How Different Printer Inks Can Affect An Office Printer

2010-12-10

Printer companies all manufacturer specialized brands of printer inks in addition to the machines that require them to create documents. These OEM companies are extremely secretive about their special formulations and are also very litigious when it comes to defending what they feel is their own intellectual property from companies who seek to refill office printer cartridges or replace them with after-market ink that is supposed to print with the same standard of quality. Despite this ongoing battle, many businesses will choose to buy their ink from an after-market supplier or ink refills in order to avoid the large costs associated with buying brand-name printer ink. Even with many printer warranties declared void if another brand of printer ink is used, many businesses will choose cost savings over potential warranty issues. While in many respects refill printer inks for an office printer are safe, there are a number of things that companies must be aware of when using different printer inks.

The first is that while the OEM ink is likely not superior to that found at an online ink retailer or supplied by an ink refills, the ink a particular printer will belong to a "class" of inks that will usually work with a range of printer types. While this does provide a broad platform off of which companies can dive into a sea of ink options, it also means that there are some types of inks that are not formulated to work with certain printers. The most obvious example is ink jet ink in comparison to a laser toner cartridge. An ink jet cartridge will contain liquid ink that is sprayed onto a page - a toner cartridge will contain particulate ink that is transferred onto a page using heat and an electric charge. These two types of ink could never be used interchangeably, nor would any company try, but the same type of situation can occur for inks that are in a similar printer class but not intended for the same type of job.

It is possible to find industrial printer inks that have cartridges sizes that will fit in personal printers, and vice versa, but they can lead to problems such as poor quality printing containing streaks or lines or sections of the copy that are too light or too dark. In a worst-case scenario, the wrong type of ink will clog up or ruin a printer. It is always worthwhile to ensure that any ink ordered for an office printer, be it a refill or non-OEM cartridge, and is rated to work properly with the printer it is intended to be used for. This can avoid time and labor costs in the long term.