Stinky Ink News

HP and Staples in trouble?

It must have been last April when HP and Staples in the States announced that henceforward Staples would only be stocking HP original ink cartridges, and would dispense with their own brand refilled cartridges. Our immediate thought was that there must have been some deal done because our experience is that our customers like to have choice when it comes to selecting their cartridges.

Well, call me cynical, but the brown stuff seems to be hitting the fan as a Mr Ranjit Bedi of Pacific Palisades, California has filed an Antitrust lawsuit in a US District court in Boston (all nice and local there then!) alleging that the two plaintiffs (HP and Staples) have entered “an illegal agreement between competitors to stop competing” in which HP paid Staples market development funds to stop selling non-HP-branded ink-jet printer cartridges for HP printers. The suit alleges HP paid Staples, the largest U.S. specialty retailer of office supplies, more than $100 million in MDF (Market development Funds) to stop selling lower-priced printer cartridges for HP printers. Nowhere does Mr Bedi explain how he determined the sum of $100M.

HP released a statement denying the claims of the lawsuit. “HP denies that it has engaged in any anticompetitive conduct,” the statement said. “HP is confident, therefore, that after the relevant facts are presented to the judge it will be determined that our business relationship with Staples has been and is entirely proper.”

The suit asks for class-action status and says the actions violated the Sherman Act and Clayton Act, which prohibit noncompetitive behavior. It seeks unspecified money damages and asks the court to stop HP and Staples from engaging in noncompetitive acts. As a non lawyer this means nothing to me, but probably means that someone somewhere is going to make loadsamoney in various courts.

Xerox increases Capacity of Solid Ink Sticks

Xerox has just opened a spanking brand new manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon dedicated to the production of their proprietary Solid Ink Sticks. The plant cost £11.7M ($24M) is 929sqm employs 75 staff and is intended to fulfill demand for an increasing market for their ink sticks.

The Cryola like sticks have been developed over the last five years and allegedly makes colour printing “as affordable as black and white”. With the investment that Xerox has made in the new ink sticks they give a higher page yeild than their earlier counterparts and are said to create 90% less waste than comparable colour laser products.

The factory is designed to supply demand for the latest generation of solid ink printers the Xerox Phaser 8860 and Xerox Phaser 8860MFP (Multi Function Printer) and claim Xerox proves that their success in solid ink is really just getting started.

Epson Inks: What You Need To Know

 

Ink makes all the difference when it comes to choosing a printer. The types of inks used by the company can make a big impact on the quality of the print results and the oerall cost of running the machine. If you’re considering buying an Epson printer, here’s an overview of the ink options you’ll have.

 

Dye Inks vs. Pigment Inks

 

In order to understand the benefits of various Epson inks, it’s important to know the difference between two basic ink types: dye and pigment.

 

Dye inks saturate the surface of the paper they’re printed on. This can be good and bad. Good, because the ink sinks below the surface of the paper, presenting a smoother surface for light to reflect off. This makes colors generally sharper and clearer. Bad, because dye inks are more vulnerable to bleeding if they come in contact with water. Dye inks also typically don’t fare as well as pigment inks when exposed to light and gas; they tend to fade more quickly.

 

Pigment inks are more long-lasting when exposed to light and gas, and they are resistant to bleeding when in contact with water. Pigment ink particles typically rest on top of the paper, rather than sinking in. This makes for a rougher surface, causing the light to be scattered and colors to be less brilliant and sharp.

 

Epson has come a long way in developing technology that makes pigment ink colors much sharper—and dye inks less likely to bleed.

 

Types of Dye-Based Epson Inks

 

Four-color ink. Epson’s typical four-color dye inks are designed for general-purpose home printing. They are resistant to smudging in contact with water, if they’re printed on Epson’s glossy paper.

 

Claria. Claria ink is Epson’s photographic dye ink. It’s designed to be used with the company’s high-gloss photo paper in photo printers, including the Epson Stylus RX560, the R265, and the R360.

 

Claria ink has a richer and deeper color range than the company’s other dye inks, and the photos printed with this ink have sharper colors even than traditional photo lab prints. For a dye-based ink, Claria is also remarkably resistant to bleeding when in contact with water, as well as fading in contact with gas or light. The inks come in six color cartridges, rather than four.

