Remanufactured Toner Cartridges VS OEM Cartridges - What you should know!

What Is Remanufacturing?
Think of it as a way to keep durable goods out of the landfill before their time. When products become too worn or damaged to perform properly, remanufacturing extends their useful life, restoring them to a condition that’s as “good as new.” Because durable products represent a major investment for most organizations, remanufacturing is a good cost cutting opportunity, saving the expense of buying a new product or disposing of an old one. In addition, remanufacturing conserves energy and resources because fewer raw materials are used.

Quality remanufactured toner cartridges are available within the marketplace, remanufactured toner cartridges can actually exceed OEM quality and yield. Extensive testing and R&D have enabled this industry to produce cartridges that will not only save the customer money, but also provide a better product.

As the customer, what should you ask potential vendors about their remanufactured cartridges?

Does the company change any components?
Ask if the company changes the drum, wiper blade and mag roller. These components are all very important to print quality. Some lower yield cartridges do not need to have their drums changed if they are properly tested, but anything over 4,000 pages should, at least, receive a new drum.

Does the company use a universal toner for all printers within a manufacturer?
Some suppliers try to save money by using one toner per printer model, i.e. one toner for all HP cartridges. This may not affect print quality, but it will affect yield. Each model of printer has different characteristics, which means different toners. An example of differing characteristics is the fusing temperature of the printers.

Are all cartridges post tested?
Some suppliers do not want to invest in all the printers, or do not do enough volume to make this affordable. This is the most important step. These cartridges have to be rebuilt by hand, which introduces human error. Forgetting one step can cause failures that can only be picked up in post-testing.

Does the company replace the label on the cartridge?
Some companies leave the OEM label on their cartridges; this is a copyright infringement. Other companies do not have any labels on their cartridges. This is legal, but can be confusing if you have different model printers. See if the company replaces the label with a new descriptive label, which should have the machine that the cartridge goes to on it.

Will the use of a remanufactured or compatible cartridge void my printer's warranty?
NO! Federal Trade Commission - Magnusson-Moss Warranty Federal Commission Improvement Act (Subparagraph C, section 101) - regulations specifically states that "No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name".

What the above really means: The manufacturer of the printer you are using cannot void the warranty on your printer because you use a cartridge or refill kit manufactured by someone other than the printer manufacturer. This prohibition includes the use of compatible cartridges, clip-ons,
continuous feeding mechanisms, refill kits, ink, etc. For more information on the act, you can contact the Federal Trade Commission at (202) 326-3128.

All Green Image Solutions laser toners are manufactured to ISO 9001 standards which means you can be assured of quality.

Before leaving the factory, our products go through following professional test:

1.Mechanical test to ensure the toners smooth operation and no noise, and to comply with ISO standards.

2.Environment protection test to ensure toners' environmental safe.

3.Duration test to ensure toners can last more than one year.

4.Difficult conditions tests such as abnormal temperature, air pressure, strong sun light and rough transportation tests to ensure the printing quality remains high.

5.Water resistant test to ensure printing won't fade and be diluted when wet.

6.Printing quality test to ensure the printing is real black, sharp, no slur and won't fade.

7.Capacity test to ensure the number of printed pages is the same as the ones of original manufacturers. We ensure the satisfaction of our clients with our products.

Facts on Inkjet Remanufacturing

White Paper: Critical Process Steps For Successful Inkjet Cartridge Remanufacturing.

Early inkjet technology found each printer manufacturer designing and constructing their inkjet cartridges in their own, proprietary ways. As a result, the remanufacturing industry was fractured and required many different processing methods. This prevented any type of standardization to develop.

It has been several years since inkjet printer manufacturers have universally adopted the foam (or sponge) type inkjet cartridge design in their integrated cartridges for both color and black models. Since then, for the first time, a broad consensus among both remanufacturers and remanufacturing equipment companies has been reached concerning the proper method for remanufacturing these cartridges. This process standardization was a major element in the successful growth, popularity and consumer acceptance of remanufactured inkjet cartridges.

Within this standardization, certain critical phases of the remanufacturing process gained industry-wide acceptance and are considered vital to successful inkjet cartridge remanufacturing. These process steps are:

1. Centrifuging out old ink as part of the clean / prep stage.
2. Refilling the cartridge with new ink under vacuum conditions.


Centrifuging
Centrifuging an inkjet cartridge prior to remanufacturing is an important step in the process for two reasons. First, when the old ink is forced out of the cartridge using centrifugal force, it exits through the printhead nozzles and perhaps the ink inlet holes in the cap. The ink is forced out through these holes with sufficient force so as to return the cartridge to its prefilled condition. Pigment black and color inks can cause additional blockages. The centrifuging action helps remove these blockages and helps to ensure that the cartridge will print with all of the nozzles, without streaks or missing lines. This streaking is a common cause of failed or returned cartridges.

The second reason centrifuging the cartridge is critical to success is to prevent the overfilling of ink during the refilling stage. Most incoming “cores” (empty inkjet cartridges) are not always completely empty of all inks. Color cartridges generally do not run out of all the colors at the same time. When one of the colors runs out, the printer will issue a “replace cartridge” message. Yellow is usually the first color to run out, because yellow is mixed with the cyan ink and magenta ink to form many colors. Centrifuging all of the residual ink remaining in the cartridge chambers ensures that a uniform amount of new ink can be safely put back into each and every cartridge. A cartridge that has been overfilled may leak ink in transit or during shelf life and cause cross-contamination of colors.

Vacuum Filling
Integrated inkjet cartridges in use today utilize special hi-tech foam for storing the ink inside the cartridge. This open pore foam has a cellular makeup. It is in these cells that the ink is stored. These cartridges may malfunction if there are any air bubbles trapped in the cells. The slight pressurization that exists within the cartridge is crucial to proper ink delivery ink from the foam to the pre-firing chambers and then to the printhead. Air bubbles in the foam will cause changes to this pressure that will interrupt this delivery. When ink is added to the cartridge under normal atmospheric conditions, air bubbles in the sponge cells displace the ink and become trapped. This results in an improperly filled cartridge that will not print consistently and contain streaks and missing lines. Many times the foam chamber containing the air bubbles will not print at all, once these air bubbles reach the pre-firing chambers above the printhead nozzles.

When cartridges are remanufactured under a vacuum, these air bubbles are removed from the foam prior to the ink refill stage. This vacuum environment allows the ink to saturate the foam cells without being displaced by trapped air bubbles. This results in a properly filled cartridge that is air-free and capable of containing the correct ink volume required.

Air bubbles trapped in the foam will also contribute to another type of cartridge failure. Integrated inkjet cartridges use a thermal element to eject the ink from the nozzle and onto the paper. The element heats the ink to boiling point causing it to be pushed out through the printhead. The heating element is kept cool by the ink. If an air bubble, instead of ink is present when the heating element fires, the element may burn out, causing the cartridge electronics to prematurely fail.

It is important to note that the vacuum filling process described above is the same process used by the printer manufacturers when cartridges are originally manufactured.

This fact alone should serve to validate the widely used and very successful practice of vacuum filling within the inkjet cartridge remanufacturing industry.