Greentech International Ltd.

Article about Greentech International Ltd.

GreenTech have been collecting, recycling and remanufacturing inkjet and laser toner cartridges in the U.K. for over 10 years and estimate to have saved the equivalent of 5 million litres of oil or 147 football pitches worth of waste printer cartridges

Green-Tech International Ltd. (Formally known as Computerlink) was started as a small scale home operation in 2000, which rapidly grew into the successful business, which exists today. Over the years, Green-Tech International Ltd. has provided the highest quality products and service to many cartridge retailers and wholesalers across the UK.

In 2004 we moved into our new 15,000 sq ft factory and modern offices investing over £700,000 to cope with our increased production. This has given our staff a safe and clean environment to work in and improved our quality even further.

Our aim is to constantly work to improve our product through research and development of new inkjet components, to ensure the stability of Green-Tech. This has been made possible by manufacturing inkjets components in the Far East at a lower cost hence making our product competitive without compromising quality.

We have recently invested a further £750,000 into storage facilities for our increasing stock levels and product range. Our new facility has over 16,000 sq ft of storage, allowing us to continue the company's growth and to reach our recycling targets.

Company Info:

- Established in 2000
- Based in Peterborough, UK
- Employ over 30 staff in our office and production facility
- ISO 9001 Certified

Remanufacture

GreenTech currently recycles and remanufactures over 27,000 remanufactured printer cartridges and remanufactured inkjet cartridges  every month, at their factory in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Every day GreenTech pays many companies, schools and government agencies to recycle their empty toner or inkjet printer cartridges.
Minimum £20 total recycle value.

The widespread use and relative low price of desktop printers has created an avalanche of empty printer cartridges. Almost 90% of all UK homes have a printer attached to their computer. Each inkjet or laser cartridge eventually gets empty and needs to be replaced, leaving you to throw the used cartridge in the bin. By throwing your empty cartridges away you are wasting money – lots of money - which could be going to good causes, including your own wallet. And what about the inkjet and laser printers used every day in all the office buildings and schools across the country? Many of these businesses and schools already have a recycling program in place and earn from 25p to over £7 for each cartridge they recycle.

Recycle and Earn
Over 45 million printer cartridges go into UK landfills each year according to the UK Cartridge Remanufacture Association. That means if everyone in the UK recycled their empty cartridges and got paid an average of 50p, consumers could claim a share of around £22.5 million through recycling their inkjet and toner cartridges.

Easy fundraising for schools and charities
Many Schools and Charities see inkjet and laser toner cartridge recycling as a relatively simple way of fundraising. One recent research study found that an average school can use 300 printer cartridges per year. So say this school got paid an average of £1.50 per recycled empty cartridge they could then raise £450 just from their own school’s office printers. A medium-sized business can use between 75 and 200 cartridges per year, or even more. So lets say the school fundraising team manages to persuade 10 local businesses to ‘donate’ their empty laser toner cartridges, they can expect about 100 x 10 = 1000 cartridges which at an average of £1.50 would raise funds of £1950. This calculation, of course, does not include all the empty inkjet and laser toner cartridges parents could be donating. But it’s still a pretty significant sum and one that any PTA or charity would be happy to accept.

Article about Richo UK Ltd

Infotec Uk Ltd are part of the Richo Group of Companies. Tonersexpress have been selling to clients across the UK both Infotec’s Remanufactured Toner Cartridges and also the full range of Remanufactured Inkjet Cartridges. Below we detail the process used to remanufacture original OEM toner cartridges and inkjet printer cartridges.

Manufacturing Process

First of all the empty virgin toner carcass is inspected to ensure it is defect free and suitable for re-manufacturing.

Engineers then fully strip down the toner cartridge to its base components, inspect, clean & make ready for re-assembly. Any failed parts or carcasses are removed from the process & segregated for onward recycling. As part of this process, key components are cleaned within our pre-production facility, where excess waste toner is removed via our extraction unit (to ensure we remove the possibility of toner contamination). Waste toner collected in this process is made ready for onward recycling.

All reclaimed parts are prepared for the assembly process, along with any new components required (based on the specific build specification for the cartridge in question).

The cartridge is then reassembled including new toner and seal, as per the pre-defined work instructions.

