Refilling motivations.

[Osage]

I have to feel that at this present point in time that the Canon bci-3&6 family of cartridges offer the best hope in inkjet economy.

For those heavy volume users of ink the economic carrot will justify all kinds of pain, for those not used to the pain of refilling, some sort of ease of refill system would be an incentive. Which is why I might look to some sort of cartridge like the hobbicolor custom designed for refilling and subsequent resealing.

But unless one is a very heavy ink user, one also has to wonder about the shelf life of the ink supply itself. Does in degrade over time?

Of course, there is always the question of color match to OEM. Since inks vary, especially from printer brand to printer brand, this means no generic ink will exist
that will match all makes without custom profiles.

From what I read, I wonder about how long the ink will last on a photo. At present,
the OEM makers seem well ahead of third parties with most printer makers now bringing out new printer lines based on their new longer lasting inks with claims of 100 year life under special conditions. Of course the new inks are never backwards compatable to existing printers, tend to come in less economical cartridge sizes, and I have to conclude these OEM printer manufacturers have zero economic incentive to get archevial ink life up in one rapid leap.------but rather plan a semi-infinite set of small improvements with a new printer lineup at each step.

Given the third party ink refill market is very competitive, I just see a huge opening for any third party who could get a really good color match, a really easy to use refilling system, and better than any existing OEM archevial print life.

 

[Grandad35]

Osage,

I agree completely with your comment about the BCI-3/6 carts offering the apparent peak performance for us refillers. A few comments:
1. There may be some pain associated with learning how to refill these carts, but there is very little pain once you are know what you are doing and have established your "refill workflow". I am running my carts (4 different cart designs) until they are empty and have no refilling or operational problems whatsoever. I feel that the key is the initial purging of the carts to remove all of the original ink, keeping the sponge from wedging against the small opening between the two ink chambers, and the selection of an ink that isn't prone to clogging and which "fires" reliably in the nozzles.
2. Once you know your ink usage, you can predict your usage of each color for a year. The savings are so great that you can easily afford to throw away any leftover ink at the end of the year if you are concerned that the ink may "go bad". I don't know the ultimate life of unused ink, but I used the same bottles in my HP 5550 for 2 years with no ill effects. Is there a "use by" date stamped on OEM carts? I seem to remember reading that prefilled carts are good for at least 2 years.
3. If you want good color, buy a custom profile for $40. The refilling cost savings are so great that you can pay for a profile after using just 5 refilled carts. When I generate a profile for my printer, I always post it for others to use. Are there any others out there who can post their profiles?
4. For most people, fading isn't a big deal on most prints. Snapshots that are put on the refrigerator for a month and replaced by more current versions don't need longevity. For those prints that require a longer life because they are being sold or framed, you can print on a swellable paper and coat the print with a UV absorbing seal layer to greatly improve the longevity. It is also easy to print your "special" photos at Costco, Wal-Mart or other on-line printing services. It is important not to fall into the trap of "If pigmented inks last for 100 years, I need that life on all of my prints".
5. It seems that at some of HP's improved longevity is due to printing on swellable paper and some is due to changes in their inks. There are stabilization packages that inhibit the effects of UV when they are added to inks - this may be what HP does to their inks. However, this option may not be available to bulk ink suppliers because of patents, etc.
6. If you are a professional and selling your prints, you should consider a pigment ink printer or have your prints made at an outside service, as the swellable papers required for improved longevity with dye inks have some issues with water damage, drying time, sticking, etc.
7. I have been doing some research on the subject of fading and the effects of different light sources on fading. If there is someone out there who is willing to run the actual fading tests, I would be glad to post the information and a proposed (simple) setup that would allow someone to run fading tests on 3rd party bulk inks in a reasonable time frame. This information would certainly be useful when looking for a bulk ink supplier with improved fade resistance.
8. Why can't pigment based color inks be used in a thermal inkjet? BCI-3bk carts are filled with a pigmented black ink, and they work with thermal nozzles. Likewise, HP's #56 cart uses pigment black and thermal nozzles.

 

[Nifty]

Well said Grandad! Excellent reply, I fully agree.

 

[CanonPhreak]

Osage,

8. Why can't pigment based color inks be used in a thermal inkjet? BCI-3bk carts are filled with a pigmented black ink, and they work with thermal nozzles. Likewise, HP's #56 cart uses pigment black and thermal nozzles.

I asked John at weink the same think. He said that many thermal printers use pigment inks but that they are not encapsulated, so the color pigment load to get good saturation must be very high, too high for the fast print speeds and small drop size on the Canon printers as the ink is too viscous, the Epson printers with the micropiezo heads print much slower than Canon printers. The pigment ink for the BCI-3eBK is a dispersant free black pigment with a very low viscosity, compared to color pigment inks, and can easily run at high speeds.

 

[Grandad35]

I asked John at weink the same thing. He said that many thermal printers use pigment inks but that they are not encapsulated, so the color pigment load to get good saturation must be very high, too high for the fast print speeds and small drop size on the Canon printers as the ink is too viscous, the Epson printers with the micropiezo heads print much slower than Canon printers. The pigment ink for the BCI-3eBK is a dispersant free black pigment with a very low viscosity, compared to color pigment inks, and can easily run at high speeds.

Great information. This explains the speed difference between dye and pigment printers and also why Canon and HP haven't just switched to pigmented inks on consumer grade photo printers to improve their longevity.