Source for Sensient/Formulabs ink

[mmcmusnret]

I have been so pleased with the dedication to accuracy and detail of the owner of alotofthings.com. It was with great dismay that I read in his January newsletter that he had sold the inkjet-related portion of his business. I stocked up yesterday, but am curious to know if any of the members of the forum who have opted to use Sensient/Formulabs knows of another distributor who follows their "Line Card" with as much detail. I had a long, pleasant conversation with the the owner of alotofthings during which he told me he is endeavoring to find such a supplier and will post his findings on his blog, but I thought maybe this community may be able to contribute some info.

 

[Grandad35]

I'm in the same boat, having just stocked up with about 3 liters of Formulabs ink. Why not contact Sensient directly (http://www.sensient-tech.com/contact/inkjet.htm) to see if they have an alternate reseller lined up?

 

[mmcmusnret]

I intend to do so, Grandad, but alotofthings' owner warned me they may not be responsive. Seems they've been burned by sellers of competitive inks calling and posing as folks like us, harvesting resellers' contact info, then trying to peddle their wares. I'm good for the immediate future and am willing to see what shows up on the alotofblog...but I may get bored enough one wintry Idaho day to give them a call and see how deep the snow is in Wisconsin. By the way, I'm in this position because I seemed to gravitate immediately towards your attention to detail...I operated and maintained several Naval nuclear powered submarine enginerooms in my 27-year career, so I can fully appreciate the effort you've invested in doing this by the numbers. I basically leeched on your experience, buying (essentially) the same printer and using the same inks and paper as you, and it has been a very good decision to do so, indeed. I'll let you know if I come up with a Formulabs dealer.

 

[Tin Ho]

I just read the news letter. What a surprise. Alotofthings a few years ago was in San Diego, which I believe is where Sensient Technologies is. When it moved to its current location in Montana it already indicated an unusual decision to make such a move. I remember seeing messages saying the owner was ill and was hospitalized for some time. But they are moving out of the ink business, not out of business. The news letter says their ink business is sold to a Chinese company in China. The Chinese company will take over all their Truecolor Imaging brand names. It is unclear if the Chinese company will resume selling ink in the US. It is unclear if they will continue to sell Formulabs inks. To US ink consumers it is irony now that they have lost a vendor they can trust.

 

[mmcmusnret]

As I said, I had a very long and pleasant conversation with the owner of alotofthings. I like to talk, and so does he. He provided a vast amount of information, little of which I feel is my right to share in a public forum. Suffice it to say that IMHO his motives for selling off the inkjet-related portion of his business are pure and above criticism. Given that, the remaining discussion should be centered on where do we who use Formulabs go from here? (BTW, Sensient's website says they're HQ'd in Wisconsion, but the Formulabs arm may be in San Diego...I haven't looked)

Before engaging in a search for a new vendor, one should absorb this:

http://www.alotofthings.com/viartsh...ormulabs&search_category_id=15&article_id=313

That url is posted on at least one other thread here on the forum.

I can only think of two ways one can be relatively confident a vendor is following the Line Card...either Formulabs tells us the vendor is ordering the appropriate selection of inks to support the products the vendor offers, or someone does the testing necessary to confirm the ink we purchase is truly what Formulabs designs for, say, BCI-6 printers.

If a vendor offers ink for for CLI-8 printers (which is much more expensive than BCI-6 ink) on their website but only orders BCI-6 ink from Formulabs, it's obvious a buyer of CLI-8 ink from that vendor won't be getting what he paid for and will get commensurate results. Formulabs will probably never tell us who they think is following their Line Card religously and who is maximizing their profits by advertising they use Formulabs ink but aren't following the Line Card. I don't think it would be wise, Tin, to assume the company that purchased alotofthings eBay sites will be as devoted to following the line card as alotofthings has been. They may very well be, but how will we know?

As for testing to verify what we get is what we ordered, I don't know where one would begin. After voicing my concerns the owner of alotofthings told me Friday he was going to try to smoke out a dependable vendor for his former customers and would post his recommendation on his blog after testing products to confirm the Line Card was being followed, hopefully within a couple of months. Hopefully (again with the hope!), Formulabs will be more forthcoming with a trusted vendor than they would be with one of us, perhaps providing a short list to alotofthings that would streamline the verification process.

Anybody got any better ideas than just waiting?

 

[alizard]

I hope someone finds a reliable formulabs vendor SOON. I'm most of the way through a bottle of black ink and have 3 nearly full bottles of C/M/Y ink, I got the annoucement from alotofthings, finally got paid, went to the site, and of course, no more ink when I was ready to buy.

 

[mmcmusnret]

Sorry if I appeared to indicate the reason for selling the business was contained in the link. It most definitely is not. What I did state was that I didn't feel it was my right to discuss it. The link was provided as a starting point from whch to pursue a new vendor. I placed a call to Formulabs this morning and am awaiting a return call from their sales department.

 

[trashguy9]

I searched and searched and cannot not find another supplier of Formulabs ink. I did email Sensient also, with no response. Has anyone else had any luck finding another supplier?

 

[alizard]

There's an AU wholesaler who claims to carry a complete range of Sensient bulk ink.

http://www.ausjetinks.com.au/c/department/about

They deal with retailers only and appear to be seeking afilliates. and since their website permits registration by US customers, one can presume that they'll ship to the USA. Any web retailers around here?

 

[rjwallin]

Hello,

My name is Rick Wallin. I am the Inkjet Sales rep for Sensient Imaging Technologies. I have been contacted by a number of people who used to buy their ink from A Whole Lot of Things. I have a couple of solutions if you are interested. Line Cards and Samples are available along with tech support to help you with any problems that may arise.

Please feel free to contact me at 800-642-2345 ext. 1617 or 760-930-1617 direct line or email me at rick.wallin@sensient-tech.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Rick