REMANUFACTURED PRINTER CARTRIDGES – WHAT’S THEIR FUTURE?

Will the manufacturers of original cartridges succeed in their competition to discredit the remanufactured cartridge?

Or will bodies such as the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC)  win the day?

As reported by Tricia Judge, executive director of IITC, the Texas Department of Transportation will purchase 40,000 remanufactured tonercartridges over the next two years and save 50% of the OEM purchase price. After 15 years as an industry, remanufacturers can compete on quality and price," Judge says.

On the other hand, printer makers implant smart chips in cartridges that can render remanufactured cartridges incompatible with the printer. Typically, smart chips monitor the ink supply in a cartridge and stop the printer when the ink runs dry. But some printers will not work until a new OEM cartridge with the appropriate smart chip is installed. In these cases, makers of remanufactured cartridges cannot install a new chip in recycled cartridges, and that results in unusable recycled consumables. "This is an indication of the determination of the OEM brands getting more aggressive with smart chips, and they're basically giving away $100 printers, which has created a need to protect [the consumables] marketplace" Judge says.

Many users swear by remanufactured inkjet cartridges and say that they can't ascertain differences in print quality over more costly OEM products. Others, particularly those who insist on the highest-quality output for digital photographs, maintain that cartridges from the printer vendors are necessary for picture perfection.

One problem that is occurring with remanufactured cartridges, is that as demand is increasing for them, supply is not keeping up. According to ABC Print Supplies, the back ordering for stock of certain types of remanufactureds is drawing out, and that you should take this into account by placing your order even though you have enough usage for the foreseeable future.

A great ally of the remanufactured cartridge industry are the environmantalists, who are aware of the huge volumes of cartridges going into landfills that should be recycled either directly or indirectly into other products.