Compatible ink (or compatible toner) is manufactured by third party manufacturers and is designed to work in designated printers without infringing on patents of printer manufacturers. Compatible inks and toners may come in a variety of packaging including sealed plastic wraps or taped plastic wraps. Regardless of packaging, compatible products are generally priced lower than
original equipment manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
(OEM) brand inks and toners.
While there has been considerable debate and litigation involving the
ink
Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...
and
toner
Toner is a powder mixture used in laser printers and photocopiers to form the printed text and images on paper, in general through a toner cartridge. Mostly granulated plastic, early mixtures only added carbon powder and iron oxide, however, ...
patents of printer manufacturers, third party manufacturers continue to thrive. Manufacturers of compatible ink and toner products currently control about 25% the ink and toner market well over $8 Billion annually.
Types
Compatible ink is manufactured for several types of machines including
fax machine
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
s,
laser printer
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to d ...
s,
inkjet printer
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...
s,
multifunction printer
An MFP (multi-function product/printer/peripheral), multi-functional, all-in-one (AIO), or multi-function device (MFD), is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a ...
s, and
copier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...
s. Aside from compatible products, three other sources of consumables are also available to supply these machines, including OEM brand ink and toner,
remanufactured toner and
ink cartridge
An ink cartridge or inkjet cartridge is a component of an inkjet printer that contains the ink that is deposited onto paper during printing.
Each ink cartridge contains one or more ink reservoirs; certain producers also add electronic contacts ...
s, and
refilled ink and
toner cartridges. Compatible ink manufacturers differentiate their product by using all new parts, whereas other ink replacements recycle used OEM parts. Compatible ink and toner products tend to offer greater value than original, genuine OEM ink and toner cartridges. Reducing cost for the end user, ink and toner manufactured by third party manufacturers is classified as compatible when consisting of new parts for a third party printer.
Comparison of performance, quality and reliability
The performance of a printer cartridge needs to be measured by parameters like:
* mechanism of printing (toner and ink-jet) which impacts the resolution and print-rate,
* print quality, the percentage of useful pages (standard required e.g. business use) printed by the cartridge.
* page yield (number of pages printed per cartridge)
* printer compatibility etc.
A comparison between OEM and compatible cartridges for a specific printer needs to take into account the above parameters. For example, a remanufactured cartridge may for example be purchased cheaper, but may not print out as many useful pages. Reliability and consistency associated with an OEM cartridge may be more important than price, for example, when printing output for important business.
One independent test in 2004 on using a compatible ink for one type of printer showed little or no difference in quality between the compatible and OEM products.
All types of compatible ink cartridges are different and vary from supplier to supplier. This is due to the type of ink in the printer, the chips (or no chip) on the cartridge and the actual manufacture of the cartridge itself.
In terms of comparisons with suppliers, prices, quality and comparisons with original oem cartridges. This can vary also by manufacturer and printer. Some compatible cartridges will work perfectly in some printers.
See also
*
Vendor lock-in
In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.
The use of open standards and alternative ...
*
Life-cycle assessment
Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the Product lifecycle, life cycle of a commercial product, Process lifecycle, process, or ...
References
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Inks
Printing materials
Competition (economics)