With the potential for savings of up to 40% on OEM-manufactured inks, more and more print companies are switching to third-party suppliers. As a result, there is more feedback than ever about how third-party inks are performing. Some claim the scare stories are true, that these inks do block up your printheads, reduce quality and limit flexibility. But others have found the opposite to be true: that OEM inks are actually being outperformed by some third-party alternatives.
Andy Wilson, managing director of UK wide-format printer Press On Digital Imaging, calls it "putting the frighteners on". Others call it useful advice. So what’s the truth about third-party inks?
Deciding whether or not to switch to a cheaper alternative, then, is as difficult as ever, and made tougher still when service packages and differing ink technologies are brought into the equation. Normally, you wouldn’t expect any help from an OEM in swaying you either way - it has a vested interest after all – but Fujifilm group marketing manager for graphics Tudor Morgan says this is not necessarily the case.
While he says that imported solvent inks don’t travel well, he admits that, because they have been on the market for around 15 years, the technology is established enough for third-party manufacturers to have made the investment to provide a product with only "very small differences" from the OEM product. UV inks, however, are a different matter.
"For UV inks and UV inkjet, you are better off staying with the OEM’s own inks, as the manufacturer will have invested huge amounts in R&D and the third-party manufacturers will not be able to catch up for years," he claims.
He describes the results of switching to a third-party UV ink as a potential loss of colour, vibrancy, stability and flexibility. That 40% saving, he says, will quickly be eaten up by reprints and a drop in productivity.
A costly mistake
One printer found this very situation when he switched to a third-party, water-based UV ink for his HP Z6000 machines. Among the many problems were colour shifts, the ink not drying properly and blocked heads.
"They just kept sending new cartridges and telling us to give it more time," says the printer, who wishes to remain anonymous. "It got to the point where we had to give up and switch back to the OEM inks."
A few bad apples
On that evidence, you’d wonder why anyone would opt for third-party products, regardless of the potential savings. But Sun Chemical digital after-market business manager Tony Cox says it is a case of a few suppliers letting the more credible ink companies down.
"After-market inks have a bad reputation because some suppliers who may have oversold what they are capable of servicing. We have to overcome that," says Cox.
Sun supplies inks that aim to match the OEM inks as closely as possible. Cox says the company is "very careful" about compatibility and that it is confident a flawless switch can be made and, he claims, that far from being inferior to OEM inks, third-party inks can surpass them.
A change for the better
This is echoed by Press On’s Wilson. Originally, both his UV and his solvent machines ran OEM inks. On the UV machines, he switched to third-party inks after the OEM exited the sector. He tried out a third-party supplier, Nazdar, and was amazed.
"This ink was not just better; it turned out to be a massive improvement on the original. It used less volume to get the colour gamut, it was more flexible to use and had better adhesion qualities," he says.
The inks for his solvent machines were then changed by the OEM to a new formula and, within a week, four of his machines had ground to a halt. The decision was made to switch to Nazdar for solvents as well.
"The vibrancy was better, the gamut was wider and we noticed straightaway that we weren’t getting as many head drop-outs," he states.
The OEM versus third-party debate is, then, a finely balanced one.
What is key, though, is that the old stigma attached to third-party options should not be accepted as fact. As Wilson says: "I don’t see why it should be a faux pas going out to buy third-party inks, who said the OEM was better in the first place?"
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