HP DOUBTS INK CARTRIDGE STANDARDISATION

[Anonymous]

HP doubts ink cartridge standardisation
Standard test for cartridge longevity flawed, says cartridge manufacturer
HP
has questioned an international standard created to give consumers
information on the amount of pages an inkjet cartridge can
print.Compromises by manufacturers and time constrictions have meant
important things have been overlooked in elements of the
standardisation, HP has said.The International Organisation for
Standardisation (ISO) standard for ink cartridges came into effect in
December 2006. It was created by a consortium of printer manufactures
including HP, Canon, Epson and Lexmark after the Office of Fair Trading
critisied them for not informing consumers about the lasting power of
inkjet cartridges.The standard is based on a test in which a black
cartridge is run continuously alongside a colour one in a printer until
the printer’s “out of ink message” appears for both. The test
conditions include breaks for changing paper and temperature and
humidity, which can often vary in a home environment.However, Whitney
Loper, writing systems engineer at HP, said certain oversights and time
constrictions have meant that the standard is not a true measurement of
cost of ownership.“Whilst we welcome the standard as an overall way of
regulating the industry and giving consumers information, there are
some important aspects that we feel have been left out,” she said at
the HP Lab event taking place in Portugal this week.“For starters the
standard specifies that a printer manufacturer must run the test
continuously until the ink runs out, however this is not indicative of
a true consumer print which will often span across months of stopping
and starting.“Time constraints have stopped this. It takes a week for a
continuous print, so conducting the test to consumer conditions would
take too long,” she addedPrinters often perform much better on a
continuous print then they would by stopping and starting because ink
gets stuck in nozzles and causes ink to fade.Loper outlined the
problems that arise with such an oversight, by disclosing results of HP
research that tested the print quality of stopping and starting over a
week with a four hour stop and starting rate. It found that this method
put a strain on the ink and fading occurred far more quickly than that
in a continuous test.“This is something we have said all along but we
have had to compromise with certain aspects of this standard because of
the amount of manufacturers and industries taking part,” said Loper.She
also claimed the testing did not take into account the differing
absorbtion rates of other types of paper, as “consumers like to print
photographs on glossy paper”.Although HP has said that the standard
will probably not be approved until the end of 2008, it suggested that
a working draft examining how different photo inks perform on the
different media’s will be out within the next few months.

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July 13, 2007 at 10:54 AM