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Wide format
Third dimension
The accountant will love them but your equipment supplier will most likely hate
them: use of third party inks is said to be on the rise in the wide format sector.
Digital Printer looks at the issues involved.
T
hird party inks in the wide format
market can save a print company
money and they might provide additional application options too, but
they also have the potential to inflict
a bad experience on a printer, with damage to
the print head a typical outcome in such
cases. For peace of mind therefore, a great
many printers stick to the OEM-recommended
inks, even though they usually cost more.
These are the choices that printers operating
wide format equipment have, and according
to Clive Harper of Ink & Print, which sells Van
Son third party inks, increasing numbers of UK
printers are choosing the third party option.
He told Digital Printer: ‘It’s an interesting market to be involved in and it’s a market that is
growing. We started with it two years ago and
probably grew 50% last year. In Southern
Ireland, the majority use third party inks but in
the UK it’s only 20-30%. I think people in the
UK are a bit more cautious, but that is lifting to
a degree.’
He said that companies might save as much
as 30% on their ink costs by using third party
inks instead of OEM, making its attraction obvious. These are not the only benefits though,
according to Rich Dunklee, global market segment manager for Nazdar’s UV inkjet inks, who
said that wider colour and adhesion gamuts
can also be developed. ‘OEM inks are typically engineered for versatility, so that a user can
get the most out of a piece of equipment,’ he
www.digitalprintermag.co.uk
before you do damage to the printer is hit and
said. ‘In developing a third party ink, we can
miss, so I would caution against that as a suptake two different approaches. First, we can
plier to the print industry. If you prefer peace
develop an ink that increases either the colour
of mind you are always safer with the
range of the OEM ink, or increases the variety
genuine inks.’
of substrates that our ink will adhere to; someNot surprisingly, Epson is ‘not a fan of third
times we can achieve both. In other cases, we
party inks’, Mr McMullin said, adding: ‘Our
develop speciality inks that make one specific
belief is that by designfeature, like adhesion to a
ing the chassis, the print
difficult substrate,
head and the inks we
even better.’
can control all aspects
Clive Harper observes
of the print experience
that third party ink develfor the customer and
opers have been able to
deliver consistent
improve original OEM ink
colour when they want
characteristics, and get
it. We put a lot of effort
them to market more
into that and the two
quickly.
most important parts of
The fact is though that
the triangle are the
not all inks are made
piezo print head and
equal – a point that
the inks. We are
seems accepted by the
researching and designthird party ink manufacturing the ink sets that will
ers/suppliers and the
‘By designing the chassis,
be reliable through our
OEM manufacturers –
print heads. We feel that
and this is where it gets the print head and the
if you change any comconfusing for the ink
inks we can control all
ponent of that by putuser, according to
aspects of the print experi- ting third party inks in
Epson’s Phil McMullin.
‘Some third party inks
ence for the customer and you are opening yourself up to inconsistency
are quite good and
deliver consistent colour
in the print process
some are not,’ he told
Digital Printer. ‘Trying to when they want it.’
potentially. I’m not sugfind the right ones
gesting that some of the
Phil McMullin, Epson
September 2015
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Wide format
manufacturers are not producing them in a
good environment, but we go to extreme
measures to produce inks in clean rooms.
Picture high tech facilities with people dressed
in white suits, gloves and masks; temperature
controlled rooms; no contamination: that’s the
environment we are producing our inks in
and we believe it’s critical in maintaining
that consistency.’
When a customer has been using third party
inks on an Epson printer and these have
caused damage to it, the case is easily proven,
he said, and the warranty will be invalidated.
It is very clear how the issue has been caused
when the company’s engineers do their analysis and interrogate the firmware.
from companies that don’t have a long history
of making high quality inks. Nazdar has 90-plus
years of experience in making high quality inks,
the last 30 of which have included inks for the
inkjet market. We maintain dedicated R&D and
test lab facilities for the development and testing of UV, solvent, and water-based inks for
inkjet products.’
Van Son is ‘very careful’ with its pigment
selection, said Clive Harper, and would not
introduce an ink without being certain of its
suitability because of the potential damage to
its name and reputation in the market place.
