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The majority of the makers of printers recommend to their consumers that they use the original own brand ink cartridges that they make. Many printer makers state that using compatible printer ink cartridges made by other companies can lead to problems with printing. Anyone who has watched the printer market over the last few years will have realised that the prices of printers have fallen noticeably. This has coincided with a big rise in the price of printer ink. The business model adopted by many of the main printer makers has been to decrease the profit margins on printers, whilst raising the cost per gram of the printer ink that they make. As prices of printer ink have risen, it has become a much harder for the makers of compatible ink cartridges to produce appropriate products. Many printer makers 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 poor quality prints from being made 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 consumers is that many cartridges stop working before they have fully run out, reducing the amount of pages that can be printed. Many consumers are under the impression that compatible cartridges are a cottage industry, with small firms making these ink cartridges. Whilst the makers of compatible cartridges are nowhere near the size of the printer manufacturing giants, they are often quite sizeable firms with considerable design and technology skills. Take the example of UK producer Jet Tec who have over 300 workers and a purpose built manufacturing facility. Consumers also often think that these firms have poor quality products and systems, whereas they often have ISO ratification, and in the case of Jet Tec the Queens Award for Enterprise and Innovation. Some of the makers of compatible ink cartridges have actually produced innovative technology of their own. One of the major problems with Epson’s ink cartridge chips is that they can believe the cartridge is empty when it actually has a large quantity of ink remaining. As the chip stops the ink cartridge from printing, consumers can lose a large amount of prints. The solution is extra life technology which is a system fitted to some compatible cartridges. This system allows the ink cartridge to stop when the chip thinks it’s empty, but also gives the customer the option to override. This means that the user has the choice, and doesn’t have to throw away cartridges that still contain ink. The problem with the compatible cartridge industry, is that not all manufactures of compatible ink cartridges make high quality products. To minimise the risk when purchasing compatibles, look for known high quality ink retailers with good feedback from buyers. There are lots of sites on the internet to look at where people talk about their experiences of compatible inks. Also a number of popular computing magazines have carried out extensive reviews of the compatibles on offer. Of course with compatibles often being much less costly than the original printer ink alternatives, it is often not a large risk to take, and if it works out it could save you a lot of money in the future.
Tom is a writer with an interest in Printer Ink and Epson T038 ink
Article Source:- Link Building
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