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old ink
- Thread starter TCC
- Start date
TCC
Premium Subscriber
The bad thing about the mimaki ink is that about 30 days beyond the date the printer shuts down until you put in new ink. At $124.00 per cartdridge if you are not printing enough you throw away alot of money. Some of the colors get used no problem but the black seems to end up getting wasted and lost. It is just alittle thing that gets under my skin I guess. Maybe just having a bad day.
Guess it time to call it a day.
iSign
New Member
Yes, I hear that the US economic slowdown, (which may almost be a global slowdown as far as I know) has resulted in a vastly reduced consumption rate, & the Mimaki ink manufacturer is sitting on a back stock resulting in all our suppliers encountering the same unacceptable reduction in remaining shelf life. That is a problem for some of us, because nobody sells sign supplies on this island. It takes me 2 or 3 days to get inks at expensive RUSH rates, or over a week otherwise.
Advantage Sign Supply is my main vendor because of their great prices on the purchase of my Mimaki & their exceptional support on all my edge & printing equipment & software. They know I like to keep an extra set of inks on hand in case I ever get some massive rush job, but I am used to getting 4 to 6 months shelf life. 2 or 3 weeks ago I asked them if they had some fresh inks & he told me to wait. He mentioned that Mimaki has been stingy with them on anything fresh too. I ended up calling another vendor this week & found that they just received a shipment & had nothing dated out beyond May. I called Advantage again & they had a full set of June and July dates for me, so I ordered a set.
Many of you probably know about the merchant here, Fieldcenter, who can sell a freshness chip (that's my name for it, I don't know what it's really called) for $10, & you swap the chip with a couple screws & use old up your ink. I suppose like many things, the date, & the 30 day window of printing opportunity after the date are somewhat arbitrary time limits, that are conservative for the sake of minimizing manufacturer liability (& to increase sales, based on our losses disposing out of date ink) ...BUT I'm also sure that the thickening viscosity of old inks is a genuine issue, as is the separation of pigment particles from the solvent. I wouldn't take the risk myself & have thrown away half cartridges on multiple occassions, as much as I hated to do it.
The second vendor I talked to told me his only black inks were expired yesterday. I said "really... and you just got your shipment yesterday?", and he said no... he didn't bring in any black this time because he had so many... so I asked, "what are you going to do with it? ...you can't sell it, right?"... well, believe it or not, this guy says no problem, all his customers who bought their printers from him... he "fixed" their printer settings... so it's not a problem! Man, I'm glad I didn't get my printer from them!!
Advantage Sign Supply is my main vendor because of their great prices on the purchase of my Mimaki & their exceptional support on all my edge & printing equipment & software. They know I like to keep an extra set of inks on hand in case I ever get some massive rush job, but I am used to getting 4 to 6 months shelf life. 2 or 3 weeks ago I asked them if they had some fresh inks & he told me to wait. He mentioned that Mimaki has been stingy with them on anything fresh too. I ended up calling another vendor this week & found that they just received a shipment & had nothing dated out beyond May. I called Advantage again & they had a full set of June and July dates for me, so I ordered a set.
Many of you probably know about the merchant here, Fieldcenter, who can sell a freshness chip (that's my name for it, I don't know what it's really called) for $10, & you swap the chip with a couple screws & use old up your ink. I suppose like many things, the date, & the 30 day window of printing opportunity after the date are somewhat arbitrary time limits, that are conservative for the sake of minimizing manufacturer liability (& to increase sales, based on our losses disposing out of date ink) ...BUT I'm also sure that the thickening viscosity of old inks is a genuine issue, as is the separation of pigment particles from the solvent. I wouldn't take the risk myself & have thrown away half cartridges on multiple occassions, as much as I hated to do it.
The second vendor I talked to told me his only black inks were expired yesterday. I said "really... and you just got your shipment yesterday?", and he said no... he didn't bring in any black this time because he had so many... so I asked, "what are you going to do with it? ...you can't sell it, right?"... well, believe it or not, this guy says no problem, all his customers who bought their printers from him... he "fixed" their printer settings... so it's not a problem! Man, I'm glad I didn't get my printer from them!!
gabagoo
New Member
interesting thread. I commented about a black cartridge that had expired feb 09. The printer every day had a read out of inklimit and did that all month. I went on holidays for 1 week feb 27 and as much as I tried I never used the cartridge up, it is now at 20%. I figured today when I went back into work to do some maintenance on the printer it would tell me to change the cartridge. It didn't and the warning was gone too. Maybe I have a few days left but have no idea. I purchased 8 cartridges back in dec as the price was increasing and I notice on a few that they are dated for april. I am nt to happy about that as I have not been printing as much as before due to the economy and the time of the year.
futuredcon
New Member
Yes I received SS21 inks with a soon to expire date within a month of me receiving them.I spoke with my vendor Advantage Sign Supply and they recalled them and sent out a new set of carts.
There is a grace period that is in the chip that will let them perform so it is not a big deal if you can deal with red lights flashing on the cart inserts on the machine.
There is a grace period that is in the chip that will let them perform so it is not a big deal if you can deal with red lights flashing on the cart inserts on the machine.
W
wetgravy
Guest
well ... pull dates have been on solvent inks for a while ... I saw one that was a year past the pull date and was a brick because solvent ink cures. Sadly, if your supplier is giving you ink that is close to the pull date and you don't think you can use enough of it by the time it expires ... you should contact that and have them ship a new ink that isn't as close. personally i'm glad i have a non-solvent printer so i don't have that problem.
futuredcon
New Member
I think that these vendors treat their ink supply rather like a Grocery store with their perishables.They want to get rid of the older apples and Oranges first while the fresh supply takes a back seat until it is their turn to be consumed.
premiercolour
Merchant Member
Not a problem. Give us a call to get chip. $10/chip for signs101 members.
It is as easy as 123. Remove the screw from the cartridge, put a new one from, screw it back on. Two minutes job.
Francis Kao
Fieldcenter Inc
(949)209-7306
It is as easy as 123. Remove the screw from the cartridge, put a new one from, screw it back on. Two minutes job.
Francis Kao
Fieldcenter Inc
(949)209-7306
ColesCreations
New Member
If you have a JV3, remove and replace the battery, no more problem...
PM me or search this forum on how to do it.
PM me or search this forum on how to do it.