Friday 18 March 2011

The History of Inkjet Printers - UK Ink Supplies

The Inkjet Challenge

Inkjet printers using ink cartridges have certainly come a long way in the last two decades. And although we didn’t see them in the stores until the 1980s, it was as far back as the mid 1970s when printer companies first recognised that inkjet technology was going to be the wave of the future. However initially, companies were faced with the challenge of creating an inkjet printer that was affordable while at the same time could provide quality printouts for users. The more popular type of inkjet printer was invented by Siemens in 1977. These printers, sprayed ink only where needed and although they were less expensive, they were slower than continuous inkjet printers.

Companies Overcome Inkjet Challenges

One of the biggest challenges when creating inkjet printers was controlling the flow of ink from the printhead onto the page. At first, the print head became clogged with dried ink. IBM used electrically-charged droplets to coat the page with ink but this strategy wasted a lot of ink and the technology didn’t appeal to consumers. Eventually, these challenges were met by Canon and Hewlett Packard (HP) in the late 1980s, when liquid inkjet printers came to the market in full swing. But before getting quality inkjet printers to the market, it took a lot of trial and error and more than one company to complete the task. In fact, a number of companies are credited with making important contributions to inkjet technology and by 1990 inkjet printers began to become widely accepted. Today, inkjet printers are considered one of the most preferred printing methods. Currently, when you purchase an inkjet printer, you can buy a fairly reasonable printer for as little as £50. Did you know that when Hewlett Packard introduced the HP DeskJet Printer in 1988, it cost about a staggering £500?

Inkjet Cartridges

There are several reasons for the inkjet printer being so popular. One of the contributing factors in the success of inkjet printers is the printer ink cartridge. While each manufacturer recommends their own brand of printer ink cartridges, today there are many options such as re-manufactured ink cartridges, replacement ink cartridges or a compatible cartridge (such as those manufactured by Jet Tec) that work well for a host of name brand printers. In fact, you can save a great deal of money by getting inkjet refill kits and then refilling the empty ink cartridges yourself. Kudos to the development of printer ink cartridges, as they have made it possible to print quality prints on various sizes and types of paper, fabric and film without spending a fortune. Today, you can find a wide range of cartridges on the Internet safely and reliably. The biggest manufacturer of compatible ink cartridges in Europe is Jet Tec of Lincolnshire, who have been in the ink cartridge industry since 1989, and employ over 300 people at their award winning Jet Tec ink cartridge factory.


UK Ink Supplies of Lincolnshire - official Jet Tec retailer in Lincoln.

This blog is by UK Ink Supplies, based in Lincoln, UK stocking a wide range of Jet Tec printer cartridges and Jet Tec laser toner cartridges for most printers.  For more information please visit Jet Tec ink cartridges for the latest Jet Tec Epson, Canon, Lexmark, Brother and HP printer products.

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