Recycling Times Magazine English Edition Issue 35 by Recycling Times Media Corporation

Recycling Times Magazine

RecyclingTimes The magazine by the industry, for the industry.

Publisher & Managing Director Tony Lee Directors David Gibbons Sabrina Lo Senior Consulting Editor Art Diamond Editorial Team Doris Huang Doris.Huang@iRecyclingTimes.com Virginia Ruan, Jane Yu, Keon Huang, Wendy Lee Graphic Designers Miracle Wei, Kevin Deng Sales Team Anna Liang Anna.Liang@iRecyclingTimes.com Kevin Zhu, Sally He, Tobee Deng Marketing Team Jessica Yin Jessica.Yin@iRecyclingTimes.com Tracy Zhang Operations Team Charles Lee Charles.Lee@iRecyclingTimes.com Betty Lee, Joy He, Sunny Zhang Regional Offices 6B Xinhai Commercial Building, 104 Yuanlin Road, Jida, Zhuhai 519000, China Tel: +86 (0)756 3220716 / 3919266 Fax: +86 (0)756 3959299 24 Ardley Ave Kellyville, NSW, Australia 530 West Ojai Ave., Suite 108 Ojai, CA 93023-2471, USA Email: info@iRecyclingTimes.com Website: www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Tony Lee

editorial

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

It’s interesting to see the frequency of media exposure Epson is receiving over the future of inkjet printing. First, Daniel Rafferty, Sales Manager of Epson Ireland grabs the headlines. Then Samba Moorthy, Sales & Marketing Director of Epson India gets attention. Both claim inkjet will be the next, new wave of printing in the office market. Even though toner-based laser printers continue to enjoy the lion’s share of the market. For a long time, the office market has been dominated by toner-based printer technology while the home market has mostly been taken by ink. But as the home market shrinks due to the everchanging printing habits of consumers, some OEMs, such as Epson, are striking out to penetrate other territories—including office print—using ink technology. According to Photizo, the combined North American office printer and consumables market alone will generate over $100 billion in revenue in 2013. Can you imagine how big the combined global market’s overall revenue will be? Traditionally, inkjet was the least favorable option for business even though the print quality is high and cost of hardware acquisition is low. As more R&D efforts are invested in improving the technology, some ink-based breakthroughs may rival toner-based technology in speed, cost per page and efficiency. Epson’s Micro Piezo technology, HP’s PageWide technology and Memjet’s printhead technology are good examples. Even HP, which dominates the office market with laser technologies, sees the potential of ink-based printers in the office market. It’s understandable Epson’s Daniel Rafferty and Samba Moorthy are so excited and confident with their technology. But will inkjet inks be the final winner? Have they been too quick to jump to this conclusion? Let’s not forget the ongoing research and development being done by toner-based engineers. What of the emerging LED printers which use existing toner formulations, but can print faster with better clarity than ever before? In the end, the choice will continue to be in the hand of customers. Those who will satisfy the needs of customers best, in terms of speed, clarity, print quality and cost per page will win.

Tony Lee Publisher & Managing Director Front Cover Harish Lalwani and Anil Kishnani: David Gibbons Columnists

RecyclingTimes

David Gibbons Art Diamond Steve Weedon Charles Brewer

February 2013

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Mike Josiah

All rights reserved. © 2013 by Recycling Times Media Corporation. The contents are not be to copied or republished without official written consent. The editorial content does not represent official positions of Recycling Times Media Corporation.

Recycling Times Magazine

contents

The Battle Is Won: But the TonerInk War Is Far From Over

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Traditionally, most businesses have favored laser over inkjet printers, and it’s been tough for inkjet to penetrate this market. But some breakthroughs in technology may change what people think about inkjet!

Just a Minute

Can Aqueous Inkjet Overcome the Dominance of Powder Xerography in the Office Market?

A Golden Opportunity

Money From Home

The Value in Splitting Strategies

Keeping Up

“Consequently, it is unlikely that aqueous inkjet will displace powder xerography to become a major player in the Office market in the near future.” —Dr. Edul N. Dalal, Research Fellow, Xerox Corporation

Price Rise: Will there be more in 2013?

Happy Chinese New Year

Industry Updates

HP and Lexmark, who initiated a price increase on printer consumables in 2012, are taking the same action in 2013. This move might prove to be a windfall to remanufacturers as it could enable them to increase their share of aftermarket sales.

Top Indian Remanufacturers Announced

11 Ninestar Claims Solution for Canon Light Emission Chips 12 Diamond Dispersions Achieves 35% Growth OEM News

Solution Print Is Now Top 3 in Russia

13 Two Trade Events Form Alliance Watchdog Group, Choice, Investigates OEM Ink 14 Aussie Pricing Metrofuser Shares Its Success in 10th Anniversary

Chongqing Becomes World’s Largest Printer Manufacturing

42 Base

Photizo Forecasts Shrinking Global Printer Market, 2012-16 Printer Market Suffered Drastic Decline 43 Malaysian Laser Printer Market to Explode in Thailand Indian Printer Shipments Drop 4.7%

Features The Battle Is Won: But the Toner-Ink War Is Far From Over

15 In the Ink vs Toner Battle: 16 HP’s Breakthrough Is a Major Advance Is the New Laser 19 Inkjet Aqueous Inkjet Overcome the Dominance of Powder 21 Can Xerography in the Office Market? 25 Price Rise… Will There Be More in 2013? Directory

INK JET INK MANUFACTURERS

Actionable Insights

People

Front Cover Story

Finding the Business Model that Works

HP May Be down, but It’s Not Out

5 QUESTIONS

Tech Zone

Remanufacturing the Samsung ML-1860 Toner Cartridge

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Just a Minute David Gibbons

A Golden Opportunity Surely, remanufacturers must be the only people NOT complaining about the recent price hikes in printing cartridges announced by two OEMs. According to Actionable Intelligence, Supplies Network claims HP started charging more for some LaserJet cartridges on 1 February, by as much as 20 percent. At the same time, Lexmark raised prices on nearly its entire inkjet consumables line. It is interesting that the very same two OEMs initiated the 2012’s consumables price increases, setting a trend that caused other OEMs to follow suit by raising their prices too. Actionable Intelligence is asking whether the same thing will happen in 2013. So have you taken a moment to really think about this opportunity? Yes, every time an OEM jacks up the price of a printer cartridge, there is

a golden opportunity to win more business for your company. MSE’s Luke Goldberg continues to preach that remanufacturers should focus on the “blue ocean”: the 70 to 80 percent market share owned by the OEMs, if they want to increase their sales. For most of the last 30 years, he says, remanufacturers have spent their time capturing customers from each other. This has created a “red ocean” market—colored by the blood from fierce price discounting wars between rechargers. At a time when there are budget pressures on businesses and families, consumers will not welcome the prospect of paying more. Have you told these “ripe” prospects they have a choice? Have you advised them there is an alternative? Do they know high quality aftermarket toners and inks are available at

significantly lower cost? Do they know they can be better stewards of the environment by Going Green with a remanufactured product? You cannot assume they do. Or maybe they need to be reminded when confronted with price rises on OEM branded consumables. How quickly can you pull something together? You know your target audience. You know your key message. Surely now is the time to go to market with your key message. In a month’s time they will not be quite as interested as they are right now. An investment of time to contact them could prove to be timely. Better still. Put a strategy into place to make the most of the next round of price hikes. Beat the drum loudly. Let the world know that affordably priced, quality consumables are readily available in the aftermarket. Don’t let this Golden Opportunity pass you by!

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Money From Home Art Diamond

The Value in Splitting Strategies For many years, OEMs fretted over the future for toner vs. ink jet technologies. Will one ultimately dominate the other for digital imaging in the office market space? If so, which will it be? Smart OEMs decided there was no simple answer, so they bet on both horses in this race for office imaging market share. Developments came painfully slow, down through the years. Ink jet printers found lucrative markets elsewhere—in wide format applications, outdoor displays, textile printing for garments, wallpaper, etc., UV cured images, and rapid drying inks based upon a variety of solvents, including high-volatility organic solvents, eco-solvents and biosolvents. But office printers and copier markets remained the province of dry toner-based electrophotography (aka, xerography). Recently, Lexmark and Kodak both backed out of the ink jet printer business although continuing consumables sales to existing customers. At the same time, Memjet introduced its high resolution, low cost, fixed nozzle array printhead and many saw it as a breakthrough for ink jet into the office space. Fortunately for HP, the 331,800 employee giant continued to focus on ink jet technology, applying their innovative R&D efforts to a stationary printhead with a multiplicity of ink jet nozzles, á la Memjet. The result of these efforts

is a new line of inkjet printers HP is calling the OfficeJet Pro X Series. It includes both desktop and multi-function printers. What it does to break into the office printer work group is provide the speed necessary to compete with toner-based machines. HP’s new CEO, 56-year old Margaret “Meg” Whitman, although defeated by Jerry Brown in the latest California gubernatorial election, could emerge as a winner in the ink jet vs. toner race. She could accomplish what her two HP CEO predecessors—Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker— failed to do, that is, pull HP out of its death spiral in which shares dropped from a high of $51.93 under Hurd to its present level just below $16. In addition, she might be credited with breaking the long standing office market barrier to ink jet printers. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times ( Jan. 8, 2013, Pp. B1 & B8) when it was proposed, back in 2011, that HP exit the personal computer (PC) business, Whitman acted decisively. She pulled together a group of 100 employees and split them into two groups, charging one with making the case for keeping the product line, and the other for abandoning it. The results of this debate convinced her to keep the PC business going, whereupon she announced that decision in October 2011. Perhaps this is an example of the management

philosophy that teaches: if you don’t know what to do about a difficult proposition, your best decision is to do nothing. That philosophy might pay off for Ms. Whitman and HP. It took many years and much innovation to perfect the OfficeJet Pro X design and to apply this technology to an affordable device that would appeal to consumers beyond the home and home/office markets. Evidently, that day has come and all eyes are now trained on the performance of this new contender. Meanwhile, dr y toner-based electrophotography has not been dormant. The latest innovation—LED array printers—has come from China via the brain of legendary inventor Dr. Bobo Wang of Aetas Technology. Here, again, is a low cost configuration that creates a latent electrostatic image on an OPC drum using a page-wide array of light emitting diodes. By eliminating the complex, multifaceted, spinning mirror, the LED array keeps costs and service interventions down. With both of these low cost, high-speed ink jet and toner-based printers entering the market in 2013, we are back to the same question: Which strategy will dominate? Ink jet or toner? Once again, it’s a tough call. But, I suspect there might be another split here, with the consumer leaning toward ink jet for color printing and toner for monochrome. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Keeping Up Steve Weedon

