Seeing that companies like HP and IBM put a lot of R&D into keeping their ink cartridges proprietary and hard to refill, why couldn't there be a printer where the cart is designed to be easily replenished and not the other way around? Is there any kind of printer out there where refilling ink is more like refilling oil or gasoline in a car? It would just be nice to be able to open a cap and pour an ink well in and press print. I like that with reprap, all that's needed is a standardized fillament. I hope there's somethink similar with conventional printing, but google isn't turning anything up for me.

Most of the big companies tried both ways and for them the current method is better, and it is happening too in the 3D business. The big bucks are in the consumables not in the equipment. A company doesn't survive on the 30,000 printers they sell, they survive out of the 3,000,000 cartridges that will be used on those printers.

You can refill just about any inkjet cartridge out there.
You may need a chip resetter for some.
4 bottles of ink B CMY ------ 4 hypo needles ------ 1 small drill piece of tape.

But out on net they are so cheep -- you don't have to refill

I suspect that when HP, Epson start release 3D printer the carts will be very expensive and NOT refillable

DaVinci 3D printer has cartridges with chips in them --- there are resetter circuits for those allready.

Thank you for the help

Exactly what the others said. They earn much more profits selling proprietary ink cartridges.

Just buy a brother brand printer. Most of them have large refillable cartriges, or even downright cheap cartriges. The one I own has large cartriges that last 1000+ pages and only cost about 5USD for a set. The model number is MFC-j430w. The printer is wifi enabled and supports android as well as IOS. They sell oversize tanks that require you to remove the ink door on the front as well as cartriges that have built in fill ports as well as a never ending ink supply which means you get 1/4L of ink for every cartridge. They are fairly fragile though and the printer requires a reboot every couple of weeks otherwise the wifi goes flaky. Not a bad printer all in all, and compact.

---

My Personal Blog. Build blog.
[engineerd3d.ddns.net]

Modicum V1 sold on e-bay user jaguarking11

You could ofcourse just attach a pen to your 3D-printer, but that's no answer to your question.

I've seen people build an open-source candlewax printer, that was pretty awesome.


Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, my mother has a printer with refills that you can make yourself, not illegally, but really meant like that! But I remember it didn't work that well, I could ask her what brand it was, I'm sure it wasn't anything well-known.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2014 11:16AM by Ohmarinus.

---

http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

Quote
jaguarking11
Just buy a brother brand printer. Most of them have large refillable cartriges, or even downright cheap cartriges. The one I own has large cartriges that last 1000+ pages and only cost about 5USD for a set. The model number is MFC-j430w. The printer is wifi enabled and supports android as well as IOS. They sell oversize tanks that require you to remove the ink door on the front as well as cartriges that have built in fill ports as well as a never ending ink supply which means you get 1/4L of ink for every cartridge. They are fairly fragile though and the printer requires a reboot every couple of weeks otherwise the wifi goes flaky. Not a bad printer all in all, and compact.

I totally agree with jaguarking11. I had 3 printers before I own the Brother. The HP, Epson and Cannon all charge a redicules price for the cartriges. Especially Epsob, a set of RGBBk is almost twice as much as the printer itself! Not to mention the cartridges don't even last and are awkward as best to replace. The Brother printer however, the cartriges are inexpensive and easy to replace. The only printer that lasts me almost five years.

As for refilling the cartriges, it is a messy job.

Quote
Ohmarinus
You could ofcourse just attach a pen to your 3D-printer, but that's no answer to your question.

I've seen people build an open-source candlewax printer, that was pretty awesome.


Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, my mother has a printer with refills that you can make yourself, not illegally, but really meant like that! But I remember it didn't work that well, I could ask her what brand it was, I'm sure it wasn't anything well-known.

Illegally?????

... some years ago I too had a 'Brother'-printer with refillable cartouches -- but you had to use 'original brand' inks, or the nozzles starts clogging or the printed result in colours wasn't perfect neither

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Quote
VDX
... some years ago I too had a 'Brother'-printer with refillable cartouches -- but you had to use 'original brand' inks, or the nozzles starts clogging or the printed result in colours wasn't perfect neither

They've got a lot better these days. I use 3rd party ink in an a3 photo printer that works well. Quality can be variable, but I find amazon reviews of inks to be quite reliable.

If filament cost the same as branded printer ink, assuming a litre weights about a kg, and using HP black ink as a benchmark, your spool would cost $5500 (£3500).

Google "CIS" or "CISS". I've been told they're amazing. Also, laser printers.

The new cartridges are not cheap. In some countries $300 is fairly good monthly earnings. And it is not Africa or something.

Yes, you can refill most printers, but they will soon have their printing heads burnt because of designed obsolescence.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2016 08:22AM by mnom.