The advice for printers from Robin Titterington
Good and bad
There are a number of issues that arise from Mr
McMullin’s words: the variable quality of third
party inks, the degree of investment that such
manufacturers can and do put into research
and testing, and the invalidating of a machine
warranty through (typically) damaging the
print head.
Clive Harper from Ink & Print does not deny
that there have been some bad experiences,
saying that five or six years ago there were
products coming from the Far East. ‘People got
their fingers burnt; those inks were not ready
for the market and that has stuck in
people’s minds.’
‘The market is flooded with stories of experiences, both good and bad. The bad experiences tend to get the most attention,’ said
Rich Dunklee.
Robin Titterington from Think Ink Solutions,
which sells Imaginx wide format inks for
Roland and Mimaki printers, accepted that
‘unfortunately there are good companies and
there are bad ones that do not show the same
degree of professionalism in either the development process, production and/or final QC
process’, and Chris Bailey of Nazdar reseller
QPS explained that some problems do not
become apparent until the work is completed
to switch to a third party ink. Problems can
range from premature fading and loss of
colour to UV ink adhesion issues resulting in
ink films actually peeling away or cracking
away from substrates.
Clearly, once a decision has been made to
look into the third party ink market, it is important to research the potential suppliers. ‘Users
should make sure that they are dealing with a
reputable, established ink manufacturer for
their third party inks, and one that offers an ink
warranty,’ said Rich Dunklee of Nazdar. ‘They
should be leery of offers of the lowest price
www.digitalprintermag.co.uk
‘Five or six years ago there
were products coming from
the Far East. People got
their fingers burnt; those
inks were not ready for the
market and that has stuck
in people’s minds.’
Clive Harper, Ink & Print
is to ask the usual questions that they would
ask of any supplier to make sure that it ticks all
the boxes. He also recommended using
companies that have a presence in Europe.
‘Inks are now made all over the world but
unless they have a sales office or agent locally,
I would not buy the ink,’ he said.
Most reputable third party ink suppliers will
offer a warranty policy and full technical support. Nazdar claims to have the strongest warranty available from a third party ink supplier,
and Rich Dunklee says that the company
‘guarantees exceptional product performance
when used correctly, or we will repair or pay
for the repair of your equipment’. Clive Harper
said that while Ink & Print offers a warranty to
cover for damage to a printing system caused
by the use of its inks, no customer has ever
had to fall back upon that warranty. It exists to
give customers peace of mind and overcome
the initial reluctance that some may feel to putting anything other than OEM inks through their
printing system.
Better dialogue
The relationships between OEMs and third
party ink suppliers appear to be somewhat
patchy. Phil McMullin said that Epson would
‘absolutely not’ work with a third party ink
developer, since it makes its own inks, and nor
would it support a reseller that would sell third
party inks. Clive Harper said that though there
are some ink companies working with OEMs
and sharing technology, the Van Son inks are
developed completely independently. Chris
Bailey of QPS said it will work with OEMs
where possible and does so with Roland DG
for dye sublimation applications.
‘The relationship between OEM and alternative ink suppliers continues to be good and
bad,’ admitted Robin Titterington. ‘Some companies work very closely with OEMs and
some, by the nature of the business, are
known to the OEMs but not really liked, or
should I say are dismissed. If they become a
total nuisance or have products which are
superior to those currently available, this
tends to lead to a better dialogue. We do
carry out work for some OEMs currently in
various markets.’
At the end of the day, this comes down to
peace of mind and value for money. From the
OEM’s perspective, it wants to make money
on its inks. Beyond that, why trust a brand
enough to buy its printing technology and then
take a risk on something as vitally important as
the inks? This is the question that Phil McMullin
puts forward.
The fact is however that a number of print
companies do exactly this and are reaping the
rewards. QPS puts forward several customer
testimonials to confirm this, one of whom is
Paul Austin, managing director of W.A.E Group,
a Leeds-based sign printing firm. He said: ‘The
inks are an exact colour and performance
match to the OEM inks and the cost savings
are obviously a key benefit to us. However, in
order to make the business case work, it was
crucial that the quality and adhesion of the inks
was comparable to the OEM inks and this
proved to be the case.’ n
September 2015