Whether it's used for marketing collateral, direct-mail pieces, or other corporate materials, color printing makes any professional document easier to read, understand, and remember.  Regardless of the high impact, it is so expensive to print in color that the costs often prevent many potential business users from unlocking the full value color provides.

End users who try to lower costs by printing with non-OEM cartridges are often disappointed. Because of the many technical barriers that must be overcome to print properly, not all third-party cartridges deliver a great end user experience. Even customers who are initially happy with their non-OEM color solutions often grow dissatisfied over time because the image quality is inconsistent. As a result, OEMs have been able to continue to charge a premium for their color cartridges because there is not much competitive pressure from third-party cartridges.
But Ninestar’s latest G&G color cartridges are changing all that. Thanks to decades of technical expertise and a legacy steeped in innovation, Ninestar now has the capabilities to bring to market G&G-branded color cartridges that perform just comparable to the OEMs' products. From the first page to the last, the flawless performance of the latest G&G color cartridges is consistent over the lifetime of the cartridge. And that high quality is maintained when old G&G cartridges are exhausted and new G&G replacement cartridges are deployed. Ninestar has made the investments required to offer business users a choice between expensive OEM cartridges and the G&G color cartridge line that time after time matches the OEMs’ performance but comes with a much smaller price tag.

In this article, we will take a look at some of key technical problems that third-party cartridge manufacturers have encountered as they have attempted to produce color cartridges than can perform comparable to the OEM's products.

Exacting Technology
Most end users are not aware of just how sophisticated the technologies are in a color laser device. Electrophotographic color printing is nothing less than a marvel of science! Driven by the latest digital applications, office printers and MFPs employ various electrical, physical, and chemical processes to transform pixels on a monitor into the high-quality images that are displayed in so many hardcopy documents. To make all that technology perform correctly requires supplies that are technically advanced and G&G color cartridges more than meet that requirement.

Unlike monochrome printing, which requires only one toner application to be deposited and fused to a sheet of paper, four colors must be applied in order to print color pages. Ninestar’s engineers have developed color toners for G&G cartridges that consistently deliver a high level of precision, so each toner particle can be placed exactly where it needs to be. Using electro-magnetic operations, G&G’s highly-engineered toner particles move through the toner cartridge and then on to a sheet of paper before being affixed to a substrate.

To achieve a high degree of precision not available from other non-OEM color cartridges, the color toners used in G&G color cartridges are manufactured to a precise set of standards and these standards are maintained from batch-to-batch-to-batch, each and every time the toner is produced. By ensuring that the toners used in G&G cartridges are exactly the same, you are ensured the cartridges will always operate properly.

When applied to the page, color toners are stacked so that when they are exposed to the fusing process, the colors melt together perfectly to render precise colors. The particle size of color toner is smaller than monochrome toner and the shape of each particle must be uniform, so color toner can be applied accurately to the page. Any deviations in the toner specifications will result in unacceptable color renderings.

One of the problems that have dogged third-party color cartridges has been toner leakage because the color toner particles are so small. Leveraging its investments in smart production technology, Ninestar has also developed automated manufacturing processes that address the problems that may arise when color cartridges are sealed by hand. Because G&G cartridges are sealed through an automated process, Ninestar has eliminated any risk that they may leak or fail due to human error.

The Ninestar Solution
Consistency is key when manufacturing color cartridges. In addition to employing highly-engineered toners and sealants, each G&G cartridge is tuned specifically to work together with the other cartridges in the color system. The black, cyan, magenta, and yellow G&G cartridges are perfectly matched, so they can function in concert as four parts of an organic whole. Because the cartridges are tuned to the same uniform standards, they always render the same high-quality imaging.

Because cartridges used in a printer or MFP are not exhausted at the same rate, sometimes one cartridge must be replaced while the others are still working. Often, this causes inconsistency problems for third-party supplies. But this is no problem for G&G cartridges. Inside each of the four G&G CMYK cartridges, the imaging drums and other components are tuned so they can operate perfectly from the first page to the last. Because each G&G color cartridge is designed to operate at the same high level for its entire life, image quality remains excellent even when one of the other G&G color cartridges is replaced a new cartridge.

To ensure the same reliable performance, all of the raw materials and components are exactly the same from batch to batch. With its large scale and superior engineering capabilities, Ninestar ensures that all raw materials and components in G&G color cartridges are perfectly homogenous, which ensures that G&G color cartridges deliver the same high quality each and every time one is deployed in a machine.

The manufacturing processes that Ninestar uses to produce its G&G cartridges are also standardized. Built to the highest technical standards, each G&G color cartridge is assembled in precisely the same manner. In fact, Ninestar has invested heavily to develop “smart” production lines that perform exactly the same when manufacturing each cartridge. We will examine these remarkable production lines in our next article, so you’ll understand what makes G&G cartridges so reliably unique.