Ink expiration dates

[Rojo]

I was offered a good price on ink so I bought a little extra to save a buc or two. The expiration dates on this ink range from one month from now to about six months. If I wouldn't have checked the individual cartridge dates some of these could have expired before I new it. For those with experience what would you say is generally the length of time before expiration when you buy ink? I'm trying to determine if I should have my sales rep replace these. Maybe this is why I was offered a "good deal".

 

[speedmedia]

If you buy the ink from a dealer it is normally about 8 months to year from what I have found. Even thought they expire very soon you can use the for about a month or so after the expiration date. All this is is another way to get you to buy more ink, the ink is fine, will work fine and will print fine.

For some reason Mimaki does stuff like this with all of their parts and pieces. I love my Mimaki printer but I do not love some of the things that go along with it.

Thanks,
Kurt Dietrich
Speed Media

 

[Ken Sankey]

We run an HP 9000 and some of the inks we have put in the past were expired, however, the prints came out fine and seemed to work good. I believe the error message the machine gives when using them could be cause for warranty issues down the road by your dealer if your under a warranty yet. Its only a guess. Hard to estimate how long inks are parked on any distributor shelf before getting ordered.

 

[ColesCreations]

Search this forum for directions on how to remove the battery and reset the printer to show 01012005 in the date. Then you will not have to worry about expiration dates anymore. I've done it, and have helped others, with no problems whatsoever.

 

[premiercolour]

If you dont want to research at all, just a straight solution for the expirated chips. We offer mimaki chip for $10/pc. We sold these chips to couple members here also. Just unscrew the old chip; put the all chip back in. It is ready to work.

Francis
949-209-7306

 

[Rojo]

Could I take the chip off a cartridge I'm not using that say, expires later this year, swap it onto a cartridge that is going to expire this month and return it to the original cartridge when I use up the cartridge ink? Has anyone tried this?

 

[ColesCreations]

Yes you can, but then your other cartridge will not work. It is the chip that "remembers how much ink you have used.

Do the battery reset, you will not regret it, I do not recommend resettable chips as long as you are running original inks, due to nice having warnings when cartridge is empty.

 

[Goodgirl]

From what I was told...

*** Mimaki has changed their ink manufacturer and from here on out these inks will only have a shelf life of 6 months. From this point on when you are sold an ink from a dealer they will not be able to take these inks back even if it is close to the expiration date. Mimaki has made it clear that they will not take back any returns on these inks due to expiring cartridges. They have also said that you can use these inks up to 30 days after the expiration date without a problem. However the chip will not work after that point.

If you use another chip or another way to bi-pass this and anything happens to the heads unfortunately you will be help responsible. Not the manufacturer. Please keep this in mind.

So please be aware of sales from your distributor and be clear on the expiration date at the time of placing your order. (just a suggestion)

Maybe check with your distributor to see about third party inks.

 

[MachServTech]

I would advise you do not use solvent inks that are past expiration. I have replaced too many parts because of the pigment falling out of solution in the lines.

 

[premiercolour]

"Mimaki has changed their ink manufacturer"

I wonder the people who are against oem think now. No offense just thought I'd like to point these out:

1. New ink: might clog with my original mimaki ink
2. New ink: might need new profiles
3. New ink: something's going to tear down my machine

This is disappointing when I heard the news of that Even Mimaki will not replace their own chips. It probably costs them couple bucks to replace the chips.

We have the chips to prevent expiration date for most of the large format printers. Give me a call if you need anything. Chip is one liter, $10/ea.

Francis
949-209-7306
sales@fieldcenterusa.com

 

[ColesCreations]

To MachServTech
You state you have replaced heads due to "pigment falling out"...
What type printer, and which inks?
Throwing out a statement like that justifies more of an explanation, as I am not the only one running inks more than a year out of date with no heads blocked.
Has anyone here ever had problems with their Mimakis relating to expired OEM ink?
I firmly believe that the primary reason for using these dates is to sell more ink.
PS: Today I removed all 8 cartridges and shook 'em, just to make sure no pigments would fall out... Some of the cartridges had been in the printer for 6 months, we don't print a whole lot, and we're not about to replace expensive ink just because some people in Japan wants to make more money!

