Published in Imaging Spectrum issue October 2008 and Recycler Trade Magazine issue October 2008
Recharger Magazine held its annual industry tradeshow, World Expo, August 20-22nd at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. You can find here a list of safe and regulated foreign casino sites for casino players worldwide. Also, you can explore details on how to compare online bingo sites.
During the show, many new products, new companies and much industry news buzzed Caround the hall.
New Products Hit the Floor
Many new products made their way to the floor of World Expo. Among them were ink jet and toner, remanufactured and newly-built, and monochrome and color components. The exhibitors at World Expo unveiled it all.
Densigraphix of Saint-Bruno, Quebec, Canada, was there promoting two new product lines, said Joanne Basiliéres, Densigraphix marketing manager. Pearl Tone cartridges are newly-built compatibles, which are non-patent infringing products that carry the company’s product warranty. The other line, Image Tone, is remanufactured cartridges that are guaranteed and STMC and ASTM certified. The mainline of Image Tone cartridges is HP. Whereas the Pearl Tone line carries cartridges for Brother, Samsung and Xerox among others, Basiliéres said.
Future Graphics a Los Angeles, Calif. company, focused on two HP family releases, the CP1518 family and the P4515 family. Todd Turner, director of marketing, said the company now has color HP toner, drums and chips for these machines. These are new OEM releases and Future Graphics is the first to market products for them. In addition to these HP family devices, Future Graphics focused on P1005 dedicated chips.
G&G Ninestar Image Co. of Walnut, Calif., a remanufacturer of ink jet and laser cartridges, promoted Canon CLI-8 compatibles with chips, HP 435 and 436 toner and Brother TN360 components, which according to Kevin Wen, marketing manager, G&G has patent protected.
Static Control, headquartered in Sanford, N.C., released a new seal guide, featuring its new seal type, the rigid insertable seal, which includes a built in pull tab and requires no tools, said Angela Buchholz, marketing manager.
It also released information on its complete system offerings for the HP 4014, 4015 and 4515; HP CP1215 and 1518; and 1505, 1005 and 1006. Static featured its Niche printer offerings including a complete system for the Dell 1320 and new high density toners for the Brother 2040 and 5250. In addition it has systems for the Samsung 1630 and 2851 machines, which enable customers to build cartridges across a broad range of printers including the Xerox Phaser 3200 MFP, Samsung SCX-4725 and SCX-4521.
Static also featured chips for wide-format ink jet printers, including HP 80, 81 and 83. Demonstrations were provided on new Chip Checkers for HP ink jet chips. According to Buchholz, the chip checker allows identification and verification of the functionality of HP ink jet chips for both loose chips (ID mode) and on finished cartridges in the production mode. Canon chip checkers will be released in the next few weeks.
UniNet, a Los Angeles, Calif. company, promoted HP1215 Smartchips, which became available on August 20th, the first day of the show, said Erick Jones, advertising and promotions director. The HP1215 is a fairly new printer that is pretty standard and affordable. Jones believes the Smartchips will be very popular.
UniNet also promoted its HP P1005 black blended and color blended toner with up to 30 percent better yield. Although UniNet is releasing products for HP systems, it is also focusing on other manufacturers such as, Okidata, Xerox and Brother, Jones said.
UniNet just released components for the Xerox 6360, and it will be releasing toner and chips for the Samsung 660 and Dell 1310.
Making Remanufacturing a little Easier
In addition to the new product launches, many companies displayed and demonstrated new remanufacturing and refilling equipment.
Future Graphics promoted many new fixtures that help the remanufacturing process in both time and labor, Turner said. The company promoted a new Drum Removal Fixture for the HP 2600. The fixture can remove fours drums at a time and is another solution to the cutting of the drum.
The HP1518 Drill Hole/Sealing Fixture was also on display. This machine drills a hole into the cartridge and allows the remanufacturer to seal the hole.
Another new fixture, the HP1005/1006; 1505 Drill Hole Fixture helps remanufacturers drill a hole in the right place. With guides on either side of the fixture the remanufacturer knows where to drill for both starter and/or replacement cartridges, Turner said.
Inktek Zone, of Cambridge, Mass., demonstrated three new machines – the Ink-O-Matic, the Centrifuge and the Cartridge Tester. The Ink-O-Matic tests, cleans and refills HP, Lexmark, Dell and Samsung ink jet monochrome and color cartridges, said Jorge Lopez, technical support and sales associate. The Centrifuge helps remanufacturers drain ink from used cartridges, and the Cartridge Tester is a standalone unit that tests cartridge circuits and printhead function. It also tests HP, Lexmark, Dell and Samsung cartridges.
