Quality Standards

Quality Standards for Printer Inks or...

Text Box: ...why you can expect a satisfactory experience refilling cartridges at The Ink Company® Whether or not refilling a cartridge will produce a good result depends greatly on what quality of inks will be used for the refill. Only the best quality inks, which we use will give your cartridge a truly good “new life”. Below is an overview of what qualities of ink could be found on the market today. Quality Standard I: Universal Inks Universal inks are mostly a non-specific Indian ink mixed with water. Such general inks are represented as suitable for the refilling of all types of printer cartridges. There are still suppliers on the market offering this ink quality. The result of using this quality of ink for your cartridge: Refilling and using a printer cartridge containing these inks leads usually to an immediate clogging of the print head of the cartridge, alternatively the ink drains immediately through the print head of the cartridge. The use of such “inks” does not give satisfactory printing results at all. Quality Standard II: Multi-Purpose Inks Multi-purpose inks are usually a mixture of different inks. Such multi-purpose inks are represented as suitable for several brands. One ink is for example said to be suitable for the refilling of Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark printer cartridges. The result of using this quality of ink for your cartridge: Such inks usually affect in the medium term the print head. When printing deviations in colour are clearly visible. Refilling a printer cartridge several times with this quality of inks is usually not possible or only after constant heavy cleaning of the print head of the cartridge. Quality Standard III: Near-Original Inks of this quality originate usually from East Germany, Turkey, Korea or China. Producers of this quality inks use professional equipment. About 15 to 20 different raw materials go into the production of these inks and the inks are filtered at least once. A distinction is made between dye and pigment inks. Different inks for different printer series can be found within this ink quality standard. Inks of Quality Standard III approach the quality of original printer cartridge inks, they are not of equal quality, though. Their raw material mix ratio differs too much from that of original inks. The ink contains, for example, too much solvent and too little thickener; and pigment inks contain frequently too little pigment (the raw materials used for the pigment belong to the most expensive chemicals). Ingredients such as wetting and evaporating agents, which should prevent the ink from decomposing into its constituent ingredients, are not used. Little attention goes to viscosity and UV-resistance. The result of using this quality of ink for your cartridge: In the first instance a print-out may look good. Quality differences, however appear soon after making your first photo print. Due to the relatively high amount of solvents used in these inks, the nozzle of the cartridge usually becomes dysfunctional after a few refills. Another common problem using these types of ink is that the print head of the cartridge clogs quickly. The sponge inside (many cartridges have one) cannot retain the ink anymore and the cartridge starts to leak. Many cartridge refill stations work with this quality of inks. This is the reason why many people have an unsatisfactory experience refilling their cartridges. Quality Standard IV: Equal to Original These inks contain 30 to 35 ingredients. The producers of these inks pay special attention to the composition of the ingredients. Viscosity and UV-resistance copy those of the original inks. Inks of this quality are two to four times (depending on their type) filtered and removed from ooze, in order to prevent the print head from clogging. The inks of Quality Standard IV are usually patented. That means, among other things, that these inks are tested for originality. These inks have usually a shelf live of three years. Worldwide there are just about four producers that supply inks of this quality standard. The result of using this quality of ink in your cartridge: Using these inks will give you a clean and equal to the original printing result. Cartridges with a print head can usually be refilled 10 to 20 times. Other printer cartridges can be refilled up to 40 times. Refill24®/The Ink Company® and a few other companies supply this Quality inks. Quality Standard IV – Refill24® The inks of Refill24® are at least of Quality Standard IV. In addition, the inks of Refill24® are filtered and adapted with a view to getting even better print results than normal Quality Standard IV inks. Quality Standard V: Superb This quality standard is usually not used for desktop printer inks. It is used for plotter inks (inks for large format printers). The raw materials used for plotter inks are significantly more expensive than the raw materials used in inks for desktop printers. Inks for large format printers contain a considerably lesser amount of solvents. Refill24® has, however, made some plotter inks available for the refilling of desktop printer cartridges which allows to refill these cartridges twice as much as they could be refilled with inks of quality standard IV.