There has
always been the question of whether these alternative inks really work
or not; the answer is that sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.
“It all comes down to the experience that the chemists have in
developing inkjet inks, their testing methods, the quality of the
components used to make the inks, the quality of their filtration system
and their final quality control methods,” said Michael Andreottola,
president, American Ink Jet Corporation, Billerica, MA. Andreottola said
that in the past few years, he has seen “a remarkable increase in the
acceptance of alternative inks.”

Through the years, the main
third-party ink companies went through the learning experience of what
the customer needed from third-party inks, according to Pedro J.
Martinez, CEO, Afford Inks, Madrid, Spain, which was basically to match
OEM inks. “While some excellent inks were produced, they were not
successful because the printer needed to change the way he did its job
(like using different icc profiles),” said Martinez. “Now, however,
matches are closer to OEM inks and customers are happier to work with
alternative inks.”

Nitin Goswamy, president, A.T Inks, Charlotte,
NC, said they have definitely seen that more and more customers are
beginning to accept non-OEM inks for their printing purposes. The
primary driver may have been the poor economy, which forced printers to
look at every avenue for cost savings, but Goswamy said that once
printers did their research, they saw that there are some very good
alternatives out there—which they may have preferred anyway and not just
for the cost alone. “The key here is that all alternative inks are not
the same,” stressed Goswamy. “Those companies who have worked with the
right supplier, and have used good alternative inks, have accepted them
and therefore the market for our inks is growing.”

There are two
main reasons for the increased acceptance of alternative ink, according
to Steve Igoe, sales manager, Bordeaux Inc., Santa Clara, CA. “First,
our inks have been shown to be equal or better than OEM ink,” he said.
“Second, there has been an increase in demand fueled by end users need
to save money during a tough economy.”

Nazdar is another supplier
who has seen a huge spike in its alternative-to-OEM inks in the past 18
months. The jump in demand can be explained in the need for end users
to find more economical supplies and the wholesale change in attitude
toward alternative inks. “End users are becoming more comfortable using
high-quality, domestically manufactured alternative inks due to overall
reliability and compatibility,” reported Chuck Payne, Channel
Development Manager – Digital, Nazdar, Shawnee, KS.