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If you got here from a search engine, then click here for our site menu About InkMagic International Ltd. and the development of the InkMagic product line.
1995 – Research and the first InkMagic Premium Inkjet Refill Kits roll off the assembly line. InkMagic International Ltd. began manufacturing inkjet refill kits in 1995. It was one of the first companies in Canada to produce premium quality inkjet refill kits. The president of our company, Mr. Dale R. Farrier, owned and operated a very successful computer retail business in Calgary, Alberta at the time. The company name was Sound Computer Services and had been in operation since 1987. As a hobbyist photographer, Mr. Farrier quickly realized the cost of printing color photographs on color inkjet printers was prohibitive. He would often exclaim, "It is as expensive as using my darkroom." Research into products available to refill inkjet cartridges revealed that most inkjet refill kits had very poor instructions and the coloration of the ink was, in almost all cases, far from matching that of the original cartridge. A refilled cartridge using the kits which were currently on the market simply did not produce the quality and coloration needed in the printing of photographs. Mr. Farrier proceeded to contact ink manufacturers all over North America. Dozens of samples later, he discovered only two companies manufacturing ink which met his stringent qualifications. One was a Canadian company and one was an American company. We still purchase all of our premium ink from these two companies even though we could purchase our ink from dozens of manufacturers, at half the price. There is a reason for this … Each ink is color corrected to the ink in the original cartridge, therefore a photograph printed with a refilled cartridge using InkMagic ink, looks virtually identical to one printed with an original cartridge. Each ink is also manufactured with same flow, consistency and micro-refining characteristics as the original. This is the only way to ensure the cartridge performance remains unchanged after refilling. Many refill kits were messy to use simply because squeeze bottles were being used. These are the accordion type bottle with a needle on the top. It is very difficult to inject the ink into the cartridge slow enough with a squeeze bottle. Overfilling is also a problem because you cannot accurately gauge the amount of ink which you have injected. The only solution is to provide medical quality syringes in the kits. You wouldn’t want your doctor or nurse injecting that miracle medicine in your arm with a squeeze bottle, now would you? Initially (for about the first 3 months) InkMagic Inkjet Refill Kits had a sharp, medical needle. This was replaced with a blunt needle, for obvious safety reasons. Poor instruction sheets seem to be an industry standard. Most are poor photocopies of poor photocopies. Three line instruction sheets are not uncommon. 1) Poke hole in cartridge. 2) Inject ink. 3) Put cartridge back in printer. We have produced full-color, detailed instruction sheets for each and every refill kit. Most have diagrams. We then had retail customers, just like you, use the kits and give us feedback on the ease of use and how the refilling instructions could be improved. As a result, each instruction sheet states precautions and refilling information particular to the cartridge being filled. We also include general information on how an inkjet printer works and how many times you can expect to refill a cartridge before it must be replaced. Mr. Farrier also realized the amount of ink which you could put into a cartridge without excessive dripping and a mess was different from the amount of ink which the cartridge could hold if it was brand new and had never had ink in it. The later is the amount which most refill kits instruct you to use. Unfortunately, if you try to squeeze in the maximum amount of ink, you will almost always over-saturate the sponge. Not only will this probably result in ink coming out of the fill hole and all over your hands, but it could also lead to excessive dripping and possible printer damage if the over-filled cartridge is put back in the printer while dripping. The least it will cause is a terrible mess inside the printer, which is hard to clean up. Experience dictates that all these problems are overcome simply by using a little less ink and refilling a little more often. While each of these points is not significant by themselves, the overall improvement is very real and noticeable to the novice refiller. 1997 – Retail and Wholesale Distribution. In 1997 retail and wholesale distribution channels were established. Since then InkMagic Products are available at many computer stores throughout all of Western Canada.
1999 – Research and the InkMagic Premium Inkjet Compatible Cartridges are introduced. Many retailers and end-users of our refill kits asked to have premium quality compatible cartridges. As with our inkjet refill kits, the ink in our Inkjet Compatible Cartridges is color corrected to the original cartridge and is also manufactured with same flow, consistency and micro-refining characteristics as the original. Every InkMagic Compatible cartridge will perform exactly like the original, but at substantial savings to you. 2000 – Research and the InkMagic Premium Remanufactured Laser Cartridges are introduced. Again, many retailers and end-users of our inkjet products asked us to introduce a line of premium quality laser cartridges. The cost of producing compatible laser cartridges is prohibitive for just about any company smaller than Xerox and LexMark. While these two companies have recently introduced a line of HP compatible cartridges, this doesn’t address the issue of thousands of empty laser cartridges going to the landfill sites of North America every day. It is estimated that if all empty cartridges sent annually to landfills in the U.S. were put end-to-end, they would stretch from the east coast to the west coast. This is an incredible amount of waste when you consider that the average laser cartridge is composed of 2 – 3 pints of oil and up to 3 pounds of non-biodegradable plastic in it. Mr. Farrier (remember him, he’s the president of our company) first researched the remanufacturing of laser cartridges in the early 1990’s. He found the industry had not progressed to the point where it could be done dependably. The replacement (called "after-market") toner was of poor quality, replacement drums, if available, were inferior. Equipment to test the condition of an empty cartridge was not available. The remanufacturing of laser cartridges wasn’t really remanufacturing at all. In most cases, it was simply a "drill and fill" type of industry. (Drill a hole and dump in toner … pray that the drum and other critical components would last ‘til the toner ran out.) Repeat as often as you could get away with it. To our shock, a computer retailer who will remain unnamed, told us in late 1999 that this was exactly how he did it with laser cartridges for some of the area schools! Be aware, "drill and fill" is not yet dead … although we feel there is no excuse with today’s technology. Well, we are glad to say this has all changed. We can now remanufacture laser cartridges and expect the same performance, page count, graphic quality and failure rate as you would expect from a brand new original. It appears HP is doing it. Most consumers buying "brand new" HP laser cartridges don’t realize that their "brand new" cartridge could actually be a remanufactured cartridge. Most consumable retailers don’t even know! If you look on the side of a HP laser cartridge box, you may see in small (very small) print "This newly manufactured product may contain parts and material recovered from the HP Planet Partners recycling program." It is not on all of the boxes, so it leads us to believe that this statement may only appear on those cartridges which contain recycled components … in other words, it is remanufactured. Unfortunately, HP has not seen fit to lower the price of these "newly manufactured" cartridges to that of a remanufactured cartridge, nor have they chosen to clearly label the product as "remanufactured". Mr. Farrier’s research into the laser cartridge remanufacturing industry revealed inconsistent and what we feel is deceptive labeling. Particularly in the U.S., but now spreading to Canada, is the term "compatible laser cartridge". As mentioned earlier, the only two companies to our knowledge who are producing real, true-to-life "compatible" laser cartridges are Xerox and LexMark. Their "compatible" cartridges are not recycled, but are "new". Likewise the price points for these cartridges are almost the same as an original. The "compatible laser cardtridge" as Mr. Farrier discovered, are actually
"remanufactured". Apparently in the U.S. a company can label a cartridge as "compatible" if
it has a certain percentage of new components. It doesn’t change the fa!-š
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