Inhabitat

This isn’t anything new. In 2000 my college multimedia department had a solid ink Tektronix. It used wax blocks that looked (and worked) like big crayons.

well, I don’t think you need the conspiracy theory. The reason that it won’t make it to consumers (at least with the old Phaser technology) is that each time the printer is used, it heats up a pool of ink. If the ink isn’t used in the cycle then it goes in the waste. For the average conusmer printing 5-10 pages a day, the technology wastes an incredible amount of ink/wax.

your article is wrong on almost every point.

we have multiple Xerox solid ink color printers (Phaser 8560, 8400), as well as multiple laser printers (toner), both color (Phaser 6250 and 6350) and black and white (phaser 4500, 4510 and docuprint n2125)

Xerox tried to give us the same \”more environmentally friendly\” garbage about their solid ink printers; however if you read the fine print (or talk to them about their analysis).

Environmentally they have made some serious assumptions :
- they do NOT account for recycling the laser toner cartridge, or its shipping/packing box – ie: their assessment is that it all gets thrown away.
- they do NOT account for the shipping packaging, or direct packaging of the solid ink toners – ie: cardboard box in which they are shipped, the cardboard box in which the solid ink is packaged, the plastic \’tray\’ in which the solid ink is housed inside the cardboard packaging.

Cost — solid ink is more expensive, and even more so than Xerox claims due to discrepancies in actual pages printed verses claims
- according to Xerox one block of ink gets about 1500 pages (reality is between 700-1000 depending on color and type of printing), which means a printer holds about 4500 pages of print capability for one color (4 blocks of each color). Each block of ink costs about $34/block – xerox direct pricing – to print 10,000 pages of one color (at xerox quoted rate of 1500 pages/block) = $34 * 9 = $366
- according to Xerox an extended capacity toner cartridge for a phaser 6350 prints 10,000 pages, for $265

Quality :
- solid ink is an ink-jet process. instead of using ink (as a $50 printer does) the solid ink printers use melted silicon color blocks (crayons). So you can expect to get similar quality in color and image reproduction.
- Heat – expose a solid ink printout to temps about 130 degrees f and the ink gets soft and can/does run or stick to other surfaces. Think about your google map directions on the dashboard of your car in the summer.
- scratching. The current inks *are* better than the original Tektronix inks in this regard – however – it is still not extremely difficult to scratch a printout – without tearing the paper. Try a fixed point pen for example.

So…..
overall – Im afraid you\’ve swallowed – hook line and sinker – Xerox\’s marketing.

I have a Xerox Phaser 8400, which printed beautiful color pages–at first–but now the colors are streaky and there are gaps in areas where there should be ink. I have run the “clean printheads” mode time and time again (a process which wastes an enormous amount of expensive solid ink) to no avail.

As much as I loved many of the printer’s features (networkable, true Postscript, double sided printing), I am disappointed by the high cost of ink and the eventual degredation of image quality. I would need to spend almost half the cost of the machine to replace the printhead.

I will not be buying another Xerox solid ink printer in the future, or any other Xerox product. From what I have read online, clogged printheads are quite common in this line of printers. Poor engineering and lack of oversight, I would say.

As for the article, consumer-level solid ink printers have been available for many years, long before the 8400 was introduced.

Solid ink technology is not new, it came along with Xerox’s acquistion of Tecktronics in the early 90’s. What is new is the composition of the ink. Not as “waxy” as previous models and much more durable. Sometimes the reps forget to tell the customers not to turn off the printers which causes the ink to gel and startup wastes a lot of ink. The newer models have smart sense in them which swiches them into a deep sleep position when not in use and although a solid ink printer uses a bit more energy than a comparable laser, the waste benefits are amazing. Xerox does account for shipping of used toner bottles etc back for recycling but people forget the fuel that is used to get those used bottles to the recycling plant. Solid ink comes in a recycled cardboard contaier (yes the tray is platic) but otherwise the ink would be exposed to the elements via transit. All in all, I am a totally satisfied solid ink customer. BEAUTIFUL COLOR at an acceptable cost. Great service as well.