Ink Refill

Have you ever refilled an ink cartridge with a syringe? It means that you enjoyed the experience of painting your fingers with black ink or different colors (magenta, cyan, yellow), the experience that lasted several days, because you found that the ink on your hands only comes out after 2..3 days of intensely washed with soap!

Or did you have a customer who came in with an ink cartridge to refill it, and the cartridge was already clogged and full of ink? How do I remove the ink from the cartridge? With the mouth?

Or have you ever thought that it is possible to have a business with an ink cartridge that usually costs 20 … 30 euros to be able to refilled it, professionally, in less than 5 minutes, with only 5 euros?

If you’ve ever been in one of the above situations, you’ve come to the right place. The answers to all your questions and solving the above problems are made by a professional ink cartridge refill machine.

What are the ink refill machines?

Ink refill machines are equipment that specializes in filling ink cartridges, cartridges used in inkjet printers as they are also known. Ink refill machines „ECO Refill Machines” ™ uses deep vacuum technology (-0.6 … -0.7 bar) to fill and clean ink cartridges.

How is the ink refill done currently?

Like 30 years ago, when inkjet printers were invented. With the syringe. Most users of inkjet printers make 2 major mistakes, unknowingly:

– they don’t know (nor do they have any way of knowing) what quality of ink to use

There are a lot of “recommended” types of ink on the internet for refill, which are more or less promoted, but which, only experience over time (even years), can tell if the ink is good or not. In most cases, the ink dries too quickly, which causes the ink cartridge to become clogged (often irremediably, especially since the cartridge is “forgotten” out of the printer for a few days, if not even months).

We have solved this problem. For more than 15 years, we have been using in all 5 Printshops, a time-tested ink from the same external supplier, ink with which we load hundreds of cartridges per month, and in the 15 years we have not had any quality problems inks.

– they don’t know the refill technique

If the cartridge is clogged, that is, the nozzles through which the ink comes out (small holes the size of tenths of a micron) are filled with dry ink, then there is no need for a refill technique. You need a machine to help you unclogged the cartridge. Point. You can try different methods, even with the mouth, but it is not recommended!

Why choose an ink refill machine versus a syringe?

As I said before, the „ECO Refill Machines” ™ use deep vacuum technology (-0.6 … -0.7 bar) to fill and clean the ink cartridges. It is good to know that 90% of the ink cartridges on the market are designed to have a high density sponge, a sponge that holds the ink. Usually with normal cartridges the sponge takes up only half the space, and with XL cartridges, the sponge takes up all the inner space. Vacuum technology means that the air is extracted from the cartridge into a vacuum chamber and the air is extracted from the sponge and, instead of air, the ink is introduced which will occupy, in the absence of air, all the sponge alveoli. Thus, it occupies all the space of the sponge, without air, so that every time the refill is done, the sponge will be full to the brim, with ink and will have no air gaps. The ink is inserted through a syringe needle (here the syringe is used only to measure the amount of ink to be inserted into the cartridge, usually between 5 … 30ml).

A properly loaded ink cartridge must be confirmed by:

– it must not flow

– in the napkin test (the head is swabbed with a paper towel, short and pressed), the ink comes out of the head, continuously, without interruption

The advantages of using an ink refill machine

– the cartridge is refilled in a vacuum, in an advanced vacuum, which only a professional ink refill machine can generate

– cartridges refilled by hand, at home, and clogged can only be unclogged with the help of the machine-generated vacuum

– the refill is easy, predictable, you get the same quality for all customers, it does not depend on the ability of the operator

– do not get dirty, the professional refill is made of 1 liter or even larger bottles, which change less often, which means that the possibility of spilling ink is much lower than in 100ml or 500ml bottles, accidents of this kind are very rare

– 2,3 or even 5 ink cartridges can be loaded simultaneously (depending on the number of refill lines of the machine), which makes the refill operation very productive

– 1 … 3 ink cartridges can be cleaned simultaneously

– the residual ink accumulates in a container that can be emptied in a fairly long period of time, which makes it easier to recycle used ink

– ink cartridges can be washed. If by accident was loaded with ink of a different color, the vacuum from machine helps to clean and wash the cartridge so that such unfortunate events do not affect the business and the image to the customers.

Frequent questions