Original Cartridge (OEM)
A cartridge manufactured by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), aka “printer company” such as HP, Brother, Canon and Lexmark. Printer companies don’t make their fortunes selling printers. They make it selling ink.
Refill
When you provide an empty inkjet cartridge and we fill it with ink, that’s a refill. We only refill inkjet cartridges. We refill inkjet cartridges while you wait or you can drop them off and pick them up at your convenience. The best time to get your inkjet cartridge refilled is shortly after it goes empty, before it dries up and the print head nozzles clog. Once it dries up and clogs it will have to be “REMANUFACTURED.” It will have to be cleaned before it can be refilled which is why remanufactured cartridges cost a little more.
Remanufactured Inkjet Cartridge
Inkjet and toner cartridges go through a different remanufacturing process. Inkjet cartridges are flushed, the print heads are cleaned, and the cartridge is refilled. Toner cartridges are disassembled and key components are replaced before new toner is added.
Compatible Cartridge
Compatibles are new mostly “ink tank” cartridges that are made by third parties but which work in place of the original. Most compatible are replacements for Brother and Canon “ink tanks.” There are no compatibles for “print head” cartridges because the print heads are patented.
Ink Tank Cartridge
Some printers have built in print heads that are separate from the ink supply tanks. Ink tanks are containers that supply ink to the printer’s print heads. The print heads do the printing, the ink tanks hold the ink. Epson and Brother printers are examples of printers that use this technology exclusively.
Print head printers
Print head printers have print heads built into the printer. Tanks of ink (cartridges) sit on top of the heads and supply ink to the print heads. They usually have four, five, or six cartridges. Most Epson and Brother inkjet printers and many Canon printers have built in print heads. HP has introduced print head printers in the last several years. Print heads do go bad and have to be replaced. They’re expensive. Sometimes its less expensive to replace the printer. On the plus side for consumers the ink tanks that sit on top of print heads can be reproduced by 3rd parties and sold at prices much lower than originals.
Print Head Cartridges
Standalone cartridges that have the print heads built into the cartridge. The cartridges do all the printing. When you replace the cartridge you also replace the print head. Print head cartridges are usually more expensive than ink tank cartridges. Print head cartridges usually work with black and tri-color pairs. Since print heads are patented and are difficult for 3rd party manufacturers to reproduce there are no compatibles that work in place of print head cartridges. Print head cartridges can be refilled but not reproduced. This works to the advantage of the OEMs.
Inkjet Cartridge
This from Wikipedia: Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper, plastic, or other substrates. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer,[1] and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, or more.
Toner Cartridge
This from Wikipedia: A toner cartridge, also called laser toner, is the consumable component of a laser printer. Toner cartridges contain toner powder, a fine, dry mixture of plastic particles, carbon, and black or other coloring agents that make the actual image on the paper. The toner is transferred to paper via an electrostatically charged drum unit, and fused onto the paper by heated rollers during the printing process.
Toner Cartridge Drum
This from Wikipedia: A laser beam projects an image of the page to be printed onto an electrically charged rotating drum coated with selenium or, more common in modern printers, organic photoconductors. Photoconductivity allows charge to leak away from the areas exposed to light. Powdered ink (toner) particles are then electrostatically picked up by the drum’s charged areas, which have not been exposed to light. The drum then prints the image onto paper by direct contact and heat, which fuses the ink to the paper.
Toner Cartridge Developer
This from Wikipedia:
The “developer” is actually a collection of small, negatively charged magnetic beads. These beads are attached to a rotating metal roller, which moves them through the toner in the toner hopper.
Because they are negatively charged, the developer beads collect the positive toner particles as they pass through. The roller then brushes the beads past the drum assembly. The electrostatic image has a stronger negative charge than the developer beads, so the drum pulls the toner particles away.
The drum then moves over the paper, which has an even stronger charge and so grabs the toner. After collecting the toner, the paper is immediately discharged by the detac corona wire. At this point, the only thing keeping the toner on the page is gravity — if you were to blow on the page, you would completely lose the image. The page must pass through the fuser to affix the toner. The fuser rollers are heated by internalquartz tube lamps, so the plastic in the toner melts as it passes through.
XL (as in HP 901XL)
It’s short for “high capacity.” Ten years ago a standard HP black ink cartridge held about 40ml of ink and sold for about $30. Now a “standard capacity” black cartridge holds about 5ml and sells for about $15. In recent years HP and other companies have introduced the XL cartridge. The black XL holds about 15ml and sells for about $35-$40.
Page Yield
Back in the good ole days ink companies printed the ink volume (how much ink the cartridge holds in mls)on the cartridge label. After years of relentlessly reducing the amount of ink in cartridges ink volume is an embarrassment to them. They no longer print it on cartridge labels. Ink volume has become a carefully guarded secret.
The only thing we have to go by in determining ink volume is the cartridge’s page yield, representing how many pages the cartridge will print at 5% coverage. 5% coverage is a double spaced page with plain print, no fonts, bold text, or graphics. Page yield over estimates how many pages a cartridge will print.