After assembly is completed, the cartridge moves into the quality inspection area where it is fully checked for any defects, has the electronic chip installed (if required) and is print tested (see below).

From here the cartridge moves to final inspection, where appropriate labelling is applied before being boxed ready for transfer to our warehouse facility.

Within the process all segregated parts which cannot be re-used are sorted and made ready for collection and recycling via approved recycling partners. This covers waste packaging, waste toner removed from the toner carcasses, unusable toner cartridges and unusable metal parts including OPC drums.

Testing

Infotec use the American Standard Test Method page yield test data to F1856-98. Infotec products are guaranteed to produce the same page yield as an OEM cartridge. All page yields are published within our pricing catalogue. Infotec products also come with a no quibble guarantee of which covers the cartridge and the machine it is used in.

Testing Procedure

A small amount of toner, for use in testing image quality is applied to the surface of the magnetic roller of each cartridge. The toner applied, being of the same origin (same log and/or batch) as used in the sealed hopper of the test cartridge. The cartridge is then inserted into an appropriate printer or fax machine and ten (10) copies of a standard test print are produced. The test pattern utilised, covers all areas (corners, centre and middle sides) of an (A4) sheet. Test patterns used, include graphics as well as text; graphics to include progressive grey shade areas that allow evaluation of coverage and adequate toner dispersal.

We also examine the fifth and tenth copies produced for copy quality. Visible flaws in images produced, incomplete images, marks, and insufficient density of images will be cause for rejection of the cartridge. Sufficient additional copies are made from all acceptable cartridges to completely exhaust the excess toner that was applied to the roller.

In addition we regularly carry out print tests on OEM toners to compare page yield and print performance.

Page yield evaluation

As part of the evaluation process for new compatible laser toner cartridges, we first secure a quality toner solution from one of our primary component providers. By doing this we already have the knowledge that the toner has been fully tested against the OEM offering both for quality of print and page yield performance.

Within our own pre-launch, programme we conduct page yield testing to ensure the performance is in line with the original manufacturers offering, as an additional measure.

This is conducted by running both an original toner and our own in exactly the same conditions using the same printer and print format. The test will be stopped at regular intervals over the life of the cartridge to evaluate print quality and coverage, right through to its end of life. Comparative checks are made at each of these stages, for any deterioration or general print quality. If any toner failed the page yield performance test, against the original product, we would contact the chosen toner partner and inform them of our findings and if required source an alternative toner product that fully meets the page yield criteria, as defined by the original product. This is now very uncommon, as the industry has some highly proven toner producers, who carry very stringent testing before any release into the remanufacturing industry. Random testing of established toner products are also carried out, as required to ensure ongoing conformance.

Print-Rite Brand

Welcome to Print-Rite

Print-Rite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Print-Rite Holdings. The Group is one of the leading companies in the worldwide printer consumables market and offers a more cost-effective way of meeting the printing needs of numerous customers in over 70 countries. The Print-Rite product line includes over 1,000 products developed by a dedicated team of 300 engineers and technicians.

The Print-Rite product range includes:

INKJETS - LASER TONER - THERMAL RIBBONS - RIBBONS - PHOTO PAPER

Print-Rite is committed to environmental protection that can contribute to 'sustainable development' of the earth and mankind. We have developed a Green Policy aimed at meeting customer satisfaction while also contributing to sustainable development. It is achieved by developing, producing and providing high level of product quality and environmental quality in products and services.

We were a pioneer in the printer consumables industry in implementing green and product safety management standards through the certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. We have a dedicated team with expertise and resources to support our customers and to ensure that our products comply with product safety regulations.

The group has achieved it's reputation as a cost-effective and high-quality manufacturer by investing in some of the industry's most vertically integrated production equipment. An extensive Research and Development laboratory ensures our presence at the forefront of new product development.

All our products undergo stringent post-production testing as an additional quality safety measure, which helps to ensure complete confidence in our compatible products and enables us to give customers a 100% product guarantee.

With this quality focused infrastructure, we at Print-Rite are confident that our customers are receiving the highest quality compatible and remanufactured inkjets and toners, photo paper and ribbon products currently available.

Print-Rite Monthly Capacity

700,000 units of remanufactured inkjet cartridges

1 million units of compatible inkjet cartridges

600,000 units of remanufactured and compatible laser cartridges and toner kits

5 million units of ribbons