I think printer ink is distilled from the blood of albino koala fetuses.

[LaraMN]

Why the hell is it so expensive?
I'm really tempted to print my newsletter project in black and white and use my kids' twist-up crayons.

Printer ink is an asshole.

[Chan790]

1. It's expensive because they've got you by the short and curlies...

you've got to buy it...and you can only buy ink cartridges from them...other companies won't fit or don't work right. You can always buy second-hand or reloaded carts...but then who knows what you're getting.

[LaraMN]

4. Way to be logical.

:P
:rofl:
It stinks! My summer break from school will save me exponential amounts of money in reduced printer ink-related expenditures.

[Debi]

2. Squid

It's all Sundog's fault :eyes:

[LaraMN]

5. That's why he never comes around.

I'm assembling a posse.
We're gonna go Lexmark on his ass!

[CabalPowered]

3. Well you have to remember that companies spend millions on R&D for this stuff

The production itself is quite a process. I used to work at HP and their cartridges actually have some precious metals in them. A cartridge starts with the printhead, which is usually a thin sheet of nickel produced by a multi-million dollar machine that was custom built by HP. One sheet of heads has approximately 100 heads on it. Once you have the nickel substrate, a precious metal is cooked on through a process of electrolysis. When I was working there, we had moved from Gold to Palladium and Rhodium. You have to use a tougher metal as the inks themselves are acidic and would increase the size the exit holes, resulting in poor quality. Once the sheet is finished, it has to go through Q & A. There's two processes here. The first is automated by a machine called Snarvis, again custom designed and built by HP. Then, to calibrate Snarvis, a sample sheet is pulled in each lot and inspected under a microscope. To keep up with the line, we usually had three people visually inspecting, two people running the Snarvises, three nickel tanks and operators, two precious metal tanks and operators, one chem pourer (that's me, until the moved the whole thing to Singapore) and one to wash the containers they were stored in prior to the next process and a manager.

And that's just the assembly. Prior to be a chem handler, I worked in the ink labs. Lots of Ph. D's, process engineers and very expensive equipment.

[LaraMN]

6. I bet on Star Trek they aren't always running out of printer ink.

Technology.
PLbbbt!

[CabalPowered]

8. Well if this was the Enterprise, I'd run over to the replicator

and get some ink and maybe some breakfast too. mmm.. breakfast.

[LaraMN]

9. Replicator! Damn!

I knew I shouldn't have spent my money on the dishwasher!

[commander bunnypants]

7. phooey

I make my own ink from black walnuts from a tree outside and then I get a goose quill and I am set


phooey I tells ya

CB

[CabalPowered]

10. You could probably make some money doing that

I'd buy a set. :thumbsup: