HP Ink Cartridge
What is an ink cartridge in a printer?:
Ink cartridge refers to the core component used to store printing ink, and is mainly used in the field of inkjet printers. Modern ink cartridges are divided into split and integrated structures. In the former, the nozzle is separated from the ink cartridge, while in the latter, the nozzle is integrated and needs to be replaced as a whole. As a key consumable for printers, its cost often accounts for a large proportion of the total price of the equipment.
1. Concept:
Ink cartridges mainly refer to the parts used in inkjet printers (including inkjet all-in-one machines) to store printing ink and ultimately complete printing.
2. Classification:
Judging from the composition and structure of ink cartridges currently on the market, generally speaking, they can be divided into: split ink cartridges and integrated ink cartridges.
1) What are the integrated ink cartridge:
The integrated ink cartridge integrates the nozzle on the ink cartridge. When the ink is used up and a new ink cartridge is replaced, it means that a new print head is replaced at the same time. Using this kind of ink cartridge can achieve relatively high printing accuracy and ensure print quality. Since the nozzle is replaced with the ink cartridge, the print quality will not be degraded due to wear of the printhead. However, this kind of ink cartridge design structure increases the cost, and the price of such ink cartridges is relatively high. HP and Lexmark products mostly use this type of ink cartridge.
However, in order to save printing costs, for this type of ink cartridge, users often refill the empty ink cartridge with ink themselves after using it up. Generally speaking, as long as the operation is correct, the filled ink will not cause much damage to the nozzle. Even if it doesn’t succeed, what will be scrapped is just an ink cartridge that should have been scrapped in the first place, and generally will not cause harm to the printer. Of course, this type of ink cartridge cannot limit the number of times the user can refill the ink. Generally speaking, after using up the original ink, it can be refilled 3 to 4 times. If you find that the print quality has dropped significantly, it means you need to replace the ink cartridge with a new one.
2) What is a split ink cartridge:
Split ink cartridges refer to products that separate the nozzle and ink cartridge designs. The starting point of this structural design is mainly to reduce printing costs, because this kind of ink cartridge is not integrated in the printing nozzle, and the printing nozzle can continue to be used when the ink cartridge is invalid. It also simplifies the user’s disassembly and assembly process of the ink cartridge and reduces the chance of human damage to the printer. However, this ink cartridge structure also has obvious flaws, that is, the nozzle will not be updated in time. As the printer’s working time increases, the quality of the printer will naturally decline until the nozzle deteriorates.
Most of Epson’s ink cartridges are split-type ink cartridges. In terms of cost, this kind of ink cartridge is lower than the integrated ink cartridge, but this type of ink cartridge does not allow users to fill ink at will.
In split-type ink cartridges, they can be divided into single-color ink cartridges and multi-color ink cartridges according to the color. Single-color ink cartridges mean that each color is packaged independently, and you can replace it with whichever color you use up, without causing waste. Multi-color ink cartridges refer to packaging multiple colors into one ink cartridge. If one color is used up, even if several other colors are available, the entire ink cartridge must be replaced. Obviously, monochrome ink cartridges are more economical.
Epson Printhead
3. Development Trend:
Ink cartridges, from the initial multi-color integration to the later separation of black and color, and finally to the current single-color separation, everything has witnessed the gradual development process of ink cartridges from single to multiple.
The original ink cartridge used a multi-color design, that is, multiple colors were integrated into one ink cartridge. The biggest disadvantage of this ink cartridge is its low ink utilization rate. Since multiple colors exist in one ink cartridge, but due to different color consumption in printing, as long as one color of ink is used up, the entire ink cartridge must be scrapped, even if the other colors in the ink cartridge have not been used up.
Just because one color is used up, the entire ink cartridge needs to be scrapped, which brings more unnecessary investment to the user, because scrapped ink cartridges often contain unused ink of other colors. In order to improve the utilization rate of the ink cartridge, the ink cartridge has gradually transitioned from the original multi-color integrated structure to a separate structure of black ink and color ink.
The main reason for using this kind of ink cartridge combination is that printing black and white documents requires a large amount of black ink to be consumed separately, which leads to the rapid consumption of black ink. Once the black ink is used up, the entire ink cartridge will be scrapped, so stripping out the black ink alone should be considered inevitable in the development of the ink cartridge.
The development of ink cartridges at this stage should be said to have made very positive developments in terms of usage and environmental protection. However, because color ink cartridges are still composed of multiple colors, the rapid consumption of one color will still lead to the scrapping of the entire color ink cartridge. Therefore, further subdividing color ink cartridges into multiple individual ink cartridges seems to be an inevitable trend in the next development of ink cartridges.
This can be seen from the new products of Epson and HP, the two major inkjet printing giants. Epson has abandoned the matching model of black and color ink cartridges used in the past in its new ME series products, replacing it with an ink cartridge matching model of multiple monochrome ink cartridges and color ink cartridges. For example, the entire set of ink cartridges used by Epson ME200 is composed of a total of 4 ink cartridges: T0761 (black)/T0762 (cyan)/T0763 (magenta)/T0764 (yellow).
The same situation also happens to HP. HP’s new products with SPT new printing technology all use multiple single-color ink cartridge designs. This ink cartridge design allows each single-color ink cartridge to be replaced accurately after use, without the need for the entire ink cartridge to be scrapped just because of the replacement of one color. The development of ink cartridges to this current model is in compliance with demand and is an inevitable result of benign development. However, it should be pointed out that although this structural change maximizes the utilization rate of the ink cartridge, it also makes users suffer from high prices in terms of sales price.
The reason why the price of ink cartridges has been further improved does not mean that the individual selling price of ink cartridges has increased. On the contrary, in terms of the selling price of a single ink cartridge, the original ink cartridge has reduced the sales price to varying degrees; but in terms of the overall price, that is, the selling price of a set of ink cartridges, the current set of ink cartridges is much higher than the price of a set of ink cartridges in the past.
4. Cost:
Ink cartridges play a very important role for the entire inkjet printer, especially for some low-end printers, which have reached the price of 2 ink cartridges = 1 printer. Therefore, when purchasing a printer, you must consider the cost of ink cartridges.
Leave A Comment