 

[ColesCreations]

And to Fieldcenter:

There are chips on the market that renew themselves every time you power up the printer. Why should we the users buy 1 liter chips?

No offence, I am sure your products are great, but it would really suck having to buy new chips all the time.

Please explain.

Sorry for sidetracking the thread...

 

[premiercolour]

Reply To ColesCreations:

We have most of the printer parts you could find in the market including cartridge chip. 220ml, 440ml 1 liter, 10 liter or permanent chips.

One liter chip is for people who want to try the ink with pre-filled cartridges. Permanent chips are for customers who want to use bulk system. Why would people want to pay permanent chips(x10) just want to try the ink out? You dont see mimaki cartridges come with permanent chips.

We carry Japanese made eco solvent ink with best-est price and quality offer here at signs101.

One liter chip: $7
Permanent Chip: $80

Francis-

 

[Artgunner]

Search this forum for directions on how to remove the battery and reset the printer to show 01012005 in the date. Then you will not have to worry about expiration dates anymore. I've done it, and have helped others, with no problems whatsoever.

And... what key words do you use for this search? I tried and it brings me back to this thread. Purchase of the chip is an option however I would like more info on all this. I have a JV33.

Art

Is this it?... Changing date backwards on JV3.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have seen several posts on changing the date, or other tricks to be able to use outdated ink cartridges.

When setting up our machine, we suddenly ended up with November 2008 on the clock, which caused the whole thing to freeze up, just dashes where the ink remaining should be.

Should be no big deal I thought, just set the date back to the correct date...

This does NOT work on the JV3-160SP! You cannot move the date backwards, not even a day! Not even in #-mode!

Tried to get a hold of tech help, but as usual unavailable, and printer needed routine cleaning cycle.

Solution: Removed the cover behind the firewire card, took out the fw card and removed the battery on the main board for a few minutes, put everything back together, and booted up.

Was a bit worried, but figured anything is better than clogged heads!

Anyway, date now says 010105, and any old expired ink cartridge will work.

PS: printer still prints fine, only settings changed were heater and some other minor things. 10 minute job.

Other posts have mentioned using the chip from a newer ink cartridge, which of course will work, but ink level is then stored in the chip, and when you move the chip back to the "new" cartridge, it will show whatever it showed before you removed it from the old cartridge.

Hope this will be of use to someone...

 

[premiercolour]

If doesn't work moving dates backward, call me for the jv33 chip. $7 pc+ shipping.

Francis
(949)209-7306
sales@fieldcenterusa.com

 

[InkSignsAndBanners]

I followed the instructions ColeCreations left on another thread for removing my battery momentarily to restore the factory date setting of 2005, and it worked beautifully. I am receiving the error message "Battery Exchange" when I boot up, but the message does not interfere with operation and may be caused by me not tightening the connection well enough when I reinserted the battery. Actually, I didn't know how to remove the battery and didn't want to screw it up, so I pulled it away from the connection long enough for it to think it was removed, and that may be the culprit. There's always the chance I simply made the system realize the battery was low. Any ideas on that would be greatly appreciated. In any event, I appreciate the solution! Now I can use the ink we have lying around from putting the machine in storage for 2 months. (We relocated this machine from Atlanta, GA to Charleston, SC!)

www.InkSignsAndBanners.com

 

[ColesCreations]

To InkSigns: Welcome!

Glad it worked for you!

Hope you got the email I sent in reply to yours.

Of course- your battery MAY be bad, since you have relocated the printer and it is a few years old. I would not worry about taking out the battery completely, not much of a chance to ruin anything, as long as you put it back in the same way.

And to ArtGunner- Yup- that's how I did it myself, still working.

 

[premiercolour]

The jv33 chip is now $10+ shipping. Each chip allows 1liter of ink.

 

[gabagoo]

I have a black ink that expired feb and the printer always gave me the inklimit readout every day. Now it is march and the warning is gone and the printer is still using the cartridge. Do I have until the end of march?