Happy Chinese New Year It’s that time again when 1.4 billion Chinese people welcome in the Chinese New Year. Today the spring festival actually is celebrated in many areas of the world by immigrant Chinese and watched by millions of fascinated non-Chinese onlookers. San Francisco California claims its Chinese New Year’s parade is the biggest of its kind outside China, a traditional event that has gone on since the gold rush days of the 1860’s. Now I am not Chinese and do not celebrate it of course, but it has become an important diary entry for any businessman. In just a few years it seems business people in the West have gone from being completely ignorant about the Chinese New Year to being fully conversant with it. Why? Because, it seriously affects the running of their business. This year the festival is celebrated from the 9th to the 24th of February and it’s time for the most important festival in the Chinese calendar. More importantly, (for those doing business with China) work stops. The Chinese calendar is complex. Its parameters were set according to the lunar phases as well as the solar solstices and equinoxes. Yin and Yang, the opposing but complimentary principles that make up a harmonious world also rule the calendar as did the Chinese zodiac, the twelve stations of the suns path across the cosmos. Each New Year is marked by the characteristic of one of the zodiacal animals. The: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit,

dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. This year is the year of the Snake. Now everyone knows when the Chinese New Year starts and ends and plans its orders and deliveries accordingly. It could have all been so different. Zheng He, a famed Chinese eunuch admiral, set sail from China and found the Americas in 1421, more than 70 years before Christopher Columbus, says author Gavin Menzies in his book 1421. This little known “fact’ lost its place in the history books because of a change of dynasty, while he was away, from a progressive to repressive period in Chinese history. In fact after the voyage, Menzies claims travel outside China was banned for 150 years and all the records of the historic expeditions led by Zheng He were burned. It took the return of Christopher Columbus from his first voyage to the Americas in 1493 to report to his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, that the world was indeed round and not flat as everyone in Europe had thought at the time. A fact that the Chinese had presumably known for at least 70 years, but did not tell anyone! Globalization started with these early voyages that opened up the trade routes from the Far East to Far West. Thomas L Friedman declared The World is Flat, 512 years later, in 2005. His bestselling book looks at globalization and a level playing field in terms of commerce, where

all competitors have an equal opportunity for all markets. Since 1979, Chinese reforms have offered its labor force and manufacturing prowess to overseas buyers and amassed a foreign exchange reserve in excess of $3 trillion. So China has seen massive economic expansion and plays the globalization commerce game today better than any other nation on earth. And they have done so very quickly. Had Zheng He’s voyages inspired the progressives to colonize the Americas, the world would have indeed been a very different place today. In commerce particularly where we all trade internationally and easily across country boarders and in multiple currencies we factor many things on our calendar, into our fiscal planning. We factor when the biggest festivals take place that often mean national holidays or personal travel for our customers and our suppliers. And factories close. Christmas, New Year, Easter, Ramadan, Madi Gras, Eid, Passover, Yom Kippur, Buddha Purnima and now importantly Chinese New Year. So much is exported from China to markets all around the world today; the impact of the Chinese New Year on its overseas customers is immense. So, it’s little wonder today the Chinese New Year is marked on everyone’s calendar and becomes a new target to get things done. Happy New Year to all!

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Industry Updates

Top Indian Remanufacturers Announced The best local printer consumables remanufacturers were awarded in the third Indian Imaging Solution Award Night at which Static Control won two prizes as an international brand. The Imaging Solution Award Night has been held for three consecutive years by NCN Imagine Solution, a leading Indian magazine ser ving the imaging industr y. Aimed at recognizing the industry’s top players, the show presented nearly 40 awards to winners in different categories. The latest event was held on December 14, 2012. Three major awards were given to players, namely the Top Refiller Awards, the Special Award and the Editor’s Choice Award. Mr. Abhishek from MGM Computers, Kolkata from AVO Electro Control Systems Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Sailu Mehta from HEM Enterprise, Mr. Sanjeev Ahluwalia from ASTERISK Electronics Pvt.Ltd and Mr. Pradeep Koshy from Cartridgeshoppee were given the Top Refillers Awards. Static Control received two honors in the Special Awards category as an international brand. The leading printer components manufacturer was recognized as the Most Trusted Company and Best New Product maker. Local remanufacturing leader ProDot also won two honors, as the Best Cartridge Remanufacturing Company and the Best Indian Brand jointly with JetTec. The other major award featured the Editor’s Choice, as the outstanding remanufacturers were nominated from different areas of the industry. The complete list of winners is shown on the right table.

Award

Company

Leading Toner Manufacturer

Indian Toners and Developers Ltd.

Quality Leader Award (International)

CMK Imaging

Best Indian Distributor

JetTec

Best Customer Support:

Indigo

Best Solution Provider (India)

Jet Cartridge

Lifetime Achievement Award (India)

Mr. Sharad Midha, Sumanglam International

Young Generation Awards

Mr. Nikhil Dubaria and Ms. Barkha Mittal

Best Indian Entrepreneur in the Remanufacturing industry

Mrs Rachna Agarwal from Tonerline Limited

Best New Product (International)

Static Control Components, Inc.

Best Indian Brand

ProDot & JetTec

Best Emerging Company (International)

Uninet

Best New Product (International)

Static Control

Value for money brand from India

Image King.

Most Preferred Ink

Lyson Ink

Most Trusted Indian Brand

Odyssey

Best Printer Spare Parts Supplier

Multi Info Media

Best Technological Innovation Brand

Aryan

Most preferred Indian Suppliers to OEMs

Lipap System Pvt. Ltd.

Best Valuable Brand

Blue Streak

Best Quality Ink Provider

Inktec

The Perfect Image Brand

Spink

Diverse Printer Solution Providers

Delco

Best Chip Technical Support Provider

Patel Traders

Leading Player in Indian Signage Industry

Rational Business Corp.

Young Entrepreneur

Ms.Tanya Goel, Aryan

Most Reliable Manufacturer & Supplier of Dot Matrix Printer Cartridges

Royal Trading Co.

Best Large Format Printer Solution Providers

Tanaya Enterprises

Best Eco Friendly Indian Brand

Print IT

Best Refilling support provider

Refill World

Most Desirable Indian Brand

Techno Imaging

New Arrival Brand

Discover Imaging www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Industry Updates

Diamond Dispersions Achieves 35% Growth

Ninestar Claims Solution for Canon Light Emission Chips Ninestar, claims it is the first aftermarket company to provide its own patented solution for the light emission chip used in Canon inkjet printers. According to the Chinese-based company, Canon is not only focusing on growing its inkjet business, but also protecting its technology by pursuing those aftermarket suppliers who infringe its patents. More recently they have had wins in Japan. Ninestar predicts Canon will pursue further litigation in the European market. As a leading aftermarket printer cartridge supplier, Ninestar says it moved quickly to be the first to have an alternative solution for the inkjet printer microchip, registering patents in China under number CN201110459870.1 and CN201110460180.8. Ninestar says Canon’s patent is described as “the emission of light based on colour information stored in the chip. The chip data needs the colour ID in order for the printer to operate”. But Ninestar says their patent has an “independent” emission of light that “is irrelevant to colour ID”. Because Ninestar respects the intellectual property of others, they saw the potential patent conflict back in 2011 and started work immediately to find the solution. Inkjet cartridges containing the chip are now available.

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Diamond Dispersions has achieved record sales during the months of November and December 2012. The Sheffield, UK-based ink specialists, founded in 2007 by Peter Callahan and Sue Wright, delivered a 35% year-overyear growth following a significant increase in demand for their dispersions in the global market for dye sublimation printing. Commenting on the results, Director Sue Wright said: “All of our products are created to the very highest standards to ensure unrivalled quality. The Diamond Dispersions brand has gradually become synonymous with quality—we believe it’s been key to our increasing success”. “It’s taken a huge amount of hard work, time and investment to get to this stage but we believe we have developed the very best dye sublimation inks in the world. We’re working with even more OEMs and, after

three years of building business in South America and the Far East, we’re experiencing particular growth from customers in Brazil and South Korea.” Concludes Sue, “Our pigments are also selling well and, again, its customers who are seeking a quality product that are specifying our pigment dispersions. But our biggest growth has undoubtedly come from dye sublimation and it’s this area of the business that we’ll continue to expand on in 2013.”

Solution Print Is Now Top 3 in Russia Solution Print, a Russian remanufacturer, reports a 57% sales growth in 2012 compared to 2011, which makes it one of the Top 3 imaging consumable suppliers in the country. According to its press release, 2012 was an important year for Solution Print with the outstanding growth having a positive impact on the overall profitability of the company. Solution Print continued reinforcing its position in the regional markets of the country by increasing its market share. As a result of its efforts, it entered the elite group of the Top 3 suppliers of compatible printing supplies in Russia. Sales of laser printer consumables for Solution Print have increased 25%. Many new products were introduced, which became popular with its customers. At the same time, Solution Print continued working on improving its remanufacturing processes,

establishing unique quality standards. Solution Print is now one of the largest suppliers of compatible consumables in the Russian market. The key strategy of the company is conscientiousness and professionalism in work with its partners. Solution Print represents repair, remanufacture and re-use of equipment by world famous manufacturers. The high quality of its production among territories of the Russian Federation, gives it the opportunity to support long-term cooperation with other market leaders.

Recycling Times Magazine

Industry Updates

Two Trade Events Form Alliance Details: Two different premier events, in different parts of the world, will work side-byside in 2013. Organisers of RemaxAsia, the largest printer supplies trade show in the world have signed an agreement with the organisers of ITEX, the premier office market and IT services trade show. Recycling Times Media will be the sole agency and strategic media partner in promoting ITEX 2013 into greater China. Similarly, the Questex Group will promote RemaxAsia to north America. RemaxAsia—which runs jointly in October with iPrint Expo, the premier digital print show, in Zhuhai, China—will enjoy the side-by-side cooperation with ITEX, which will be held in April in Las Vegas. “We are delighted with the agreement,”said Tony Lee, Managing Director of Recycling Times Media which is based in Zhuhai, China. “The China-based shows and the US-based show will

enjoy a higher global profile through our joint resources. More exhibitors and more visitors make better events. It’s a win-win-win formula for exhibitors, visitors and organisers.” Experienced and customer friendly teams in both China and the US will provide potential exhibitors with support to get the added exposure they need to be successful in 2013. Wendy Loew, Event Director for the Questex Group which operates ITEX says her conference and show plans are now on the website. “We are already seeing a great buzz around the show with our new look, conference program, and new show features for 2013.” ITEX Conference (16 April, 2013) and ITEX Show (17-18 April 2013) which will be held at the Rio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, will showcase all aspects of the evolving office market and the growing influence of Managed IT services. In 2012, 127 exhibitors and 2,255 unique visitors attended ITEX. They are expecting thousands

of attendees to learn more about cutting-edge technologies through education and networking opportunities in 2013 RemaxAsia and iPrint conferences (16 October, 2013) and shows (17-19 October, 2013) will be held again at the Zhuhai Airshow Centre.

