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Printer vendors push green for cheap

CartridgeCom — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:56:36 +0000

According to printer manufacturers, the path to going green and printing cheap starts at the product design stage. For instance, these hardware makers say they observe a conscious effort to produce printers that require fewer resources, namely, electricity, supplies and media.Lim Kok Hin, Canon Singapore’s senior director and general manager of domestic business imaging solutions and business solutions division, said multifunction devices (MFD), for example, are designed to allow businesses to consume less energy.”With the rising cost of energy, this quickly translates into tremendous savings for companies,” Lim told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. Kasai Yasuhiro, Epson’s director of regional product management division, said its printing products were designed with “stringent energy and resource consumption targets, in relation to performance”.Older models are also replaced with new designs that make better use of resource. The vendor’s Stylus C110 business inkjet printer, for example, consumes 60 percent less energy than its predecessor Epson Stylus 87+, Kasai told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail.Its business laser printers, from standby or sleep mode, can complete printing the first page in 8 seconds. This minimizes the time the machine needs to be powered for print jobs, thus, reducing energy consumption, he said. “This is especially important as most print jobs are typically short runs comprising two to five pages,” he said.Ivy Liang, Asia-Pacific and Japan vice president of marketing at HP’s imaging and printing group, said the company’s “Instant-on Technology” is embedded in most of its LaserJet printers, enabling the machines to print the first page in 7.5 seconds from sleep mode.According to Canon’s Lim, companies tend to focus on larger business processes in their bid to achieve cost savings, leaving office printing costs unmanaged. Most are unaware how much their organizations are spending on their printing needs, he said.”Unmanaged print costs comprise 1 percent to 3 percent of a company’s revenue,” he noted, citing numbers from a February 2008 Gartner report. “Most organizations can experience significant cost savings with proper management of print processes.”

Duplex printing saves cost
Double-sided, or duplex printing is an effective component of a properly managed print policy, Lim said. Referring to the Gartner study, he said organizations can potentially reduce annual paper costs by at least 30 percent across their output by printing on both sides as part of the standard work process.Kasai noted that before an organization can enjoy such cost savings, all printers deployed in a company must support duplex capability and there must be a policy enforcing the use of duplex printing. “In some companies, this policy is forcibly imposed by IT administrators who set their printers to print duplex by default,” he said.

For HP, duplex printing helped the IT vendor cut its paper use by 25 percent during a pilot test, Liang said. The company is further tweaking its printing infrastructure to achieve the best cost savings, and expects to reduce its paper consumption by 800 tons annually when it has completed this initiative, she added.However, Graeme Philipson, research director at Connected Research, noted that while duplex printing may have its place in some circumstances, it may often be inappropriate in others. He added that it may even add to printing costs and the organization’s carbon footprint.In an e-mail interview, Philipson said studies have shown paper consumption represents only about 10 percent of total print costs. “That means duplex printing is addressing only 10 percent of the problem,” he said.He added that printers that support duplex printing also cost more, which may negate the cost advantage over the lifespan of the printer. Since their mechanisms are more complex, they are more likely to fail and need added maintenance that could be more expensive, said Philipson.

Reuse and recycle
Another avenue to save costs is through recycling, a practice that major printer vendors are advocating through their green programs.

Epson, for example, runs collection and recycling programs in 25 markets including Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Canon also has in place a global recycling program for used toner cartridges. In Singapore, for example, the company has four recycling locations for customers to drop off their used cartridges. Alternatively, businesses can arrange for used toner cartridges to be collected from their offices, provided they have at least 10 printer cartridges.

Via: zdnetasia.com

Lexmark introduces $4.99 ink cartridges

CartridgeCom — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:05:35 +0000

Tired of purchasing low cost printers, just to find replacement ink costs as much as the printer itself. How about wasting hours researching different brands of printers attempting to find the best printer for the lowest price, only to find high priced replacement ink negates any sale price of the actual printer. Well, Lexmark may have changed the way we shop for printers as they introduce the Prestige Pro805 with black printer ink cartridges costing only $4.99.

Features of the Prestige Pro805

At the heart of the Prestige Pro805 is the 4.3” myTouch color touch screen, which provides access to the core functions of the printer. Use it to select between printer, copier, or scanner. Use it to access the SmartSolutions feature, which allows the ability to email documents, access photo sharing websites, and automate common tasks. Also, access internet information such as calendars, stock information, news, and weather. All performed using the myTouch touch screen.

Using four individual ink cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) means only empty individual printer cartridges require replacement. This is a huge cost savings compared to printers using combined color ink cartridges, forcing customers to purchase a new cartridge when only one ink color is empty.

