Toner Ink News: 3D Xerox, Forecasts and Complaints

Toner Ink News: 3D Xerox and Complaints

Xerox Enters 3D

Xerox has used the acquisition of Buffalo, NY start-up business Vadar Systems as a route to enter the 3D printing field. Vadar was founded in 2013 by a father and son team who developed the first commercial liquid-metal 3D printer. The technology developed by Vadar and SUNY Buffalo utilizes magnetohydrodynamic drop-on-demand technology to eject drops of molten metal (aluminium) in a rapid and consistent manner. The Vadar Magnet-o-Jet patented technology had been commercialized with the Vadar Polaris liquid metal AM system and the Ares Microsphere System for spherical metal parts

Global Toner and Ink Cartridge Forecasts

Virtulytix Imaging Industry Group is a market intelligence and imaging industry consulting group formed in 2017. They have released 2018 Global Toner Cartridge Forecast covering the period of 2018-2022 with historical data for the previous four years.

Virtulytix has estimated that the global toner cartridge market was in the vicinity of $60 billion. They forecast that 30-33% of monochrome cartridge shipments were from aftermarket suppliers with OEM suppliers obtaining 75% of revenues. OEM suppliers retained a higher percentage of color cartridge shipments in the 87% range.

Virtulytix Imaging Industry Group has also released a 2018 Global Inkjet Cartridge Market outlook report where they forecast a relatively stable $33 billion per year business to 2022. The authors predict a shift from cartridge use as continuous ink supply systems, page-wide printers and multifunction units grow in popularity.

Consumer Complaints Make Impact

A recent Consumer Reports review reported on a survey of 113,959 users of inkjet printers. A number of Seiko Epson and Hewlett-Packard single function and multifunction printers were removed from the “recommended” list based on consumer complaints, the largest of which was the high price of ink cartridges. Other complaints related to connectivity issues of paper jams.

In Other News

• The Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV has reported on a novel process to extract from plants and production of small particle size stable bio-wax dispersions using an emulsion mixture of TWEEN 20 and SPAN 20.
• Hewlett-Packard has announced a milestone with the placement of the one-thousandth Indigo 4 press, a model 12000 HD Digital Press. HP first introduced the B2 Indigo press during DRUPA 2012. Other recent highlights related to HP Indigo liquid ink presses are Electroink Easy Release for scratch-off applications; Electroink Silver with a range of metallic colors; High Opacity Premium White Electroink and new light black for photos.
• Evonik is the supplier of many chemical products to the digital imaging industry, including being the world’s leading producer of polyamide powders for 3D printing. To expand their 3D offerings they have acquired Structured Polymers (Austin, TX) and their technology for production of controlled particle size polymer powders in the 0.1 –400 micron range.
• Heidelberg has established a new Innovation Center at its Wiesloch-Waldorf site with a focus on future digital printing. Heidelberg currently spends about 5% of sales (currently 135 million euros) on development projects.
• Epson has expanded its line of EcoTank and WorkForce Pro color printers. The WorkForce ST-2000, ST-3000 and ST-4000 EcoTank devices offer ISO page yields of 6500 to 14,000 (black) pages and prices of $299.99 to $499.99. The WorkForce Pro color multifunction units include the EC-4040, EC-4030 and EC 4020 with prices ranging from $179.99 to $299.99. Epson claims these devices have up to 50% lower operating costs compared to color laser.