The Doral, Fla.-based company, Parai, spent much of the show presenting its toner equipment. The In-Vac is a vacuum refilling machine made for toner cartridges and reservoirs. The machine comes with four silos and can be fed directly from the silos, barrels or bags. Another machine on display was the Mini In-Vac. This machine is used for filling toner bottles with a vacuum system. It fills almost all container sizes.
R-Jet Tek, a Colorado Springs, Colo. company, displayed its new cleaning solutions, the Jet Pro Atomizer, which cleans clogged printheads, and the Easy Clean, which is a cartridge flushing system, said Neal Zandonella, manager of marketing. R-Jet Tek exhibited its Canon Resetter for the CLI-8 and PGI 5 and Lexmark solutions, tools and screen welders. On exhibit were also many hand-held filling options such as the Refill Kit for the HP 10, 11, 12, 13, 82, 84, 88 and the HP02 series cartridges.
Going Green at World Expo
Green was the color of choice at this year’s show, and many booths and products adopted the eco-friendly theme. Even Recharger showed its support for the green initiative by opting not to carpet the hall.
Green Project, based out of Hacienda Heights, Calif., is a fairly new company in the North American industry. Although the parent company and factory have been in existence for many years in the Chinese market place (based in Hyson, China), the Green Project brand is only one year old. The booth and name heavily promoted the green theme.
InkCycle, of Lenexa Kan., officially kicked off its grenk product line at World Expo. The “green ink” is a “truly zero landfill product,” said Amy Wood, marketing manager.
Lawrence, Mass.-based NSA Toner also revolved their booth around the green theme. The company manufactures its own cartridges and promises that none of their products go into landfills.
Joining the North American Industry
First timers to the show and first timers to the industry made their way to the Las Vegas tradeshow to drum up new business.
Cartridge Web launched its new brand at World Expo. The company, based out of Torrance, Calif., is trying to expose the new brand into the North American industry, said Vicki Choa Talley, manager of the branch office.
The company specializes in newly-built compatible laser cartridges for both color and monochrome, Talley said. Their warehouse is located in Carson, Calif. However, the parent company is based in Taiwan.
Magic Tube debuted in the USA at World Expo as well. The company, which specializes in remanufacturing and refilling ink jet compatibles, has been a part of the Japanese market place for the past 15 years, but the company is now interested in joining the North American imaging industry.
Xiamen O-Atronic Computer Material Co. (OAT), first timer to World Expo, promoted its remanufactured ink jet cartridges. The company is based in China, but OAT is looking to establish more North American business developments.
Learning a Lesson at World Expo
A trend at this year’s show was education and training. Many companies devoted booth space in order to have semi-private areas where classes, taught by industry leaders, were held on the showroom floor.
“Static Control’s World Expo message is education,” Buchholz said. The booth emphasized Static’s new Web-based Education programs and included onsite training areas for visitors and interested customers. The most popular training programs were for ink jets and the CTL Replenishment Systems, CLI-8 /PGI-5 and the New Engine training available on the latest printer releases.
Jones also emphasized UniNet’s focus on education and training. UniNet’s booth contained meeting areas and had a blocked off instruction area where UniNet employees taught classes. Classes on remanufacturing cartridges, which remanufactured cartridges have the best profit margins and chip technology were taught by some of the UniNet staff, Jones said.
Making the News
For many companies, World Expo provided a venue for announcements of new partnerships, expansions and relocations.
Cardinal Cartridge of Melrose Park, Ill., has recently partnered with Imaging Resources of Chatsworth, Calif. The two companies displayed its partnership at the show by sharing a booth.
Densigraphix is looking to expand their company and exposure into the North American imaging market, Basiliéres said. The company is in the process of doubling their Buffalo office and expanding their Montreal office. They are trying to make a big push into the US.
OCP of Hattingen, Germany is also looking to expand. The company is opening a new Tennessee office and is hiring new USA employees. The previous office was located in Colorado. OCP-USA will include a new location, office, warehouse and team.
West Point Products of Valley Grove, W.Va., is breaking ground on their new facility in Spring of 2009. The new distribution center will be located in The Highlands, Ohio, said Jackie Jameson, sales manager. In addition, the company will open its new distribution center in Ervine, Calif. on October 1st.