 

Epson’s Pigment Inks

 

UltraChrome. Epson developed UltraChrome as a replacement for its older Archival Colorfast ink. UltraChrome is generally used in professional printers, and it’s designed to produce particularly sharp images and colors.

 

Epson’s UltraChrome ink pigments are about twice as dense as Epson’s other ink lines, which gives the printer the ability to express a wider range of colors and shades. Since these are pigment-based inks that are not water soluble, they tend to be very resistant to smearing when the page gets damp. UltraChrome is also resistant to light and gas exposure, and tends not to fade as much as other inks with the passage of time.

 

UltraChrome is often used for signage, professional graphic art printing, and photography printing. It’s also an excellent choice for archival ink; depending on the paper it’s printed on, this ink can have a display life of over 75 years. This ink prints on any quality paper, including high-gloss.

 

DURAbrite. DURAbrite inks are pigmented inks generally used for small office and home office printers. This is a durable ink that will produce professional-looking results even on plain white paper, but it can also print well on photo-quality paper.

 

DURAbrite ink cartridges produce smaller droplets than other ink lines, resulting in finer and sharper image quality. Unlike other pigment dyes, DURAbrite is designed to penetrate near the surface of the paper. The surface presented to light is smoother and more reflective, which also improves the quality of the image.

 

Like other pigment inks, DURAbrite won’t bleed when in contact with water. Although it does penetrate the paper near the surface, the ink does not become absorbed by individiual paper fibers and is less likely to bleed. DURAbrite prints on plain, matte, and some gloss papers.

 

Epson sells a wide range of printers for both business and home use. The type of ink a printer uses, however, can make as much difference in your costs and result as the printer itself. Consider inks when choosing a printer, and you’ll be more likely to get the results you’re looking for.

From Cameras to Ink: The History of Canon

 

The company we know today as Canon was first founded in 1933, as a small streetside shop called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. The founders, Goro Yoshida and Saburo Uchida, started the company in order to produce a 35-millimetre rangefinder camera.

 

The first camera the company developed went by the name “Kwanon,” after a Buddhist Bodhisattva. Although three versions of this camera were marketed and as many as ten were said to be in production, none were ever sold on a large commercial scale.

 

Although Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory had developed a camera, it had failed to develop a lens. The company decided to partner with Japan Optical Industries—the company we now know as Nikon. This company had developed a camera lens under the name “Nikkor.” In 1936, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory released its first camera to the commercial market: the Hansa Canon.

 

The Hansa Canon was only the beginning. In 1939, the company began producing its own lenses in-house. A year later, the Japanese army approached several manufacturing companies with a request to produce an X-ray camera. These companies in turn came to Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory with the request. Toward the end of the year, the company produced the first X-ray cameras.

 

In 1945, the company was disbanded briefly after the end of World War II, after part of its facilities were destroyed by fire. When Allied forces came to occupy Japan, the company’s president, Takeshi Mitarai, noticed they showed an interest in Japanese cameras. He made the decision to reopen the company to cater to these interests, inviting back workers who had been let go when the plant closed.

 

In 1947, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory changed its name to Canon Camera Company. The name was more appealing than the previous one had been to the occupying allied forces, and the script used in Japanese to write the new name was a style that other companies of the time never used—so the name stood out among its competitors and in the Japanese stock exchange.

 

Canon’s company may have begun with cameras, but it eventually expanded into other markets. In 1982, the company introduced its first personal copying machines to the market. Later, in 1987, the company introduced color copying machines. Technology improved further over the years as the company developed inkjet and laser printers and the world’s first ferroelectric liquid crystal display (FLCD).

 

Today, Canon is well known for its line of cameras, computer printers, and other electronics for home use. However, the company also offers business products such as analog and digital copiers, scanners, and all-in-one machines—and these make a significant amount of the company’s revenue. Canon has also developed a line of flat-panel televisions in partnership with Toshiba, under the name SED, Inc.

 

Among Canon’s product lines, the ImageRUNNER series is worth mentioning. This office-sized copier is designed to be environmentally conscious. It warms up in just sixteen seconds, saving energy as well as time. The products in this line also conform to European laws that demand the reduction of lead and other environmentally damaging substances used in manufacturing.

 

Canon’s ImageDirect printer series was also groundbreaking. These Inkjet printers allow users to print directly from their cameras without going through a computer. The printers use photo-quality paper and ink to produce prints that look like snapshots.

