Expiring Ink?

Originally posted 2008-05-07 11:56:22

I walked past our office plotter the other day and noticed this message on the console:

This picture is blurry but says, \”Cartridges will expire in days: 8.\” Are you kidding me? When did ink start expiring like 2% milk? I’ve heard of invisible ink, but expiring ink? How dumb do they think we are?

One of the IT guys happened by while I spluttered about the stain of injustice. He opined that, since plotters weren’t pressed into frequent enough use to turn over enough ink cartridges to net enough profits, HP had to invent another way to extract purchase orders from data modeling departments. Hence, the arbitrary chromatic shelf life.

Before someone hastens to HP’s defense to explain that old ink could clog nozzles, let me explain that I’m not buying. I collect fountain pens, and have wells of ink that haven’t felt the dip of a nib in years. These inks still flow smoothly when pumped into sudden use. Perhaps Mont Blanc knows more about how to make ink than HP, but Mont Blanc charges a fourth the price for twice as much ink. HP should spend some of their ink profits on research and development to catch up to last millennium’s technology. Besides, the HP inks print brilliantly the day before their expiry, artificially dying in a moment rather than fading away as you’d expect.

Recently I found myself in need of a new printer. After inspecting and analyzing my local Circuit City’s offerings last week, I bought an HP printer touted as the newest and latest model. I liked it so much that I went back this week to buy another. It was no longer offered. In fact, none of the printers I saw last week still commanded shelf space–they’d all been superseded by later models from the same companies. I guess we should laud inks for at least lasting longer than the printers that spew them!