RemaxAsia 2013 RemaxAsia

16-19 October iRecyclingTimes.com

Conference 16th

Show 17-19th

iPrint Expo 2013 EXPO

iPRINT

16-19 October www.iPrintexpo.com

Conference 16th

Show 17-19th

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Industry Updates

Aussie Watchdog Group, Choice, Investigates OEM Ink Pricing Choice, the Australian consumer watchdog group says that inkjet printer ink is the most expensive liquid on the planet and suggests the government investigate OEM pricing policy. According to Choice, consumers must pay $3,000 per liter to buy yellow HP ink, which is even more expensive than Chanel No.5 perfume at $2,250 per liter!

Choice spokesperson Ingrid Just says the price of printer inks is “notoriously high” and is “one of the most expensive liquids on the planet” on a per-liter basis. Australian consumers are paying $2,000 over a three year period for ink or toner, so says the Choice report. In addition, consumers have no clue as to the cost per page. Many consumers,

as a result, are forced to buy aftermarket inks, which are cheaper but vary in quality. Choice suggests that an investigation by the government will help improve the situation. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in reply, says that high prices alone are unlikely to raise consumer concerns under the Australian consumer law.

Metrofuser Shares Its Success in 10th Anniversary On the occasion of its 10th Anniversary celebration, Metrofuser, a Roselle, New Jersey based remanufacturer and distributor of printer consumables, shared its pathway to success. Started in 2003, Metrofuser was a printer parts supplier for HP laser devices. The company expanded its business to include products for Lexmark printers while also offering training classes for printer repair. Looking back, Metrofuser says the company has been able to sustain growth despite an

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

uncertain and often difficult economic climate. In 2010, the company began remanufacturing HP laser printers and multi-function devices, which put Metrofuser into a rapid expansion mode. The company says years of experience have helped it develop, emphasizing the important role that maintaining customer relationships played in this growth. “The two most important forces in our rapid development,” said Chief Operating Officer Will Demuth, “have been a superior team of

professionals who care about keeping our customers happy and a maniacal obsession with improving and perfecting our quality. Many of our employees have been here for years, enabling us to create a core group of experienced technicians and managers whose dedication has allowed us to evolve and advance.”

Recycling Times Magazine

Features

The Battle Is Won: But the Toner-Ink War Is Far From Over Ever since Lexmark and Kodak announced their exit strategies from the inkjet sector, rumors about the demise of inkjet printing have been circulated. However, some industry players have recently told Recycling Times such claims are a dramatic overstatement and premature. It’s true the advent of mobile devices and social media has changed the way people print, causing an overall decline in printing—particularly in homes—as reflected in the sales of inkjet hardware and supplies. But they claim inkjet is actually gaining some traction in the office market, and could have a very promising future. According to InfoTrends' Zac Butcher, Director of Digital Peripherals Solutions Consulting Service Europe, “We sees a bright future for business inkjet in the office environment, this is largely dependent on vendors identifying and addressing the most important market needs. To fully capitalize on the expected growth of the business inkjet market, vendors will need to ensure their product development efforts, subsequent sales and marketing execution, resonate with business customers around the world.” Traditionally, most businesses have favored laser over inkjet printers, and it’s been tough for inkjet to penetrate this market. But some breakthroughs in technology may change what people think about inkjet…. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Features

In the Ink vs Toner Battle HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Breakthrough Is a Major Advance Dr. Ray A. Work III, President, Work Associates, Inc. Speed is Critical The battle continues, among manufacturers of digital printers, for the home/office and office work group customers. While ink jet has taken much of the economical home and home/ office market with its very low prices, the office work group market has remained principally the purview of toner technology. Attempts to penetrate this market by ink jet printer manufacturers have not succeeded in taking a significant market share. The key advantage of toner over ink jet has been the fact that ink jet required scanning printhead technology for drop placement while toner-based electrophotography utilizes full-width developer rollers and brushes to create the digital image. This translates into higher speed and speed is critical for work group printers.

from the consumers. This has led to a robust recharging and refilling business. Inherently, the manufacturing cost of ink is less than that of toner based on raw materials cost and manufacturing complexities, however because ink jet cartridges for the most popular printers include a print engine integrated with the ink supply tank, they are provided at a higher cost per print versus toner. The move to decouple the printhead from the ink supply by most manufacturers in work group printers has dramatically lowered the cost per copy. Aftermarket suppliers have further helped ink jet compete in the cost per copy and total cost of ownership battle by offering alternative ink options. But, the one thing that has been missing to enable ink jet to successfully compete continues to be speed.

Cost: Toner vs Ink Both ink jet- and toner-based printer makers have succeeded in lowering the price of the hardware to their customers even though the cost of manufacture clearly favors ink jet. The high cost of the consumable ink or toner cartridge has continued to draw complaints

Breakthrough at Hewlett Packard Finally, a breakthrough in printer speed! The world leader in ink jet technology has developed a commercial product which provides the desired speed capability. Using its proprietary page-wide Technology, Hewlett-Packard recently announced its Officejet Pro X Series of desktop

and multifunction printers. HP claims they deliver twice the speed at up to half the printing cost compared with color laser printers. They print up to 70 pages per minute in general office quality mode and a page for page cost savings of up to 50% over color laser printers! For years now we have seen technology demos at trade shows showing PageWide ink jet arrays in prototype equipment but this is the first "no compromise" product introduction. Other array demos, particularly by Memjet and their printer partners, have shown the speed, but have failed to show how they can successfully deal with nozzle-outs and misdirected drops, or to provide reliable pigmented inks comparable in performance with toners. HP has done this. How HP Solved the Problems HP provided a stationary, four color printhead that spans the width of a page utilizing 42,240 nozzles at 1,200 nozzle-per-inch native resolution! This provides the high print quality. They control the straight through paper path for dependable print quality and reliable operation. This is all well and good, but what about misdirected nozzles and nozzle-outs? These are

HP Officejet Pro X serious print up to 70 ppm in general office quality mode and save page cost up to 50% over color laser printers.

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Features one of the main killers which have prevented the adoption of fixed array printing in ink jet. Paper is dirty and debris will be generated and foul the printhead. HP overcame this problem by developed an automatic nozzle health sensing system with active and passive nozzle substitution and automatic printhead servicing. So the printer senses bad nozzles on the fly and corrects for them by making the defects undetectable in the final print. It is a very sophisticated set of real time sensing and compensating actions. Upgrading Office Papers Since 1987, HP has been a leader, with their technology partners, in developing pigmented ink jet inks which are not only reliable but interact with one another and with the paper to optimize image performance. To equal the performance of toner on office imaging papers that have been redesigned over the years as optimum substrates for electrophotographic (EP) printing, HP has developed a chemistry

HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ColorLok Technology holds ink layer on paper.

incorporated in the paper making process to help achieve the best possible performance of their pigmented inks on office imaging papers. Tradenamed ColorLok Technology, it provides an optimized paper surface for HP's pigmented inks used in the Officejet Pro X series of printers. While regular office papers will work well, those which include ColorLok Technology deliver the optimum performance and reliability. For the best print quality, the highest image density and the most economical use of ink, the pigment must be held up on the surface of the paper as it is with the EP process. Also, the color-to-color bleed performance must be

optimized. ColorLok, along with HP pigmented inks, achieves these goals. Conclusions Finally, an ink jet printer manufacturer has provided for the office market a competitive ink jet product solution. Here we have seen the final issues addressed for ink jet to compete successfully with toner in this market space. After speaking with one customer who has been using a prototype of this Officejet Pro X printer for 8 months now, I believe the breakthrough is real and will prove to be a major step forward for inkjet in the office printing market.

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

MY Features VIEW

Recycling Times Magazine

Inkjet Is the New Laser

Printware Rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated! — Mark Twain The same could be said of the inkjet printer. The consumer market is dwindling as images are increasingly shared digitally via social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. However, the business inkjet market appears to be in rude health and there are now genuine alternatives to the office laser printer. For years we’ve been telling customers to buy an inkjet printer if they want high quality and only print small volumes. If you print larger volumes and don't need lab-quality photos, then go for a laser. Not any more! Inkjet vs Laser On the face of it, inkjet printers have many advantages over lasers already; they’re smaller, lighter, cheaper to buy and using less energy. Oh, and the image quality is far superior. The one main reason for buying a laser printer was the duty cycle – inkjet printers are just too fragile to handle a heavy workload. Even the hotly anticipated HP OfficeJet Pro X only has a duty cycle of 4,000 pages per month. That’s not much at all and even less when you realize that it’s a maximum figure, under ideal conditions. By contrast, Epson’s WorkForce Pro WP-4515DN multifunction printer has a duty cycle of 20,000 pages – five times that of the HP printer. Recommended monthly volume, a far more useful gauge of a printer’s capabilities, is up to 1,600 pages – higher than the Brother DCP-9010CN. Running Costs Another reason for shunning inkjet printers in the past has always been running costs – inkjets are notoriously expensive to run if you’re doing a lot of printing and the costs aren’t as transparent as they are with lasers. However,

the WorkForce Pro printers can be up to 50% cheaper to run than a comparable laser printer. No, we didn’t believe it at first either but Epson has ver y helpfully included a cost calculator on its website, which shows how much you can save over the lifetime of the printer, based on how much you print. You can compare any printer from the Epson WorkForce Pro range with printers in similar price and speed laser and you might just be surprised at how much you can save. If watching the pennies is important to you, you’ll be pleased to know that the WorkForce Pros use up to 80% less energy than comparable laser printers. Less energy consumption means lower carbon emissions, which is good news for the planet too. Summary What does all this mean for the printer market? Consumers and businesses are increasingly aware of costs in this difficult financial climate and, as responsible citizens, most of us are taking steps to minimise our environmental impact. This being the case, why wouldn't you choose a product that costs less and uses less energy? Laser printers are likely to remain the device of choice for enterprise-level companies, at least for the time being, as they offer more advanced features, including in-house finishing options. However, business inkjet printers like the WorkForce Pros are an increasingly attractive proposition for small and mediumsized businesses. The availability of WorkForce mono inkjets offers even greater flexibility and potential savings. More information about Printware, please go to: www.printware.co.uk

Daniel Rafferty, Sales Manager of Epson Ireland As demand for greater efficiency continues over the coming 12 months, we're confident that more and more businesses will move to inkjet printers, ditching their laser options, when they realize the compelling cost savings, greater energy efficiency and better quality which inkjet can offer to businesses. Source: www.businessandleadership.com

Jeff Bean, VP of Brand & Communications at Memjet Before Memjet, the printing industr y hadn’t seen a breakthrough innovation for 25 years—since the development of the office laser printer. Over a decade in development, our technologies put more than 70,000 ink nozzles on a single printhead for the delivery of 1600 x 800 dpi color at 60 pages per minute, or 12 inches per second.

Horst-Gerh. Edelmeier, General Manager of OCP GmbH Due to ongoing development, today’s inkjet printers are able to print around 70 ppm, and are able to compete with many laser printers. Apart from its traditional SOHO market, inkjet printing technology is also used in many different applications with different types of equipment and materials. Another important point in favor of inkjet is the environmental benefit of the technology. While an inkjet-based document is printing there is no harmful fine dust emission like you have when printing with a laser printer. Last, but not least, inkjet has irrefutable advantages against laser technology in terms of flexibility and photo-realistic printouts. Let me make it clear: inkjet technology will become the dominant technology.