 

Canon’s printers are primarily Inkjet, and the company produces a wide range of models from compact desktop printers to all-in-one printers, scanners and copiers. Canon is generally known to sell a high-quality product. However, the print head in a Canon printer is often mounted directly onto the ink cartridge—meaning users must change the ink cartridges if they need to change the print head. In addition, many of Canon’s printers use ink cartridge configurations that are not compatible with other Canon printers; some machines use all-in-one ink cartridges, while others require separate black, cyan, blue and magenta cartridges.

 

Canon is one of the groundbreaking companies that can be credited with the development and improvement of printer technology throughout the years. The company has come a long way since its beginning, and it’s one of the oldest printer and electronics companies still in business today.

The History of Epson Printers

 

Today, we know Epson as a company that makes printers, computers, scanners, televisions, and other home and office electronics. But the company started as a subsidiary of Seiko, a watch manufacturer.

 

Seiko itself was opened only about thirty years after Commodore Perry, a diplomat from the U.S. Navy, was sent to Japan on a mission to negotiate with the country to open its doors to Western trade. Prior to Perry’s visit, Japan had been ruled for 250 years by a Shogun family who did not allow the country to participate in foreign trade.

 

After Perry successfully opened Japan to Western trade, many Japanese companies were founded—including Seiko, originally established as a wall clock manufacturer in 1892. The founder, Kintaro Hattori, was a Japanese entrepreneur who started his company with only ten employees.

 

The company we know as Epson was founded in 1961 under the name Shinshu Seiki—or Seiki Precision Manufacturing Company, in English. Its role was to provide precision parts for Seiko watches.

 

In 1964, Epson won a contract to make precision timers for the Olympic Games. The timers required electronic printers in order to print out the results of their timekeeping during the games. The company started development of the EP-101, a small printer that was built into calculators.

 

In 1975, the company introduced a new version of the EP printer to the market. According to company lore, the printer was nicknamed “Son of EP” after the first version of the printer, which had hit the market in 1968. “Son of EP” became “Epson.” Later that year, the company opened a branch in America under the name Epson America, Inc.

 

Epson began developing and selling dot-matrix printers to the American market soon after. One of their earliest printers, the TX-80, served as a printer for the Commodore PET, one of the world’s first personal computers. A later version, the MX-80, was released in 1980 and quickly became one of the country’s best-selling printers.

 

In 1982, Epson began to expand into manufacturing personal computers. It produced what is now recognized as the first laptop, the Epson HX-20. This computer included a built-in printer and a microcassette drive for data storage. It was around this time that the company changed its name to Epson Corporation.

 

In 1993, the company released its first Inkjet printer. Their printer, the Epson MJ-500, included piezoelectric crystal technology. In these printers, piezoelectric material is located within a chamber that also includes ink. Piezoelectric material is a substance—usually a ceramic or crystal—that generates an electric potential when physical stress is applied to it. Within an Inkjet printer, a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric material within the ink cartridge, causing it to change shape or size. This forces some of the ink in the chamber out of the nozzle.

 

Epson didn’t go public on the Japanese stock exchange until June of 2003. When it did, the Hattori family—the founders of Epson, as well as Seiko Holdings and Seiko Instruments—retained a major share of the company. As of 2007, the family still retains the majority of control over Epson.

 

Throughout its existence, Epson has achieved many “firsts,” as well as receiving other recognitions in its industry. In addition to manufacturing the first laptop computer, Epson’s MX-80 printer established the industry standard for dot-matrix printers in the American market during the 80’s. The company was the first to produce low-energy liquid-crystal displays, which are now used in everything from watch displays to computer screens.

 

In 1988, Epson was the first company to manufacture a printer completely by automation. Ten years later, Epson’s Stylus Color 800 Inkjet printer was chosen by NASA to be used during their STS-95 research mission, with astronauts in orbit around the earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery. In 1999, the Epson Stylus Color 900 won recognition as the world’s fastest Inkjet printer in its class.

 

From a small clock and watchmaker over a hundred years ago to a worldwide company that employs thousands today, Epson has grown to be one of its industry’s primary innovators. With its strong track record, it’s likely that the company will continue to be an important influence on its industry well into the 21^st century.