Question 1

Original vs Compatible inks? What is the difference?

Accepted Answer

The major interest of printer manufacturing companies lies in selling inks. They would always recommend the users to their company inks and why not? The cost of OEM inks is 2-3 times of the cost of compatible inks. That is where their profit margin lies.
Now before knowing whether compatible inks good or bad, we should understand what is a good ink. A good is a combination of two things:
Right color
Physical and chemical properties
Physical and chemical properties Obtaining the right color tone depends on the choice of colorant i.e. dyes or pigments. Three chemical properties are relevant for inkjet inks: Viscosity, surface tension and pH. If these physical properties are managed in the right fashion it doesn’t matter which ink is it – Original or compatible. After all the printer only knows physical and chemical properties and it doesn’t know original or compatible!

Question 2

Are all compatible inks the same?

Accepted Answer

The answer is no. They all have different formulations.

There could be various problems associated with inks -

Sometimes to cut the cost inferior raw materials are also used in the inks
Sometimes the testing is not done properly which makes the product unusable in the printer.
Sometimes the products deteriorate and become acidic which cause the damage to print head.
Sometimes the formulation becomes unstable and pigment particles re-agglomerate which cause clogging of print head

As of now majority compatible inks available in India are imported from China or Korea. Various problems are associated with 
imported inks. Sometimes water is added which reduces the overall color strength and the chemical parameters no more remain the same. Due to their long transit time sometimes they become too old that their chemical properties deteriorate.

Question 3

Why should I use needle inks?

Accepted Answer

We know what we do and we are thorough. Our formulations have been arrived at after testing 100 different formulations on 25+ inkjet printers.
Our inks are cheap and will always be cheap.
We use high quality ingredients for eg. Salt free dyes. Salts are the impurities that come with the dyes in the dye manufacturing process. Dyes with salts are upto 70 percent cheaper as compared to salt free dyes and they have lesser color strength and they damage the print head.
The quality and packaging of the inks is superb. You will get to know this by look and feel of the product. Further we have shown the sample printouts of the inks on the specific product pages.
Our inks are made in India and you must go #vocalforlocal and support #madeinindia
We are there. Sometimes the printer will just not print and it’s not the fault of the ink. We will help you troubleshoot in that case. We may not be able to give a warranty of the print head (that the OEM) also doesn’t give, but we will be there to listen to your problems, address them and troubleshoot them if possible.

Question 4

What causes clogging?

Accepted Answer

The heart of the inkjet printer is its print head which covers 40-60% cost of the printer. Print head is a plate which having hundreds of small holes called nozzles which, when printing fire ink on paper. A typical print head used in home and office printers has a nozzle diameter of 30-40 microns which is thinner than a human hair. Imagine hundreds of tiny holes thinner than hair on the print head in an area of 1-2 cm square. When these nozzles get blocked by the ink, that causes the print head to damage.
Inadequate/wrong combination of ingrediants: Amongst the various ingredients in inkjet ink, Humectant is a very important ingredient. A Humectant is a very less volatile ingredient used in inkjet ink whose job is to keep the print head moist. Did you know that humectants have many other applications like body lotions to treat dry skin, foods to retain moisture and many more. In inkjet ink they perform the same function, that is, keep it moist. Everytime we print from the printer, the nozzles have some ink left over on the head. If we leave the printer in standby for few days, the volatile part of the ink dries out leaving behind the solid residue of the colorant which block the nozzles and sometimes the nozzles misfire. If humectants are used in the right amount and right combinations, they being less volatile, don’t evaporate and prevent the formation of solid residue, which prevents clogging.
Low quality dyes: Dye is an ingredient in the form of powder that gives color to the inkjet ink. They are the most expensive ingredient which constitutes 60-70% of the cost of manufacturing the product. Only Salt free dyes are supposed to be used in inkjet inks where salts are the impurities in the manufacturing process of dyes. Salt free dyes are 2-3 times more expensive than the regular dyes. Sometimes manufacturers use regular dyes to cut the cost which damages the print head very badly.
1. Unstable formulation: Sometimes the pH of the ink declines and it becomes acidic which corrodes the metallic parts of the print head leading to clogging.
2. Life of print head: Every printehead has a life and it cannot function beyond that.
To conclude, if the ink’s formulation is right, the head will not clog due to the ink, whether it is original or compatible.

Question 5

Why are needle inks cheap? Is the quality upto the mark?

Accepted Answer

As we explained earlier also, a good ink is just about right color and right physical and chemical properties. Every chemical has a substitute, and it is all about research. We have conducted 2 years of research in this topic and only after that we started the commercial production. Our inks are cheap because -
We know about cheaper but equally effective substitutes of various chemicals used in the inks Majority dye chem industry is in India. Dye cost involves 50-70 percent of the total cost of the ink. Imagine Chinese/Korean companies buy dyes from Indian manufacturers and make the ink in their country and export to India. It has to be expensive

Question 6

Are these inks dye based or pigmented?

Accepted Answer

We manufacture dye based inks. However, some brands manufacture pigmented inks for black colour only. Cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light yellow are always dye based colours in all models by every brand. If the seller is saying that the inks are pigmented, they probably do not know about their product.
The only difference between dye based and pigment based inks is of water fastness and opacity. However, dye based inks have a much stable formulation as compared to pigmented inks.

Question 7

Are these inks good for photo priting?

Accepted Answer

Yes they are very good. We have demonstrated the scanned copies of printouts on various printers on the product pages using Needle ink.

Question 8

Will it work if I use the ink model which is formulated for a particular printer in some other printer?

Accepted Answer

The answer is maybe it will work, but we do not recommend. The colour shades of all brands are different and we try to remain as close as possible to the OEM shade.
Further, sometimes the Physical and chemical parameters of inks suitable for various print heads are dfferent. The pouring mechanism of inks for various printers is also different. We have bottles with different pouring mechanisms for different printers. You may find it hard to pour the ink if you do not have the right bottle.

Question 9

The bottle shape similar to OEM bottle – Does that really matter?

Accepted Answer

No it does not matter. What matters is what is inside the bottle and how convenient it is to use.

Frequently asked questions