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Features

Can Aqueous Inkjet Overcome the Dominance of Powder Xerography in the Office Market? Dr. Edul N. Dalal, Research Fellow, Xerox Corporation Introduction Aqueous inkjet is widely used in the Consumer and SOHO (small office/home office) markets, where the choice is made largely on the basis of low equipment cost. These machines typically are sold very inexpensively, often at or below manufacturer's cost, enabled by the high margins made on consumables. Aqueous inkjet has also made significant inroads in the high-volume production market, where advanced technology can be cost-effectively applied. However, it has failed to make much impact in the office market, where powder xerography (also known as electrophotography) has maintained an overwhelming market share. This is particularly true of the high end of the office market, where A3-format machines are common. This segment almost entirely is served by powder xerography technology. While aqueous inkjet photo-printers are capable of very high image quality, they typically have very slow print speed and extremely high run cost, and require specialized substrates. This set of features is not acceptable for applications in office or production markets. Periodically, the dominance of powder xerography in the office market is questioned. In this article, we will look at the intrinsic

characteristics of aqueous inkjet in comparison with those of powder xerography, specifically for the office market. We will also examine how the introduction of a full-width-array (FWA) inkjet printhead might affect the situation. Quality Cheap plain paper is widely used in the office market. Aqueous inks tend to soak into the fibers of plain paper, leading to several image quality issues. As ink penetrates into paper, colors get muted, and color gamut is reduced. Feathering and inter-color bleeding lead to ragged edges and hence to poorer line and text quality. Show-through and soak-through make images visible from the backside of the paper and cause problems for duplex printing. These issues are less pronounced with the newer pigment inks than with dye inks. Paper treatments are also available which can significantly reduce these problems, by binding the colorant near the surface of the paper. These treatments are applied during manufacture, and some of them are quite modest in cost, but they are still somewhat more expensive than plain paper, and restrict the range of papers that can be used. Powder xerography does not have these restrictions, and can better utilize the wide

range of papers available. Over several decades of use in office markets, both xerographic products and available papers have evolved to better suit each other. Wetting and subsequent dr ying of the paper causes distortion, including curl and cockle. These are not only undesirable from an appearance point of view, but also cause problems for high-speed paper transport systems, leading to frequent paper jams. These problems are relatively minor at low ink coverage (as in a text document) but can become very serious at high ink coverage (as in some pictures and graphics). In powder xerographic products, the fusing subsystem, which softens the toner and fixes it to paper, is the analog of drying in aqueous inkjet. A poorly designed fuser can waste energy and distort paper, but the technology has advanced to the point where energy dissipation is limited to the upper layers. Energy consumption and paper distortion in fusing toner, which lies on top of the paper, is much less than in drying aqueous inks, where the water penetrates deep into the paper. Another intrinsic problem for aqueous inkjet is streaks caused by malfunctioning jets. The ink is ejected from extremely small orifices which

First Xerographic Image 1938 Inventor Chester Carlson, pursuing the concept of electrophotography in his spare time, makes the first xerographic image in his Astoria, Queens, New York City lab— a handwritten notation of “10-22-38 ASTRORIA”. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Features are easily clogged, leading to misdirected or even completely blocked jets. Thermal aqueous inkjet printheads are more susceptible to clogging than piezo printheads, because thermal printheads literally boil away some of the water in the ink as an inherent characteristic of the ink ejection mechanism. Aqueous inkjet printheads also tend to clog even when they are not being used, as water evaporates and pigments settle out of suspension. Not all the toner is used for imaging in powder xerography either, for example, there is a little waste in machine setup and calibration processes as well as some purging of aged toner. But the quantity of toner wasted is much less than aqueous inkjet and, of course, xerographic products can sit idle for long periods without any clogging. While many ingenious methods have been developed to clean the jets, and to minimize the visibility of missing jets, they are only partially successful, and the quality gradually declines over the life of the printhead. In consumer markets, this problem is controlled by using small disposable printheads which are meant to be discarded when the ink supply runs out. FWA printheads, on the other hand, are very expensive and cannot be frequently discarded. Moreover, inkjet cleaning processes typically involve purging the printhead, thereby wasting large amounts of ink. Speed Introduction of a FWA printhead would be a clear advantage for process speed. However, the ability of the machine to keep up with the increased speed can be limited by issues such as the rate at which the aqueous ink can be dried. Maintainability of the FWA printhead should also be considered, since it cannot be discarded periodically due to its high cost. Moreover, since the FWA printhead is typically manufactured by combining several smaller sections, it could be difficult to ensure uniformity along the length of the printhead.

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

aqueous inkjet no longer has a significant run cost advantage. Recyclability Aqueous inkjet prints are typically difficult to recycle, because the ink penetrates into the paper fibers and cannot be easily removed. Powder xerography prints are much easier to de-ink and therefore to recycle.

TO N

Dr. Edul N. Dalal "Consequently, it is unlikely that aqueous inkjet will displace powder xerography to become a major player in the office market in the near future." Cost Aqueous inks are relatively inexpensive and, if only the amount of ink used in printing is considered, aqueous inkjet machines would have a low run cost. However, there are other latent costs which must be considered. These include the amount of ink used in purging the printheads during the cleaning process, the somewhat higher cost of treated papers, and the need for heavier papers to mitigate show-through and paper distortion. Clogged printheads which cannot be adequately cleaned have to be replaced, adding considerably to the cost; this can be very significant when expensive FWA printheads need to be replaced. Aqueous inks are mostly water, and a lot of energy is required to dry this water from the paper after jetting, due to the high latent heat of vaporization of water. This also can add significantly to the run cost. In the consumer market, ink coverage is generally low and printing speed is slow, so natural evaporation rate is often adequate. However, in the office market, with greater ink coverage and much higher speeds, forced drying often is necessary. When all these factors are taken into account,

Advances in Powder Xerography LED array technology has improved significantly, and powder xerography machines with these imagers have been well received in the office market. Another advance is the proliferation of chemical toner, which requires careful design tightly coupled with the specific hardware, but provides superior quality and extended developer life. Conclusions Each technology has its advantages and disadvantages, and customers will choose based on their own requirements. While aqueous inkjet dominates in the consumer market, and plays a significant role in the production market, it has only a relatively small presence in the office market, in spite of impressive claims of speed and cost. Stated speeds are often limited to certain quality modes, paper types, etc., and there are latent cost factors to be considered such as more expensive papers and printhead replacement. Several inherent aqueous inkjet characteristics contribute to the lack of widespread acceptance of aqueous inkjet in the office market: poor image quality on plain papers, paper distortion, and deteriorating uniformity as jets clog over time, especially with thermal inkjet. Advances such as treated papers minimize some of these problems, and FWA printheads can provide much higher speed than scanning printheads, but powder xerography has not been standing still, with improvements in imager and toner technologies. Consequently, it is unlikely that aqueous inkjet will displace powder xerography to become a major player in the office market in the near future.

Recycling Times Magazine

Features

Price Riseâ&#x20AC;Ś Will There Be More in 2013? HP and Lexmark, who initiated a price increase on printer consumables in 2012, are taking the same action in 2013. This move might prove to be a windfall to remanufacturers as it could enable them to increase their share of aftermarket sales. The economic outlook remains gloomy, with printer OEMs reporting much lower-than-expected revenues in 2012. According to a report by Actionable Intelligence (AI), the situation has forced them to raise prices at the beginning of the new year. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Features It was HP and Lexmark, at the beginning of 2012, who initially increased the price of their consumables, a trend-setting move that was soon followed by other OEMs. Thus, the action by these two industry leaders might cause another round of price hikes by competitive printer and copier makers in 2013. Aftermarket players should welcome the news, as customers’ cost control awareness has increased due to the economic slowdown and to greater attention being paid to the cost per page printed under MPS (managed print service) contracts. HP’s and Lexmark’s Latest Pricing Actions HP, the largest printer OEM, announced it would hike prices of 49 consumables starting on February 1, 2013. Supplies Network published a notice from HP, indicating that “As of February 1st, 2013, HP is increasing the list price of select HP LaserJet Accessories and Long Life Consumables (LLC). This price increase affects 49 total LLC SKUs, and the increase will vary by SKU with a maximum price increase of 20%.” The OEM said its decision was made in response to global economic conditions, including currency volatility, and was part of HP’s normal portfolio management process as the company regularly reviews pricing for all its products and makes adjustments accordingly. Actionable Intelligence said both Canon, who manufactures all HP’s LaserJet hardware and consumables, and HP have reported downturns in their laser businesses in recent quarters. Now, it looks like HP has decided that the situation

Lexmark raised prices for all its inkjet consumables — except the 105 XL tank.

is bleak enough that additional supplies price increases are warranted. Lexmark, who exited the inkjet business in 2012, raised prices for all its inkjet consumables — except the 105 XL tank— beginning in January 2013. The price increases range from 4.2% to 7.7%. Manufacturer suggested retail prices (MSRPs), reseller prices, and Lexmark WebPricing was therefore affected. Lexmark said the price increase in costs and declining printer sales were to be blamed. Last August, Lexmark announced its exit from the inkjet printer business and a 1,700 reduction in jobs by the end of 2015. The news came after its gloomy financial results for the first half of 2012 which witnessed a sharp decline of 66% in inkjet hardware sales. Actionable Intelligence said Lexmark had limited quantities ordered prior to the increase. Only products shipped from Lexmark by December 31, 2012, will be eligible for the lower pricing. Some said Lexmark tries to get every penny out of its enormous, failed investment in the inkjet market, while it still can. Aftermarket suppliers always cheer for

HP is increasing the list price of select HP LaserJet Accessories and Long Life Consumables (LLC).

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

the price increase news from OEMs, because nowadays, many companies are struggling under the gloomy economic situation and would be very sensitive with cost change. OEMs’ price hiking activities are likely to force a certain amount of customers to drift away and turn to third-parties suppliers who provide lower prices while offering a stable product quality. Industry expert Art Diamond (Diamond Research Corporation) observed, “This is good news for savvy aftermarket players. They can now approach existing and prospective customers with a new set of numbers that show a better cost/value proposition than ever before. I’d be surprised if their aftermarket share doesn’t swell by a few percentage points in 2013, especially if Brother, Canon, Epson, Kyocera, Samsung and others decide to follow suit.” Luke Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), on the other hand, said, “Once again HP is raising consumables prices in an effort to offset another dismal year. The same thing happened last year which one would think to be a great benefit to the aftermarket imaging supplies business as OEM price increases SHOULD increase the value delta between OEM and aftermarket supplies making our value proposition that much stronger. Sadly, as past OEM increases have evidenced, most aftermarket players don’t price their products using the OEM as the benchmark and therefore the OEM price going up will therefore have no effect. For those few, healthy aftermarket players who use the OEM

Recycling Times Magazine

Features price as the benchmark and use market down prices, instead of cost up, this will be a huge benefit. Business and consumer customers who were always OEM only might finally be fed up with high priced OEM consumables as they get hit with this 2013 increase which might finally push them to a quality aftermarket alternative. In short, this increase will be a benefit for dealers and manufacturers whose business is designed to fairly compete with the OEM, for those competing only with price this increase will be of no moment and they will continue the ceaseless race to the bottom. ” Nearly All OEMs Increased Prices in 2012 Actionable Intelligence, the leading market research fir m, has followed closely the

movements and trends of both OEMs and aftermarket players. It has reported on the OEM price increase trend through 2012, starting with news of HP and Lexmark kicking off 2012 by announcing higher prices as of January 1. Over the course of the year, AI has reported nearly every printer OEM took similar action. See below a roundup timetable of OEMs’ price hiking actions in 2012 according to Actionable Intelligence’s reports. Will There Be More? Charles Brewer, President and Founder of Actionable Intelligence says that at this time it's unclear if HP and Lexmark’s price increases are a sign of things to come in 2013. He cautions, “It would be premature to say that the industry will follow HP and Lexmark’s move.”

