EPSON PUSHES SINGLE-INK CARTRIDGES

[Anonymous]

Epson pushes single-ink cartridges
Three and five-colour ink cartridges ‘wasteful’, according to research
Multi-ink
cartridges waste more ink than single ink cartridges, according to
research commissioned by printer manufacturer Epson.Reseach carried out
by TUV Rhineland found a difference of 43 per cent between the two
types of cartridge.

Single ink cartridges waste just under 19
per cent of ink as opposed to the 64 per cent wasted by some multi-ink
cartridges.The research involved testing printers with one, three and
five colour ink cartridges from companies including HP, Canon and Kodak
by printing a range of photographs until the “out of ink” warning
appeared. The weight of the cartridge was taken before and after the
tests to see how much ink each was left.Kodak’s Easyhare 5300 printer,
which uses a five-colour cartridge system, was accused by Hartmut
Muller-Gerbes, spokesman for TUV, as being the “worst performer of the
test for ecological ink efficiency” wasting three-quarters (74 per
cent) of its ink.Epson’s R360 single inkjet cartridge model and HP’s
Photosmart D7160, however, were only found to waste nine per cent and
17 per cent of ink respectively.

Muller-Gerbes said three and
five colour models were wasteful because if one colour runs out then
the whole cartridge must be changed even if the other colours are
untouched.“Single ink cartridges have economical advantages in
comparison to tri and five colour ones as the separate inks can be
changed accordingly,” he said at an Epson press conference in Spain.He
also pointed out that multi-ink cartridges could have a significant
impact on the environment. “More and more multi-ink cartridges are
being discarded as consumers listen to ‘low ink’ warnings and throw
them away,” he said.“Sustainability is important now with environmental
concerns, TUV [therefore] expects manufactures to consider this and
make their printers more economically friendly.”

Although Epson
– who only supplies printers with single inkjet capabilities – has
claimed this research was the “first of its kind” it is certainly not
the first time the single versus multi inkjet cartridges debate has
arisen.This year the Office of Fair Trading put in place a new
international standard for cartridge performance which aimed to save
consumers money by giving information about the amount of pages a
cartridge would print.This has to be labelled on cartridge or printer
packaging so consumers can estimate costs they may have to pay for
printing over the lifetime of the printer.However, despite these new
rules TUV’s research failed to consider these factors when carrying out
its tests with no mention of the number of pages printed before the
warning flashed up or outline the money lost by the consumer.It was
also questioned by those attending the conference who said it did not
consider the amount of ink used up by the cleaning cycle that printers
routinely perform.Muller-Gerbes defended this by brushing over the
techical issues and claiming the test was “only commissioned for
economical purposes”.

[Author]

June 20, 2007 at 11:31 AM