Friday, February 02, 2007
Ink Jet Cartridge Yield
Well for quite some time there has been bickering in the industry about how many pages you can print from an inkjet cartridge. As there were no standards in place each manufacturer could select a methodology that suited their specific printer/cartridge benefits and use that to advertise page yield.
ISO Defines Standards for Inkjet Cartridges
The ISO/IEC JTC 1 N8170 proposal defined a “Method for the determination of ink cartridge yield for colour photo printing with inkjet printers and multi-function devices that contain inkjet printer components”. This committee was established in June 19, 2006 to defined standards that could be adopted by the inkjet industry (OEM, Remanufactured Products,Compatible Products) for inkjet page yield per cartridge. On December 13, 2006 the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) body in conjunction with a consortium of printer manufactures (HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, etc) approved new standards for inkjet (ISO/IEC 24711) and color laser (ISO/IEC 19798) printer cartridge page yield measurements.
Scope of Standard
This standard provides a method to determine ink cartridge page yield for colour photo printing with colour inkjet printers and multi-function devices that contain inkjet printer components.
This standard applies to colour inkjet printers with four colour inks as well as printers with more than four colour inks. Note: See section below “What is not covered by this standard”
Size of paper for this standard should be equal to or less than A4 (8.5×11).
Printing mode for this standard should be photo printing mode.
Test file ISO/IEC 24712:2006 shall be used with this standard .
End of ink cartridge life will be determined based on fade or ink out signal generated by printer.
Four colour inks that are depleted first are defined as primary cartridges. The rest will be regarded as supplemental cartridges.
The minimum number of printers to be used in the test should be three. For each printer used in the test, at least three cartridges will be consumed for primary colours.
The declared yield of primary cartridges will be determined by the method specified in ISO/IEC FCD 24711.
The declared yield of supplemental cartridges will be estimated by the least squares method.
The testing environment is controlled at a temperature of 23.0°C ± 2°C.
Benefits to the average home user
In the immediate future you can expect to start seeing one or more of these options when you purchase inkjet cartridges.
a) Yield will be displayed on the package denoting its conformance with the new ISO standard for Measurement.
b) A web site link will be displayed on the packaging to allow the user to review specifications on a pre defined web site, as well as pertinent details relating to the methodologies used for determining the yield rates for that cartridge.
c) Cross manufacturer yield statistics will be made available for users via independent agencies denoting yield by manufacturer.
What is not covered by this standard
6 Color: The ISO/IEC 24712 print suite is designed for office printing. As such the ISO standard recommends 4 color printing (K, C, Y & M).
4 x 6 prints: The ISO/IEC 24712 print suite is specified for A4 or 8.5×11″ paper. There is currently no ISO page yield specifications associated with 4×6 prints. There is a new ISO committee that is starting to address this issue. It is estimated that the 4×6 page yield specification will be ratified in 2008 or 2009.
Filed under: FAQ, Industry News, Inkjet Info | Tagged: FCD 24711, Ink Jet Cartridge Page Yield, ISO/IEC 24711, ISO/IEC 24712, ISO/IEC JTC 1 N8170 |
Inkjet News 
Consumers need to be very particular in knowing if they are getting the best value out of the amount they spent for printer cartridges. Its not enough to print with quality especially if you are supposed to print up to a certain level that is set by standards.