Mr. Brewer concedes that in order to keep from losing money, it is likely that Lexmark will be required to raise the price of its inkjet cartridges as sales volumes drop. He expects to see another increase in the second half of the year. The situation is less clear for HP, he says. “Raising the price on nearly 50 SKUs sounds significant but HP has thousands of consumables. This price increase involves only a small fraction of the OEM’s overall supplies offering so it is not a major event.” Mr. Brewer says his firm will be monitoring the situation closely to see if HP, or any other hardware vendor, increases the price on other consumables. Please read more information on: www.action-intell.com

OEMs’ Price Hiking Actions in 2012

January 1

HP raised pricing for LaserJet cartridges and certain other consumables for laser devices, with price of HP LaserJet cartridges going up approximately 2%.

January 1

Lexmark increased the price of its ink and toner cartridges between 3%-7%.

January 3

Ricoh increased prices for all consumables parts and supplies by 3%.

January

Kodak raised pricing on all desktop inkjet consumables. It upped the price of its ink tanks by $2 or $3 for all but the Kodak 30XL black and the Kodak 10C color, by 6%-30%.

February

Epson increased pricing for selected desktop inkjet cartridges.

March 22

Xerox increased supplies prices on about 225 consumables, including selected solid ink sticks, toner cartridges, drums, imaging units, fusers, and other maintenance items.

April 1

Canon will be raising prices on toner cartridges for laser printers/MFPs, toner containers and other supplies for copiers/ MFPs, fax toner cartridges, and some hardware.

May

Brother increased selected consumables prices in all channels by 5 to 18 percent on approximately 60 consumables, including toner cartridges, drums, and inkjet cartridges.

June 1

Samsung increased prices for selected monochrome toner supplies by averagely 3% and color toner supplies by 7%.

June 1

HP increased the price of selected HP original inkjet supplies, not LaserJet consumables worldwide, by an average of 3%.

July 1

OKI increase prices on about 115 (out of more than 1,100) different supplies items for its monochrome and color LED printers and MFP by an average of 5%.

September 1

HP increased prices on some 81 Designjet ink SKUs by 2.5% to 20%.

For detailed stories, please refer to: http://www.action-intell.com/2012/12/18/hp-and-lexmark-raising-supplies-prices-in-2013/

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory

INK JET INK MANUFACTURERS NORTH AMERICA

AGFA GRAPHICS Ms. Deborah Hutcheson, Director of Marketing 611 River Drive, Center 3 Elmwood Park, NJ, USA Tel: +1.201.373.4646 Email: deborah.hutcheson@ag fa.com

ALPHA CHEM CORPORATION Mr. Ross Choi, President 640 Maple Avenue, Torrance, CA U.S.A. Tel: +1.310.617.3103 Email: ross@inkmate.co.kr Website: www.alphachem.com

DY,HS,S,SE,T,UV

DL,F,WF

AMERICAN INK JET CORPORATION Mr. Michael A. Androttola, President 13 Alexander Street Billerica, MA 01821, USA Tel: +1.978.667.0600 Email: mandreottola@amjet.com Website: www.americaninkjet.com

COLLINS INK CORPORATION Ms. Kristin Adams, Marketing Manager 1201 Edison Drive Cincinnati, OH 45216 Tel: +1.513.948.9000 Email: kadams@collinsink.com Website: www.collinsink.com

DL,HS,S,SE,WF

C,DL,S,SE,UV,M

GRAPHIC UTILITIES Mr. Daniel Pottle, Operations Manager 191 Development Drive Limestone, ME 04750 Tel: +1.207.370.9178, Ext. 312 Email: sales@graphicutilities.com Website: www.graphicutilities.com

HUNT IMAGING Mr. Peter J. Calabrese, Vice President Tel: +1.440.826.0433 Email: pcalabrese@huntimaging.com 210 Sheldon Road Berea, OH 44017 M

DL,HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

INDEPENDENT INK, INC. Mr. N. K. Ranganathan, Vice President 13700 South Gramercy Place, Gardena, CA, USA Tel: +1.310.523.4657 Email: ranga@independentink.com Website: www.independentink.com

INK MILL CORPORATION Mr. Adam Tourville, Ink Mill Sales 6 Bay Road, Sanbornton, NH, USA Tel: +1.603.217.4144 Email:adamt@inkmillcorp.com Website: www.inkmillcorp.com

S,SE,T,UV,WF

HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

For each entry, we have attached one or two letters designating each type of ink being produced in accordance with the following code: C = Conductive DL = Desktop, Liquid DS = Desktop, Solid DY = Dye Sublimation

F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press M = MICR S = Solvent-Based

SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory INX DIGITAL (TRIANGLE INX) Ms. Susie Mendelssohn, International Marketing Manager 2125 Williams Street San Leandro, CA, USA Tel: +1.510.346.7201 Email:Susie.mendelssohn@inxdigital.com DL,HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

NAZDAR Mr.Jim Walsh, Executive Vice President 8501 Hedge Lane Terrace, Shawnee, KS, USA Tel: +1.913.422.1888 Email: jwalsh@nazdar.com Website: www.nazdar.com DL,HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

SAWGRASS SYSTEMS, INC Dr. Ming Xu, Vice President 2233 Highway 17 North Mt. Pleasant, SC, USA

SENSIENT TECHNOLOGIES Ms. Ellen Grinde, Communications Director 529 West Fourth Avenue, Escondido, CA, USA

Tel: +1.843.884.1575 E-mail: mxu@sawgrassink.com Website: www.sublimation.com/

Tel: +1.800.642.2345 Email: info@sensientinkjet.com Website: www.sensientinkjet.com

DL,DS,T,WF

DL,DY,HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

SPECTRACORP, INC. Mr. Richard Aram, Sales Manager Tel: +1.303.371.6979 Email: raram@spectracorpinc.com 118 South Pecos Street Denver, CO, USA

SUPPLY SOURCE, LLC Mr. Fred Keen, President 64 Oak Avenue Tenafly, NJ, USA Tel: +1.201.735.0232 fkeen@supply-source.net Website: www.repeatotype.com

F,HS,T,WF

DL,WF

VAN SON HOLLAND Mr. J. Sammis, Sales Manager 185 Oval Drive Islandia, NY, USA Tel: +1.800.645.4182 Email: Jsammis@vansonink.com Website: www.vansonink.com DL,HS,S,SE,WF

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press M = MICR S = Solvent-Based

SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory EUROPE

CHIMIGRAF IBERICA Daniel Miravete, Manager Poligono Ind. Can Jardi, Carcassi, 6-8, Rubi, Barcelona, Spain Tel: +34.935.862.043 Email: danielm@chimigraf.com Website: www.chimigraf.com

MEXAR COMPANY, LTD. Dr. Andrew Hancock, Technical Director Unit 4B, Whitehouse Road Industrial Estate Newcastle Upon Tyne NE15 6LN, UK Tel: +44.771.475.6341 Email: andy@mexar.co.uk

DL,S,SE,UV,WF

DL,T,UV,WF

NAZDAR LTD. Mr. Steve Woodall, Product Manager

OCP GmbH Mr. Horst-Gerh. Edelmeier, General Manager

Nazdar House, Battersea Road Heaton Mersey Industrial Estate Stockport, Cheshire SK4 3EG, United Kingdom Tel: +44.161.442.2111 Email: swoodall@nazdar.com

Feldstrasse 4, Bochum D-44867 Germany Tel: +49.2327.6020.123 Email: edelmeier@ocp.de Website: www.ocp.de

HS,S,SE,T,WF

DL, HS, T, UV, WF

STAEDTLER MARS GmbH Moosaeckerstr. 3 Nuremberg, Germany Tel: +49.911.936.553 Email: wfp@staedtler.de Website: www.staedtler-inkjet.com/

SUN CHEMICAL Tony Cox, Business Manager Norton Hill, Midsomer Norton Bath, UK Tel: +44.1761.408.638 Email: Tony.Cox@sunchemical.com Website: www.sunchemical.com/sunjet/

DL,WF

DY,HS,S,SE,T,WF

Asia

ALPHA CHEM (Headquarter) 407-1 Maetan-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suvon city, Gyeonggi, Korea Tel: +1.031.214.4428 Email: info@inkmate.co.kr Website: www.alphachem.net DL,F,WF

CHINA WEL-TRY INDUSTRIAL LTD Mr. Junxiang Xian, General Manager 64#, Xinsha Road,Shajing Town, Baoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;an, Shenzhen, China Tel: +86.755.2729.9060 Email: Wel-try@126.com Website: www.wel-try.com.cn DS

F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press M = MICR S = Solvent-Based

SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory GUANGZHOU BOYE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. Mr. Mingzhou Huang, General Manager No. 13, Second Street Sandy Bay, Young Road, GETDD, Guangzhou, China Tel: +86.20.8221.9443 Email: ink168@21.com.cn Website: www.ink168.com

HUIZHOU DAYAWAN BOYUAN INK FACTORY Ms. Yanxia Peng, Sales Manager Room 1221-1222, Haiyi Mansion, No. 279, Jidashuiwan Road, Zhuhai, China Tel: +86.756.8115.139 E-mail: gqsh-ink@gqsh-ink.com DL,DS,WF

DL,DS

INKTEC CORPORATION Mr. Gilbert Lee, Marketing Leader #1124, Shingil-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan-city, Gyeonggi-do,Korea

JIAXING BAICHUAN PRINTER TECHNOLOGY Ms. Sophie Chen, Sales Manager No.51th Huixing Road, Huimin Industrial Zone, Jiashan, Zhejiang, China

Tel: +82.31.494.0001 Email: kihlee@inktec.com

Tel: +86.573.8464.1239 Website: http://bcinks.diytrade.com

JOY COLOR CONSUMABLE MANUFACTURE 198 Third Xingping Road, Pinghu, Zhejiang, China Tel: +86.573.528.6266 Email: sales@joycolor.com Website: www.joycolor.com

