or remanufactured by third-party companies) there are counterfeit cartridges produced by some backstreet companies in conditions far from those on a factory.

Counterfeit cartridges are one of the most hazardous types of consumables as they affect both customers and manufacturers. Many people confuse counterfeit cartridges with compatible ones. That makes them think there’s no difference between original and compatible cartridges, but this is one.

From this article you will learn how to identify the original HP cartridges.

Identifying original HP inkjet cartridges

Protecting its production from forgery has always been a primary task for any large company. Large volumes of the counterfeit on the market has always caused financial loses to original equipment manufacturers. This is why a struggle for making the production forgery-proof has become a strategy. Started from early 2008, HP inkjet cartridges have been protected in several ways:

1. Genuine label

The genuine labels change their color when viewed at different angles:

Modern HP holograms are dark blue. However, there are few old specimens as shown on the photo below. In both cases, the cartridges are genuine, no reason to worry about printing quality.

For inkjet cartridges, the label is located on the tear-off side of the package. But don’t be surprised to see holograms located in different places on black and color cartridges for same printer. Some models of inkjet consumables have a two-color label located in upper corner of the package. This spot is reserved for them during package production. The example of such label placement is the HP 131 cartridge:

2. Date difference

Holographic stickers on package is not the only thing that marks original cartridges. Another important means of protection is difference between dates on the package and the cartridge. The marking on the 56 cartridge package says: “install before January, 2008.” The markings on the cartridges read “June, 2008.” The dates difference is allowed 6 month. This is a warranty period for user to install and use the cartridge. The package carries the initial date, while the cartridge has the deadline on it. However, the date difference can be increased or decreased by two months, but not more.

We are done with inkjet cartridges, next time you will learn how to identify genuine HP toner cartridges.

Of course, the best way to get rid of clogged jets is to prevent them. Some say you should print regularly (daily/weekly or else), some would advise you to get a laser printer instead. But when you’ve already got this problem, how to troubleshoot the cloged printer?

There is a way to bring your inkjet printer back to life.

The essence of problem with clogged printhead is that ink dries inside the printhead jets, letting no liquid ink from cartridge tank to go out. Given that, the essence of unclogging a printhead lies in dissolving that dried ink.

There are arguments about what is the best solvent to clean inkjet heads. People naming this or that solvent are both right and wrong. The thing is there no best solvent, there is one that dissolves the particular type of ink.

Understanding printer ink

Before we start, there is something to know about printer inks. In one of previous posts I cited one good article titled “Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks” by Tony Martin. If somehow you have not read the article yet, I will brief you on it.

In general, in any printer using water based inks, whether they are dye, pigment or hybrid colorants, they tend to have similar formulations.

They use mainly water, a colorant or mixture of colorants, dye, or pigment or both, a wetting agent like glycerin that allows the liquid to flow and allow the ink to enter the paper surface, a product to slow down drying on the heads like glycol, and often an alcohol to speed drying on the paper surface. Some inks with pigments require an adhesive to attach the particles to the paper surface, so they use a resin, usually acrylic.

This all gives us the idea of what reagents to use for dissolution (at least I strongly hope it does.)

Selecting a solvent

How would one know what exact solvent is suitable for his or her case? That’s pretty easy to figure out.

Usually there’s decent amounts of ink spilled everywhere in these situations. Instead of risking your potentially expensive heads, try your various solvents on dried ink outside of printing head. If you don’t already have spills to clean up, then intentionally make one. Let it dry and then clean it up… with “whatever” you’re contemplating running through the printer.

If it doesn’t work outside the printer, neither will it unclog the head from inside. If it dissolves the ink, then you have a much better chance of success.

A troubleshooting advice

To help you dissolve dried ink in printhead, here is a receipt that should work on the majority of water based inkjet printer inks.

The mixture uses either ammoniated window cleaner (which uses glycol, alcohol, water and ammonia) with extra isopropyl alcohol, or in places where ammoniated window cleaner isn’t available, use ammonia mixed to about 1% concentration, and adding the isopropyl.

However, there are some inks that use different technologies and may not work with these solvents.

The “closed loop” process gives used HP inkjet cartridges a sustainable end-of-life value and puts the material back to good use while being environmentally friendly.

The process first breaks down plastic in printer cartridges made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), after which additives including fibers and resins are used to strengthen and regenerate the plastic. The remolded plastic is then used to manufacture new HP inkjet cartridges.

The plastics or cartridges are not melted, refilled, resold or sent to a landfill, HP said. The process also applies to other products, like PET water bottles.

The process, which went into pilot in 2005, has already resulted in HP manufacturing 200 million printer cartridges. The process will go into full manufacturing now.

Each inkjet cartridge contains 70 percent to 100 percent recycled material. Users will find the process beneficial as cartridges with new material perform better than used or refilled cartridges.

HP allows users to return inkjet cartridges worldwide for free in most cases through its recycling program, said Ken Fleming, marketing director of supplies for HP. In some cases, a postage-paid return envelope is provided by HP with the inkjet print cartridge box.

The process will apply only to HP cartridges, the company said. No external inkjet cartridge brand is being put through the new recycling process.

Before the implementation of the new process, not all plastic recovered went into making new cartridges. They were used by others to manufacture products including auto parts and toys.

The inkjet cartridge recycling initiative is the latest in HP’s broad effort to be environmentally friendly. HP recently announced that it would implement more energy-efficient technologies across its PC lines to reduce computer energy use by 25 percent in 2010.