Toner and Ink News March 2020 – HP, Xerox, Canon, lab rats

Toner and Ink News for March 2020

These are difficult times for many, if not most of our readers, their businesses and their families. Hopefully, this virus can be controlled in a short time. We will continue publishing this newsletter as long as the U.S. patent office remains open (assuming I am able).

Most meetings scheduled over the next few months have been cancelled or will be rescheduled. We have not tried to note each of these individual changes. The June 16-26 DRUPA show is the latest to be at least postponed as Dusseldorf has prohibited gatherings of more than 1000.

The potential HP/Xerox controversial merger was still in the news this past month.

On March 3, Xerox Corporation provided a tender offering to acquire the outstanding HP shares for $24 per share, with the offer based on $18.4 in cash and 0.149 Xerox shares. On March 5, HP issued a release providing reasons why their shareholders should reject the Xerox bid for undervaluing HP and the fact that the merger would lead to a debt level that would require unrealistic synergies to pay for.

Canon also wanted a say in the potential merger. As we have reported in the past Fuji Xerox has been a major supplier of consumer printer products to Xerox but that relationship will end next year forcing Xerox to search for a new source of printers, such as the broad range of HP products. Canon is a major supplier to HP and has indicated that it would end that 35-year relationship if the merger were to go ahead. Canon annual sales to HP were reportedly 540 billion yen or approximately 14 percent of their revenue. Everything was put into perspective with the COVID-19 virus and its effect on both the share value of both companies as well as focus on short term business issues. This would seem to be the least concern of both of the companies and time can only tell what the future holds.

Printer Shipments

IDC has released fourth quarter hard copy peripherals shipments and their value. Actual shipments declined 5.4% to 25.3 million units but the value increased 0.9% to $11.9 billion. Regarding products, color laser saw a worldwide 4th quarter growth of 4.9% to 2 million units. Epson was the supplier with the most growth with an increase of 1.4% in shipments to 4.8 million units.

Laser Printers Affect Lab Rats

A study from West Virginia University researcher Nancy Lan Guo could be troubling for those in the laser printing industry. Her group studied the effect of toner nanoparticles and the role they may play in changing genetic and metabolic profiles.

The scientists placed rats in a chamber with a laser printer operating continuously for five hours a day and for 21 days. They periodically evaluated the rat’s lung and blood cells to determine if the genetic material had changed.

They determined that even a single day of exposure was enough to affect gene activity. The problem with such a study, which is sure to alarm some, is the fact that this is not a real-world situation as laser printers do not operate continuously for hours on end in sealed chambers without ventilation. To view the complete report “Integrated Transcriptomics, Metabolomics, and Lipidomics Profiling in Rat Lung, Blood, and Serum for Assessment of Laser Printer-Emitted Nanoparticles Inhalation Exposure-Induced Disease Risks, International Journal of Molecular Science 2019, 20(24).

OEM Roundup

• Canon has opened its new UVgel ink factory in Venlo, The Netherlands. The new facility will help serve the requirements for the over 1200 worldwide installations of the UVgelColorado roll-to-roll large format printers;
• Hewlett-Packard has introduced a new set of Indigo digital presses ahead of DRUPA, including the B2 Indigo 100K PageWide Digital Press with the capability of 6000 4-color duplex sheets/hr and quality similar to offset. An additional introduction was the 15K Digital Press. New inks include white and invisible yellow for security;
• Fuji Xerox has introduced a new pink dry ink that can be used in the six-color Iridesse Press.
• Zdnet provided their results for the best inkjet printer for business. The Epson Workforce Pro WF-C8690 A3 multifunction color printer was the best high-capacity printer with up to 24 ppm and 1830 page paper capacity. The HP DesignJet T730 36 inch Thermal inkjet printer was the best large-format device.