KANGZHIXIN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Ms. Lisa Lee, Sales Manager B5 Building,Xinhaochengding feng Science Park, Yonghe Road,Fuyong,Bao'an District,Shenzhen, China Tel: +86.755.3311.9599 E-mail: Lisa@come-ink.com Website: www.come-ink.com

DL,UV

DL,WF

LG CHEMICAL Mr. Pin Chang, Manager LG Twin Towers, 20, Yeouido-doing, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, KOREA Tel: +82.570.675.113 Email: pinchang@lgchem.com Website: www.lgchem.com

MYINK TECHNOLOGY Mr. Zhengru Yang, General Manager No.63, Mingzhubei Road, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China Tel: +86.756.8539058 Email: hastin@apexmic.com Website: www.myink.biz

DL,DS,SB,UV,WF

DL,WF

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press M = MICR S = Solvent-Based

SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory NEOJET-APOLLOJET Ms. Sukie Yang, Sales Manager No.47, Zhuhai Free Trade Zone, Guangdong, China Tel: +86.756.8687768 Website: www.neojet.net E-mail: neojetink@hotmail.com DL,DS,SB,UV,WF

OURWAY IMAGE Mr. Frank Zhao, General Manager No. 291 People’s West Road Xiangzhou, Zhuhai, China Tel: +86.756.2629.616 Email: Sales@ourwayink.com Website: www.ourwayink.com DL,UV,WF

PRISM TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD Mr. Eugene Kim, CEO 201-304, Techno-Park, 192 Yakdae-Dong, Wonmi-Gu, Bucheon-City, Kyunggi-Do, Korea

PRINTING IMAGES CTC Mr. Norbert Grimm, President Bldg868, Dewey Avenue, Subic Bay, Freeport Zone, 2200, Philippines

Tel: +82.32.328.0608 Email: business@iloveprism.com Website: www.iloveprism.com

Tel: +63.47.252.6012 Email: mail@printingimagesctc.com Website: www.printingimagesctc.com

DL, WF

DL,F,T,WF

SHENZHEN INKBANK GRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY Ms. Doris Peng, Oversea Department Manager Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China Tel: +86.755.6151.5168 Email: inkbank@inkbank.com.cn Website: www.inkbank.com.cn

SHENZHEN LAMBORINK TECHNOLOGY Ms. Yoyo Wu, Sales Manager 10 Buliding Sha’er Lantian Science and Technology Park Ditang Road, Bao’an, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China Tel: +86.755.8176.8533 Email: yoyo@lamborink.com Website: www.lamborink.com

DL, HSP, SB, WF

DL,DS,SB,UV,WF

SPLASHJET PRINT TECHNOLOGIES Mr. Gaurav Jinturkar, Business Development Manager A/104, Jai Matadi Compound, Kallher Village, Taluka Bhiwandi,District Thane, Maharashtra State, India Tel: +91.2522.645.515 Email: info@splashjet.co.in Website: www.splashjet.co.in

TOYO INK GROUP 3-13, Kyobashi 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan Tel: +81.3.3272.3435 E-mail: master@toyoink.co.jp Website: www.toyoink.jp DL,DS,SB,UV,WF

DL,DS,SB,UV,WF

F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press M = MICR S = Solvent-Based

SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Directory TRENDVISION TECHNOLOGY Mr. Aidong Wang, Business Manager NO.11 Pingxi Road 5, Nanping Science and Technology Industrial Park, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China Tel: +86.756.3363.651 E-mail: ktlim@trendvision.cn Website: http://en.dtexx.cn/ DL,UV,WF

ZHUHAI NANO DIGITAL TECH Ms. Betty Xu, Sales Manager 3, Pingxi 5th Road, Nanping State High-Tech Park, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China Tel: +86.756.3870.915 Email: xu_h@nanodigitalinkjet.com DL,SB,WF

ZHENGZHOU HONGSAM DIGITAL TECH Mr. Yusheng Zhao, General Manager No.10 Yulan Western Street, High Technology Industrial Zone, Zhengzhou,China Tel: +86.371.6030.1018 Email: dctec@ink4you.com Website: www.ink4you.com

Ink Jet Ink If we had to choose a word to characterize the ink jet ink industry it would be either “expanding” or “diversifying” or both. For these products are growing in volume, in applications, and in variety. Industry analysts expect continued, robust growth in 2013 as Memjet printheads and CISS devices enable faster print speeds and lower cost inks. Transactiional printing has created a demand for specialty inks capable of producing MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) readable images while food grade inks have unlocked new markets for the colorful decoration of cakes, pies, candies, fruits and vegetables. At the same time, conductive inks are in wide use for production fabrication of electronic circuits, and UV-curing inks are in demand for outdoor advertising displays, vehicle and building wraps, and point-of-sale graphics. The attached Directory of Major Inkjet Ink makers and their products—by no means complete—is a first attempt to produce a Guide to these companies.

2013 Directory Publishing Plan

Jan

Manufacturers of Smart Chips

Feb

Manufacturers of Ink Jet Inks

Mar

Core Brokers

Apr

Manufacturers of Primary Charge Rollers

May

Manufacturers of Developer Materials

Jun

Manufacturers of Dye & Pigment Dispersions

Jul

Trade Associations

Aug

Print Testing Labs

Sep

Manufacturers of Monochrome Toners

For each entry, we have attached one or two letters designating each type of ink being produced in accordance with the following code:

Oct

Manufacturers of Photoreceptors

C = Conductive DL = Desktop, Liquid DS = Desktop, Solid DY = Dye Sublimation F = Food Grade HS = High Speed Press

Nov

Manufacturers of Color Toners

Dec

Manufacturers of Blades

C,DL,DY,HS,S,SE,T,UV,WF

This Directory, compiled by the staff of Recycling Times magazine, represents the best information currently available to us regarding those ink makers offering various types of ink jet inks to aftermarket dealers, distributors and remanufacturers. We plan to review and update this list on an annual basis. Your comments, additions, deletions and suggestions are most welcome as they will enable us to expand and certify the information presented. Please email your comments to Keon Huang at keon.huang@irecyclingtimes.com

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

M = MICR S = Solvent-Based SE = EcoSolvent-Based T = Textile Printing UV = UV-curing WF = Wide Format

Recycling Times Magazine

Front Cover Story

Finding the Business Model that Works Insta Impexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dynamic Duo: Harish Lalwani and Anil Kishnani David Gibbons, Recycling Times Director For almost 25 years, two Mumbai-based Indians have proven business partnerships can work! Not only have they survived tough economic times, and chaotic street price wars, they have thrived to grow their cartridge business. And it has everything to do with giving their customers what they want. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Profiles

A partnership that continues to thrive for almost 25 years (Left: Anil Kishnani, Right: Harish Lalwani)

Harish Lalwani and Anil Kishnani decry the old adage: “Partnerships are the only ships designed to sink”. Since 1989 they have worked side by side, to grow a significant business— together! “The business has grown through tough times,” Lalwani says. “But has gone ahead in leaps and bounds during better times!” adds Kishnani. They mostly agree on everything, but when they do disagree, they look for the best economical and socially responsible outcome. “Then we both come to our senses.” Competing in a Tough Market Their business, Insta Impex, had humble beginnings. In 1989, Insta was a small, start up venture which represented and promoted a UKbased brand of ribbons for dot matrix printers, among other things. But by 2000, their growth and emerging business model forced them to establish a more professional service centre and office. So they moved to their current location in Masjid—one of the prime business districts in South Mumbai. Here they were able to add newer imaging technologies and products to their lineup. Today they provide original and aftermarket imaging solutions for users of dot matrix, inkjet and laser printers. In a country where inkjet cartridge fillers sit on every street corner, it’s not easy to convince customers they should have to pay more—even though remanufacturing promises consumers a better quality cartridge and an environmentally responsible solution as well. It’s been estimated there are 100,000 inkjet and toner cartridge refillers in India, but only about 500 true remanufacturers. With a growing

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

middle class demanding better quality housing, newer cars, improved working conditions and more rewarding lifestyles, Indian businesses and families are also expecting better quality prints. India is the second most populous country in the world. However, given the enormity of the market, it is not as simple as it seems. Kishnani explains, “The Indian diaspora, huge as it is diverse, is a double-edged sword. The teeming population may give us the volume edge. But the huge regional spread gives way to a wide spectrum of cultural sensibilities making it a humungous task for any industr y to cater to a ‘one size fits all’ formula.” This is why India enjoys such a chaotic, yet vibrant market place. Thriving amidst this chaos and changing business landscape gives Insta unique opportunities to carve its own niche market. Lalwani and Kishnani are very modest about their achievements. Yet they have progressed from being a small distributor of printer ribbons to a robust remanufacturer of inkjet and toner printer cartridges. “At first, we had no knowledge of inkjets and toners,” Lalwani humbly explains. “So we took it upon ourselves to travel the world, attend trade shows, and attain technical knowledge by training with the best of the best. We also availed ourselves of the best that technology had to offer.” Insta was the first remanufacturer in India to attain STMC certification by the International Imaging Technology Council (I-ITC) in 2006. This instilled the confidence they needed that they were competent in administering strict quality control in the remanufacture of toner cartridges.

Staff uses the most up-to-date testing, filling and post-testing equipment

“We are very fortunate to be associated with companies which have always promoted and taught us the importance of quality,” Kishnani says. He explains the overall growth of any business, whether it be economic, social or environmental, is based on quality. “The bottom line to our personal success and satisfaction comes from our commitment to quality, hence customer satisfaction.” Both Kishnani and Lalwani say happy customers together with environmental responsibility have brought their business to “extremely satisfying levels”. Successful Business Model Wins Customers Insta was also the first company in India to use the ‘kiosk’ model for cartridge remanufacturing. Tens of thousands of street kiosks already existed providing a primitive drill-and-fill solution for toner cartridges, or a squirt of ink into an empty inkjet cartridge. But those street vendors could not guarantee their cartridges would work in the printer when the consumer arrives back home or at his or her office. Even if it did work, the quality of the print would be considerably reduced. Lalwani and Kishnani travelled to Brazil. “The credit for our fully pretested, and post tested remanufacturing kiosk goes to Dr. Wolfagang Reick at TB Accessorios in Sao Paulo” Kishnani explains. Both he and Lalwani were trained how to fully pre-check and post check inkjet ink cartridges using the best, up-to-date testing and filling equipment available. But they learned much more than the actual step-by-step procedures. They discovered a

