The majority of the makers of printers recommend to their buyers that they use the original own brand ink cartridges that they make. Many printer manufacturers state that using compatible printer ink cartridges produced by other companies can lead to issues with printing.
Anyone who has followed the market for printers over the last few years will have seen that the cost of printers have fallen dramatically. This has coincided with a steep rise in the price of printer ink. The business model adopted by the majority of the main printer makers has been to decrease the profit margins on printers, whilst increasing the price per gram of the printer ink that they produce.
As prices of printer ink have risen, it has become a much harder for the manufacturers of compatible ink cartridges to produce suitable products. Many printer manufacturers have added electronic chips to their printer ink cartridges so that the cartridges can stop printing when they are low on ink. The manufacturers say that this stops low quality prints from being produced when cartridges begin to run out. This makes it much harder for makers of compatible cartridges to compete, and therefore printer manufacturers can charge more for their own brand ink. Another downside for customers is that many cartridges stop working before they have fully run out, reducing the number of pages that can be produced.
Many customers think that compatible cartridges are a cottage industry, with small firms producing these ink cartridges. Whilst the manufacturers of compatible cartridges are nowhere near the size of the printer manufacturing giants, they are often quite sizeable firms with excellent design and technology skills. Take the example of UK manufacturer Jet Tec who have over 300 workers and a purpose built factory. Consumers also often think that these firms have low quality products and systems, whereas they often have ISO ratification, and in the case of Jet Tec the Queens Award for Enterprise and Innovation.
Many of the makers of compatible ink cartridges have looked at innovative methods of improving on the delivery of printer ink. One such example is the extra life system designed for use with Epson Ink cartridges. The cartridge chips used on many of Epson’s printer ink cartridges are designed to prevent the ink cartridge from printing when the printer thinks it has run out of ink, whether this is right or not. It is often the case that the ink cartridge stops working long before the ink has run out, sometimes with as much as thirty percent of the printer ink unused. The extra life technology fitted to some compatible cartridges allows users to choose to override these settings and carry on to print until the ink cartridge is actually empty.
The quality of compatible ink cartridges does vary significantly, but if you select a well known retailer with a high quality reputation the chances are that they will only sell good quality compatible ink cartridges. If in doubt, take the time to explore the Internet for the makers’ name, as a number of PC and magazine sites have run extensive group tests examining the quality of compatible printer ink cartridge suppliers. As a final thought, with the prices of compatible ink cartridges being considerably cheaper than the original manufacturer ink cartridges, it’s often not a very expensive risk to take, and if you use a lot of printer ink it could be a considerable bonus to you.
Article Source: http://www.alltopinfo.com
Tom is a writer with an interest in Printer Ink and Epson T0334 ink
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