The two firms fell out after Collins was left with a $1.9m (£1.2m) bad debt after Kodak entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012. Prior to that Collins was forced by a US federal judge to keep supplying Kodak with ink despite the ink maker’s fears over Kodak’s precarious financial position.

Collins subsequently went into direct competition with Kodak and launched its own range of inks for Kodak’s Versamark and Prosper inkjet systems, along with a printhead refurbishment service. It took legal action against Kodak to prevent it from applying “punitive” printhead refurbishment surcharges to customers that were using Collins inks rather than Kodak’s own-brand.

Philip Cullimore, who was promoted to president of Kodak’s Enterprise Inkjet Systems division at the end of last year, said one of his key objectives in the new role had been to resolve the dispute.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but Collins ink is now officially approved for use in Kodak Versamark printing systems. Kodak will also offer printhead refurbishment regardless of whether the ink used was from Kodak or Collins.

Kodak is also adding Collins inks to the index files used to setup its DH90 and DH91 printheads.

Cullimore said the two firms would now “get back to jointly innovating new variable data solutions for our customers around the world.”

Collins Inkjet chief executive Lawrence Gamblin said: “I am delighted that Philip and I have managed to get our business relationship back to the customer-focused level that we had previously enjoyed.”

Collins has been making inkjet inks for Versamark equipment since 1990 and its range includes bespoke inks for specific customer applications and performance characteristics.