Recycling Times Magazine

Profiles

Customers say thanks for timely service, quality products and monetary savings

business model which could win the confidence of their customers. And grow their business! They discovered the concept of an open environment where every customer can see, first hand, how their own cartridges are pre-tested, cleaned, refilled and post-tested. Lalwani’s face lightens as he adds, “The concept so impressed us, that on our return to India, the very first thing we did was to customize a similar set up to suit Indian sensitivities.” They built a large glass panel into the wall of their remanufacturing space. On one side, the customer could comfortably view what was being done to his or her cartridge on the other side. “Customers interact directly with us,” Kishnani says. “We take the view our customers want to be better educated. They can see the benefits or remanufacturing first hand, ask questions and also provide feedback.” Patent attorneys around the world would applaud the enterprise, as it demonstrates the “right to rebuild” (the doctrine of permissible repair) in its purest form. The original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, has exhausted rights over the cartridge at the point of sale. The consumer has every right to have his or her cartridge rebuilt as many times as the cartridge would permit. “The same cartridge can be reused 10 to 15 times,” Lalwani adds proudly. He says his customers like their own cartridges to be remanufactured. They are more confident about the cartridge’s ability to provide quality and quantity. “Consequently,” he adds, “they look after their cartridges better.” The model also provides a solution to the industry wide problem of finding empty

cartridges. Consumers simply bring their own toner or inkjet cartridge to the service centre to be remanufactured. If it fails the pre-test, the customer has the opportunity to purchase a brand new OEM cartridge, which in turn they will bring back for remanufacture-while-youwait, when it becomes empty. There are always plenty of thanks from appreciative customers, who return again and again and tell others about the service they have received from Insta. Repeat business is one of the keys to any successful business. “We have maximum repeat value business from the majority of our customers,” Kishnani says. “Some thank us for timely service, and some for the quality of the product. Mostly they thank us for the substantial monetary savings.” Moving Ahead Four years ago, Lalwani encouraged his brother and nephew to open their own cartridge business in Pune—just 120 km south-east of Mumbai—based on the same model of quality control and face-to-face customer involvement in the recharge service. As a city, Pune dates back to 847 AD and is the seventh largest metropolis in India. With such a large potential market, and the benefit of training and advice from its Mumbai cousin, Cartridge Express has been quick to prosper. But the aftermarket industry is as tough in Pune as it is in Mumbai and other places around the world. The challenge for market share from fully built compatibles, or clones, has provided stiff competition squeezing volumes, margins and profits. But that does not daunt the

Customers view the remanufacturing process first hand through large plate glass windows

Dynamic Duo. Kishnani smiles, “At Insta we say, the more the merrier, as all challenges help us keep our antennae raised and our sites focused!” They have large, solid and loyal customers in the business and government sectors who value the honest customer service that Insta delivers. Neither do they sit still. They continue to do as they have always done over 25 years, by constantly looking for other opportunities. “We look at every ‘exit’ as an ‘entrance’ to another opportunity,” Lalwani adds. “As always, every product cycle eventually matures out providing a fresh impetus to venture towards newer trends in the industry as well as providing solutions to the ever growing needs of the customer.” They continue to ask questions, and seek partners who will explain and teach them new things. In 2013 they are gearing up to move to another new frontier. Business and personal print-on-paper applications are diminishing globally, although India has not seen the rapid declines being witnessed in North America and Europe. At Insta, they are looking at how they can be involved in the revolution inkjet technology is making in textile printing and other specialized substrate formats. “Whatever the market demands of us”, they both chime in, “we will be there to respond with a quality solution and honest, genuine and friendly customer service.” Anil Kishnani and Harish Lalwani can be contacted through their website at: www.instaimpex.com

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

OEM News

Chongqing Becomes World’s Largest Printer Manufacturing Base As was reported on January 7, the current monthly production volume of printers in Chongqing has exceeded 1.5 million units, making the city the world’s largest printer production base. Ever since HP signed a cooperation agreement with the Chongqing government to build a printing and imaging production base last April, the city has been witnessing rapid growth in printer manufacture. On April 17, 2012, HP and Foxconn, the largest contract electronics manufacturer in the world, according to Want China Times, signed a contract with the Chongqing government to build a printer production base with an annual production capacity of 30 million units. Overall, Chongqing’s annual production is expected

to reach 60 million units, 1/3 of the worldwide capacity. An officer of Chongqing Economic and Information Commission said that China is the world’s largest printer manufacturer producing 70 million units annually, 40 millions of them being inkjet printers. The country’s monthly output of inkjet printers nationwide is over 3 million units and half of them are built in Chongqing. Within 5 years, printers and cartridges will grow to a RMB 100-billion industry providing 60 to 80 thousand job vacancies that will help solve China’s employment problem. Moreover, the world’s most expensive printer, the $3 million USD HP Indigo digital printer, will be produced in Chongqing as well.

Photizo Forecasts Shrinking Global Printer Market, 2012-2016 According to a report from Photizo, global printer market shipments will continue to fall, decreasing to only 96 million units in 2016. For 2012, Photizo estimates total shipments at 107 million shipments worldwide, a decline from 118 million in 2011. Some printer segments, which looked strong in late 2011 and early 2012, slowed down considerably late in the year. A gloomy economic environment has been the main reason for the decline. Developments in mobile technology are also shrinking the demand for hard copy printout. Photizo believes the printer market will continue to fall over the next few years. Global shipments in 2016 are expected to reach only 96 million units. Despite the downward trend, Photizo recognizes developing opportunities in some segments of the industry. Regions like the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and parts of

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are expected to show continued growth. “New technological developments in Smart MFPs that leverage improved scan and data access capabilities to operate in new digital workflow environments, and business ink jets, including new page-wide array products, will offer opportunities for printer manufacturers who continue to evolve their product lines to take advantage of changing market conditions,” said Larr y Jamieson, Director, Hardware Advisory Service & Supplies Advisory Service at Photizo.

Recycling Times Magazine

OEM News

Malaysian Printer Market Suffered Drastic Decline The printer market in Malaysia experienced a drastic 25.5% decline in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q2012), with single-function inkjet printers (SFPs) declining by 31.1%. The total number of printers shipped in 3Q2012 was 249,563 units, which fell from 334,923 at the same time last year. Inkjet devices accounted for 166,504 while laser printer shipments totaled 72,589 units. The Inkjet segment was marked by the most drastic decline, as single-function printers (SFP) fell 40% year-over-year. The situation was no easier for inkjet MFPs, as this segment also saw a 31.1% decline, reporting only 136,893 units shipped. Laser printers provided a rare highlight, as laser SFPs grew by 4.6% compared with 2Q2012. However, laser MFP shipments fell by19.7% to 23,886 units.

“On top of that, government spending will remain slow as ongoing plans and funds are allocated to the implementation of the upcoming general elections,” said Donovan Low, Associate Market Analyst for IDC’s Imaging, Printing and Document Solutions research in Malaysia. The uncertainty is set to trickle down to the private sector and consumer spending on printers. Consequently, the market can expect several gloomy months ahead. “In addition,” Low observed, “the contraction of the global economy will likely decrease overall spending and increase concerns.”

Laser Printer Market to Explode in Thailand Boosted by a local government project worth $1.3 billion USD, the laser printer market in Thailand is expected to grow by 10% in 2013. The Thai government has set aside a development fund, which will be used to help emerging entrepreneurs set up their shops. Fuji-Xerox, the Japanese printer OEM has seized the opportunity offered by the project. Its country manager, Mr. Rangsan Naratchariyangkul, expects an exploding demand for PCs and printers after the new offices are established. Laser printers, both monochrome and full color, are expected to grow 5% from 450,000 to 460,000 units in 2012. Rangsan also envisions a growing demand for color printers as prices for these products decline. By the

end of 2012, laser color printers are expected to reach 45,000 units, among which 6,500 will be acquired by business users. In 2013, the color laser MFP market is expected to grow at a double-digit rate. The growth will also help color laser printers capture 15% of the total market, which is currently dominated by monochrome models. Fuji-Xerox is targeting a 40% slice of the mid-range market in 2013, with high-speed printers designed for small and medium size businesses (SMBs). “The new products will be introduced next year (2013),” Mr Rangsan said. “Average selling price will fall by 30% and printers with energy efficiency will cut the cost of investment for businesses by 30%.”

Indian Printer Shipments Drop 4.7% A Gartner report finds that Indian printer shipments fell 4.7% to 760,000 units in the third quarter of 2012 (2012Q3), but total revenues are up 31%. According to Gartner, the top three ranking vendors remain the same, with HP, Canon and Epson leading the way. HP grabbed 51% of the total market share with shipments reaching 384,000 units. Canon, who vowed to surpass HP, managed to snag a 23% share with 170,000 units shipped. Epson and Samsung followed the two giants with 9% and 8% shares, respectively. For the midsized business segment, HP achieved a 40% shipment increase while Canon, its major rival, fell 57%. Samsung recorded a 26.65% growth among all business segments Monochrome printers grew 12%, driven by increased demand from small business and government, while color devices suffered a 20% decline. Inkjet printers declined for seven consecutive quarters. The fell 24.5% compared to 2011Q3. Inkjet multi-function printers (MFPs) dropped 6.2% in unit shipments and HP suffered a big decline of 29.2%, even though it still accounted for 53% of the MFP market. “The festive season did not really resuscitate the printer and copier market; as was expected by major hardware providers. With a besieged economic environment and green initiatives gaining importance, organizations adopted a wait and watch approach on their IT spending for peripheral devices,” said Amrita Choudhury, Research Analyst at Gartner. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Actionable Insights Charles Brewer

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Actionable Insights Charles Brewer

HP May Be down, but It’s Not Out Fo r H e w l e t t - P a c k a r d , 2 0 1 2 m a y b e remembered as its “annus horribillis”— or “year of horrors.” At one point in November, HP shares were trading at near a 10 year low after news broke that the firm had overpaid for last year’s acquisition of the British software developer Autonomy. It seems that for many investors the mess revealed in November was the last straw, and allegations of Autonomy’s bookkeeping irregularities triggered the latest sell-off of HP stock. Over the past few years, HP’s share price has plummeted as the firm hired and fired a string of CEOs and the investment community grew increasingly wary of HP leadership. Today, the company is perceived by many as lacking an experienced IT leader with a clear vision for the future and the business acumen needed to grow the company in the current punishing market. Calls are coming from various quarters for HP to sell off ailing parts of its business and some even feel the entire company should be broken into smaller entities focusing on specific core markets. Beyond the missteps made in the Autonomy deal and the revolving door on the CEO office, investors even view HP’s vaunted printer organization with distain. Long the darling of Wall Street, HP’s highly-profitable printer business has fallen out of favor as print volumes have declined over the past few years and end users continue to migrate from hard copy to electronic media. Despite all the ill will currently surrounding HP, it would be foolish for anyone in the digital imaging industry to discount the firm. Since the

embryonic days of the industry, HP has been the market leader and that has not changed as the industry matured. Granted, HP has lost some market share. Canon has grabbed some of its inkjet market and Brother and Samsung have done the same on the laser side. Recently, the market research firm IDC estimated that HP’s market share fell from 42.9 percent in the third quarter of 2011 to 37.3 percent in Q3 of 2012. But, even having lost a chunk of the market, HP remains Number One and in the closing months of 2012 it released important new hardware that should help it retain that ranking for the foreseeable future. At the end of October, the firm released a number of new monochrome and color LaserJet machines. The new hardware included new A3 MFPs that are bound to strike fear in the hearts of copier manufacturers like Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba, and Xerox, which market A3 machines at higher price points than what is commonly associated with LaserJet units. HP also released a new Autonomy-developed suite of contentmanagement solutions to further enhance its hardware. The HP Flow CM Professional software is aimed at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) while the HP Flow CM Enterprise offering is for large enterprise customers. Of all the HP machines announced in October, the most interesting were found in the new OfficeJet Pro X Series. This new line of inkjet printers and MFPs will be released in the spring of this year. They feature HP’s PageWide technology, a stationary, pagewide array of printheads fabricated using HP’s scalable

printing technology (SPT) and similar to those found in the so-called Edgeline machines, the CM8050 and CM8060. Unlike the high-end Edgeline units, which were digital copiers that sold for between $15,000 and $25,000, the OfficeJet Pro X models are desktop units. While pricing has not been released, the X Series machines will sell for hundreds of dollars, not thousands. The units are fast like the Edgeline devices, however, and certain models achieve speeds up to 70 pages per minute. HP is targeting the SMB market with the X Series machines and I expect they will be popular. Take heed: If they are successful, they could propel inkjet back into the battle, between toner and ink, as a leading contender for dominance of the desktop digital imaging market! HP’s struggles are far from over and the turmoil will continue in 2013 but I do not think that will have much impact on the digital imaging industry. In this space, HP remains King and that will not change any time soon, unless, of course, the firm sells off its printer business— but I do not see that happening.