No need to lay a printer cable across the living room to connect the computer to the printer. Printing is performed wirelessly, connecting either directly to the printer or using an existing wireless network.

Quickly print documents, 33 pages per minute using black ink or 30 pages per minute using color printer ink. Save paper costs by using the 2-sided printing feature, which automatically prints on both sides of a page. Print over 500 pages per (black) ink cartridge before changing cartridges.

Saving money in tough times

In an economy where pinching pennies is a necessity, Lexmark has printers that tackle the overly expensive replacement ink issue that printer owners despise. The Lexmark Prestige Pro805 is a reasonable $299 and the best deal is the (black) replacement ink only costs $4.99. Need a printer with a few extra features? Lexmark has the Platinum Pro905 for $399, which also uses the $4.99 (black) ink cartridges.

Via: examiner.com

HP Settles with 2 Firms over Ink Cartridge Imports

CartridgeCom — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:02:55 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday said it has “reached substantial resolution” of disputes related to its claim that inkjet ink cartridges imported and sold by 11 companies infringed on the company’s patents.

H-P said the settlements involved U.S.-based companies, as well as firms based in Mexico and China, that the tech giant said imported H-P 02 compatible inkjet ink supplies that allegedly infringed its patents.The Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P had filed a complaint against the companies with the U.S. International Trade Commission in September 2009.
Two companies, InkPlusToner.com and Comptree Ink, have agreed that H-P patents are “valid and infringed,” will stop selling the disputed printer ink cartridges and have paid the company “an undisclosed sum of money,” H-P said in a release. The company said it expects to complete a similar settlement with SmartOne Services.

An administrative law judge also has approved a motion to terminate the investigation of Zhuhai Gree Magneto-Electric Co. Ltd. of China based on an agreement “in which it agrees not to engage in the future importation of the relevant products.”

The judge entered “default judgment” against seven respondents, H-P said. The company said it expects “a satisfactory remedy from the ITC in the form of an exclusion order against the products at issue from the accused companies.”In a prepared statement, Stephen Nigro, an H-P senior vice president, said the company “remains committed to vigorously pursuing legal enforcement against practices that do not respect H-P’s IP [intellectual property] rights.”

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said the resolution was a “positive development.”"There’s a lot of copying that goes on without consequence,” he said. “That totally defeats the purpose of innovation.”The resolution also “makes it more costly for cloning and makes buyers in the channel a little more leery.”

Via: marketwatch.com

Dell Now Sells Remanuctured Nextime Ink Cartridges

CartridgeCom — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Want to get more for your money and help to save the environment too? Then the Dell NextLife Ink is the perfect ink cartages for you. They are made from remanufactured printer cartridges so it helps keep them from landing up in landfills. It’s estimated that 400 million ink cartridges are disposed of every year in our nations’ landfills. But if roughly 1% of the cartridges thrown into landfills were remanufactured by NextLife, the carbon savings over new printer cartridges would equate to planting almost 15,000 new trees. That makes NexLife Ink an environmentally responsible choice in addition to a great value.

Dell says that studies have shown that NextLife Remanufactured Ink cartridges are as reliable as other brand-name ones. A Bonus is that Dell backs that quality with a 21-day money back guarantee. There’s also a 1 year warranty that all cartridges will be free of defects in materials and workmanship. This means you can rely on these printer cartridges as if they were regular ink cartridges that did not help the environment.

You not only get the peace of mind that you are helping the environment you also get great savings as well. NextLife compared to HP shows a savings of up to 30% a page yield of up to 20% and reliability is excellent especially with the money back guarantee they offer. Everyone wants to do their part these days to help the environment especially for the next generations. Now you can by simply choosing an environmentally friendly ink cartridge the NextLife Ink.
Dell NextLife Ink is on Sale at Dell for prices varying from $34.99-$13.99.

Via: i4u.com

Planet Ark Collects 10,000,000TH Cartridges

CartridgeCom — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:52:31 +0000

In the seven years its been running, Planet Ark has recycled 10 million printer ink cartridges. That’s about 4700 tonnes of waste that didn’t go straight to landfill. That’s a pretty good effort, but I reckon we can do better.

Because of the plastics and metals in printer ink cartridges, they take a long time to break down in landfill. But they can be relatively easily recycled, either being reused by printer manufacturers or recycled into new products.

To find the nearest place to recycle your cartridges, point your browser at cartridges.planetark.org. It may take a little bit of extra effort, but it has a real benefit for the environment, so you should do it anyway.

Via: gizmodo.com.au