Stinky Ink News

Epson are launching two new workhorse inkjet printers aimed fairly and squarely at the Colour Laserjet marketplace (until now dominated by HP) and also taking a slice of the market that HP have carved out with their Officejet Pro K5400 Series of inkjet printers.

The Epson Business Inkjet B-300 and Epson Business inkjet B-500DN are available now and are optimised for high volume plain paper and colour printing.  These printers come with a brand new range in inkjet cartridges which utilise Epson’s DURABrite™ Ultra ink .  DURABrite™ Ultra ink has an exclusive technology where each pigment particle is coated in resin. This makes the ink water -, smudge -, and fade resistant on all paper types, for beautiful, durable results.  High Yield cartridges which give up to 7,000 pages from one cartridge ensure that your running costs are really reasonable and an advertised print speed of up to 37 Pages Per Minute in Draft mode.  The B-500DN comes with Duplexing and Network support built in and is designed fairly and squarely to punch colour lasers on the nose with:

• Instant Start Up
• No Noise
• No Ozone
• No dangerous particulates

Ink cartridges are now available from stock at Stinkyink

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We have just taken delivery of refilled ink cartridges equivalent to the HP 350XL and HP351XL cartridges.  These cartridges both contain 15ml of high quality ink and will work in all applications which take the originals.

Compatibility List:

• HP Deskjet D4260 Colour Inkjet Printer
• HP Officejet J5780 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier
• HP Officejet J5785 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier
• HP Officejet J6410 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier
• HP Photosmart C4280 All-in-One Printer
• HP Photosmart C5280 All-in-One Printer
• HP Photosmart D5360  Printer

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  Hewlett-Packard has just launched some good value multi function printers. These are the successors to the CM1015/1017, are available in 2 versions and are already on the market.

This printer is aimed above all at private users and small offices, thanks to its low ink and energy consumption. It’s optimal performance is reached when less than 1500 pages are printed per month. One new feature is the printer’s ability to automatically chose the optimal description language, meaning that the user does not have to determine beforehand whether the print job should be sent in PDL or in raster description.

This should prove advantageous for colour printing. The print speed is not very high – around 12 pages per minute in black and white, and 8 in colour at a 600 x 600 dpi resolution. Photocopies can be enlarged or reduced from 25 – 400%, and the scanner functions at a 1200dpi resolution.

The standard model, the Laserjet CM1312 MFP is 437 x 453 x 408mm, weighs 20.9kg and has an RRP of around £275. The Laserjet CM1312nfi MFP should cost around £80 more and has some extra features. These include a fax function, automatic document feed, a photo card slot, a colour display panel and a 10/100 Fast Ethernet connection. It is however slightly larger and heavier, measuring 497 x 485 x 470mm and weighing 24.4kg.

We will be reviewing this new printer range shortly, along with a pricing comparison.  HP have also launched new colour cartridges for the printer they are:

CB540A - HP Black Toner Cartridge 2,200 Pages @ 5% Yield

CB541A - HP Cyan Toner Cartridge 1,400 Pages @ 5% Yield

CB542A - HP Yellow Toner Cartridge 1,400 Pages @ 5% Yield

CB543A - HP Magenta Toner Cartridge 1,400 Pages @ 5% Yield

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Do you fancy printing 2,600 A4 pages a minute?.  HP have just revealed their new Inkjet Web Press machine which will do just that.  It will also print up to 30 inches wide.  This will never sit on your desktop, but is targeted at replacing printed pages coming from traditional offset presses.  A traditional offset press takes hours and it’s not possible to print on demand, you have to create a physical plat with an image etched on it, which is then sent to the printer.  With the Inkjet Press platform, hitting the print button sends the image directly to a printer, making high-volume printing more productive by eliminating analogue elements like the plate.

HP is the market leader in the inkjet business and its research is now trickling down into many consumer and enterprise spaces.  Following the launch of their ‘Print 2.0′ last year and their commitment to increase the amount of printing actually produced on HP printers this is a logical progression for them to move to.  HP estimate that in 2009, 53 Trillion documents will be printed, of which 9 percent will be digital and they want some of that.

How about an ink cartridge that can withstand snow and rain, and will last up to 3 years outside?.  I don’t think this will be coming to a Deskjet printer near you in the near future, but HP have just presented their water-based Latex Ink.  The ink is specially formulated to embed in a surface and become part of a media print and will be useful for the large-format media used in billboards and outdoor signs.

The Latex Ink includes a specially  created formula, called latex polymer, that provides the print surface its durability and colour, according the HP.  Water based ink ejected carries the latex polymer and pigment particles to the surface.  The inks are 70 percent water and 30 percent additives and other inks.  Unlaminated outdoor displays using  the ink can last up to three years, while unlaminated in-window displays can last up to five years.  The printer cartridge uses recyclable material and the company has developed new recyclable substrates for the ink to make printing environmentally friendly, HP said.

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HP yesterday reported an upbeat profit report and forecast. As the whole tech sector in the US has been struggling, with even Google seeing a 5% drop in its share price over worries that online advertising would be cut HP’s results were very important for the whole sector because their product spreads across PC’s, Servers, Storage and of course Printing.

They reported a 38 percent profit rise over the period, showing that they were managing very well through a difficult economy due partly to strong sales in overseas markets, which account for moe than two-thirds of total revenue.

Notebook comuters, server computers and software all showed revenue improvement, although the printer division showed some weakeness where consumer usnit sales fell 2 percent, although overall revenue rose in the division.

HP was helped by cost cust and strong sales abroad as US tecnology spending slowed on recession concerns. But HP faces a tougher environment this year as consumers and companies reduce spending on technology hardware and competition with a resurgent Dell, the number two PC maker hots up.

The imaging and printing group, which includes printers and printer supplies had revenue growth of 4 percent, to $7.3 Billion, and an operating margin of 15.7 percent, up from the earlier periods 15.3 percent.

We will be seeing all of the major printer manufactueres reporting during the next few weeks, and I would expect that HP will be strongest amongst them all. Interesting times that we live in!.

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