Charles Brewer has covered imaging technology for 20 years as editor for Inc. Magazine, ComputerWorld, The Lyra Hard Copy Supplies Journal and numerous white papers and reports. He is a popular speaker in China, Europe, and North America. His intelligence briefings can be read online at action-intell.com Email: cbrewer@action-intell.com

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

People

5 QUESTIONS 1. What are the 3 greatest needs for the recycling industry in India? As you know, India has a huge and expanding market for printer and imaging related products. First, we need to monitor and improve quality. Quality is the major concern---if the quality of remanufactured products is low, customer would prefer to purchase original products. Second, in India we need effective organizations or associations of remanufacturers who can monitor the quality, coordinate to solve problems faced in the Industry, disseminate information and then to negotiate with the government organizations. Government presents a huge market for remanufacturing industry. All we need is an impressive association that can negotiate with the government bodies. Third, we need to have standard prices for the remanufactured products, in the absence of which people keep selling at different prices. This leads to extremely low profit margins and smaller players get knocked out. 2. What is the biggest threat to the industry? Lack of quality of products and lack of after sales service are the major concerns in the industry. When we are selling remanufactured products, we need to maintain good quality for the price margin that the customer is saving while opting for remanufactured products against OEM products. Even though remanufactured goods are 30% less expensive, if remanufactured products are poor quality, customer will lose his faith and will definitely shift to OEM products. A satisfied customer tells 3 others, but a dissatisfied customer tells 30 others. Next problem is with the after-sales-serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;if the after sales service is poor, customers would prefer to purchase OEM products for which the service is prompt and good. 3. What is the biggest hope in the industry during 2013? As I have mentioned earlier, India is a huge and expanding m a r ke t f o r p r i n t e r- a n d imaging-related products. We have the old, established printers like HP, Samsung, Canon, Xerox and Panasonic who share 99% of the market. In spite of the fact that only 1% is open for others, many new vendors like Pantum, Intec,

Ricoh, Brothers, Sharp, etc are aggressively working to make inroads into printer markets. This shows how much they value the Indian market and the growing opportunities here. If cars sell more, petrol also sells more. In the same way, if the printers and imaging-related products are selling in larger numbers, it implies a huge opportunity for remanufacturers as well. 4. Is there a move towards quality printing in India? As we are in the media, we constantly watch the quality wars besides the price wars in the printing and imaging industry. Every next month vendors are coming up with new printers that offer better quality and features. People are demanding better quality and contrast in the pictures. Earlier it was mostly black-and-white printing, but now color printing is getting common, which cannot compromise on quality. One of the Indian toner manufacturer ITDL is worldwide renowned for their quality products. In fact, all the vendors in India now lay special emphasis on quality. 5. Why does NCN Imaging Solution have an Awards Ceremony every year? We like your good question. As a media house we have the moral and social responsibility to connect various players in the remanufacturing industry. Besides connecting people, we also need to encourage, motivate and inspire them so that they work with good zeal and spirit. That is what we exactly try to do through the NCN Imaging Solution Award Ceremonies. We conduct polls on the Internet where voters will select the best players and remanufacturers in the industry. Basing on those results we distribute the awards. This way of recognizing key players definitely encourages and inspires people. Besides that, the ceremony is an opportunity and platform where nearly 400 remanufacturing players from different corners of the country meet and discuss problems, solutions, developments, trends and achievements. This boosts the morale of one and all. Swapan Roy Swapan Roy is the Editor and Publisher of Roy Mediative Group. The group publishes three magazinesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the flagship magazine NCN (National Computrade News), Imaging Solution (promoting remanufacturing industry) and Mobility (promoting mobile gadgets).You can contact Swapan Roy at royncn@gmail.com

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

Tech Zone Mike Josiah

Remanufacturing the Samsung ML-1860 Toner Cartridge First released in May 2011, the Samsung ML-1860 series of printers is based on a 19ppm, 1200 Dpi engine. Other than the toner cartridge, all the other consumables are rated for 30,000 pages. (Fuser, transfer roller, paper pickup rollers). That coincidentally is also the rated life for the printer. It seems Samsung considers these models thrown away machines. Figure A shows the basic printer/cartridge position layout. These cartridges do not have a built in drum cover, but do come new with a black plastic cover. (See Figure 1) The replacement cartridge itself is rated for 1,500 pages at 5% coverage (ISO 19752). The starter cartridge is rated for 700 pages.

Figure A

Printers based on this engine: Samsung ML-1660 Samsung ML-1665 Samsung ML-1670 Samsung ML-1675 Samsung ML-1860 Samsung ML-1865 Samsung SCX-3200 Samsung SCX-3205 Cartridge: • MLT-D104S, MLT0D0142S (Europe) • Required Tools • Toner approved vacuum. • A small Common screw driver • A Phillips head screwdriver • Needle nose pliers

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Required Supplies • Replacement toner for use in the Samsung ML-1860 • Replacement chip • Conductive Grease • Drum lubricating powder

Recycling Times Magazine

Tech Zone

step > step >

Clean out any remaining toner from the waste chamber. Be careful to keep the WB seal clean. See Figure 12

step >

Place the cartridge with the handle facing away from you. Slice off the 3 plastic rivets with a Square Xacto type blade on the contact end cap. See Figure 2

Gently pry off the end cap.

step >

Locate the two rivets on each side on the top of the cartridge. Slice them off with the chisel blade.

Re-install the wiper blade and two screws. See Figure 13

Lift off the waste chamber. See Figure 8

step >

Clean the PCR with your normal PCR cleaner and install in the cartridge. WARNING: Do not clean the OEM PCR with alcohol, as this will remove the conductive coating from the roller. If the PCR is an aftermarket, follow the cleaning methods recommended by the manufacturer. If the PCR is an OEM, we recommend it be cleaned with your standard PCR cleaner.

Remove the PCR. See Figure 9

step >

Gently pry off the end cap. See Figure 5

To remove the OPC drum, slide the axle out from the gear side of the drum. Remove the drum. step >

Remove the two screws and wiper blade from the waste chamber. See Figures 10 & 11 step >

step >

On the opposite side of the cartridge, Slice off the 3 plastic rivets with a Square Xacto type blade. See Figure 4

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

step >

Tech Zone

step >

Install the 5 gears as shown in the order indicated. See Figure 27

Clean the feed roller and any remaining toner from the hopper. See Figure 23

Re-install the doctor blade and two screws. See Figure 24

Install the developer roller, geared end to the gear side of the cartridge.

Fill the hopper with the appropriate toner. Replace the fill plug, check for leaks. See Figure 28 step >

step >

Remove the Developer Roller by lifting it out from the non gear side.

step >

Remove the 5 gears as shown and place aside. Leave the developer roller gear on its shaft. See Figures 17 & 18

Install the drum.

Install the drum axle through the gear side. Keep the keyed end towards the gear. See Figure 26

step >

Remove the 2 screws on the doctor blade. The blade was left in place to protect the DB seal. If toner gets on this seal it will not work and the cartridge will leak. It can be replaced with silicon, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easier to just keep it clean by leaving the DB on as long as possible when cleaning. It is highly recommended that the Doctor Blade be cleaned. Failure to do so will cause streaking. Dampen a cotton swab with alcohol, and clean the blade. Be careful not to press too hard and damage the blade. If the blade has a heavy buildup of toner on it, clean it with Acetone, and then alcohol.

step >

Carefully pry out the fill plug. It fits tight and is easily damaged. Work a small jewelerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s screwdriver around the edge until the plug comes free. See Figure 20

Clean out any remaining toner from the hopper.

Place the two halves together. Make sure the top two rivets snap in place. www.iRecyclingTimes.com

Recycling Times Magazine

step >

Tech Zone

Drill hole where the three rivets were and install the screws.

Drill two small holes in the rivets and insert the screws. step >

Install the remaining end cap drill the three holes and install the screws. See Figures 37 & 38

Printing Test Pages: Demo Page Press and hold the “PRINT SCREEN” button for 10seconds until all the Green LED blinks rapidly. A demo page and the Configuration page will print. Repetitive Defect Chart Upper Fuser roller

77.5mm

Lower Fuser Roller

75.4mm

OPC Drum

62.9mm

Supply Roller

47.0mm

Transfer roller

39.2mm

Developer Roller PCR

Install the drum cover on the cartridge. See Figure 39

Printer Error Codes Error Code

Error Message

Error Code

Error Message

C1-1110

Prepare new toner cartridge.

S2-4110

Door is open. Close the door.

C1-1120

Replace with new toner cartridge.

U1-2113

Fuser Unit Failure #U1-2113. Please turn off then on.

C1-1130

End of life, Replace with new toner cartridge.

U1-2131

Fuser Unit Failure #U1-2131. Please turn off then on.

C1-1411

Toner cartridge is not installed. Install the cartridge.

U1-2141

Fuser Unit Failure #U1-2141. Please turn off then on.

U2-5111

Black LSU Unit Failure:#U2-5111 Please turn off then on.

U2-5113

Black LSU Unit Failure:#U2-5113 Please turn off then on.

C1-1512

Toner cartridge is not compatible.

M1-1013

Paper jam in tray.

35.1mm

M1-5012

Paper is empty in tray. Load paper.

26.7mm

M2-1114

www.iRecyclingTimes.com

step >

Install the replacement chip on the conta6 end cap by sliding it out from the inside of the end cap. Replace the chip making sure it’s seated properly. step >

step >

Install the gear side end cap. Make sure the drum axle fits correctly in its slot by turning it from the opposite side until it locks in place. See Figure 32

Paper jam inside of machine.