The printer manufacturers design their latest printers to maximise the page yield from less ink.
This is beneficial for both the consumer and the supplier. Better ink yield is environmentally friendly, and because efficient cartridges have a higher page yield rating, printer suppliers can promote their machines to the consumers more effectively as a more efficient and eco friendly product. Manufacturers use a number of processes when designing their printers to achieve the best possible printing yields.
One simple and effective method that is used are head caps, the seal the print heads when they are not in use. This stops the print heads from drying and allows the heads to use a little less ink as a lubricant, which significantly increases the life of each cartridge. However, this still does not mean that a printer print head will never go dry. The user still needs to print occasionally to keep it in working order. Many printers have automatic head cleaning cycles. This cleans out the print heads through a short mechanical process. The printer pumps a small amount of ink through the heads, clearing out any dry ink, air bubbles and blockages. Usually, this occurs when the printer is turned on or woken from a hibernation, but it is good practice for the printer user to run a cycle if the print quality drops off.
Over the last 20 years, printer manufacturers have improved the design of their cartridges to minimise ink waste. The latest cartridge designs use quite small heads and small, airtight ink reservoirs. Bigger office printers use larger, single colour cartridges, which minimize wasted ink by allowing only that specific colour to be replaced rather than the tricolour system where all three colours are replaced even though only one colour may have been depleted. However, while modern printers are more efficient than the older machines, their ink cartridges cost much the same if not more than the older equivalent.
The cost of cartridges is pushed up by manufacturers continuous expenditure on research and development and patents on their designs to try and prevent aftermarket generic manufacturers producing much more affordable cartridges.
Fortunately, consumers have many inexpensive and eco-friendly choices to choose from when buying online. Ink Cartridge Online offer generic inks for virtually every new printer on the market. These cartridges use similar but not identical designs as OEM cartridges and are extremely efficient. By using generic printer cartridges and by shopping online, printer owners can save huge amounts of money each year off the of cost of the ink while also being an environmentally friendly cartridge option.