PRINT.IT
17
CONSUMABLES
PrintIT:
What is the purpose of
your campaign?
Robbins:
We are trying to send a
message out against compatibles
in the market. Compatibles are
causing damage to our products and
to our company name. We want to
highlight the reliability of genuine
consumables and the problems that
can arise from using compatibles.
PrintIT:
What are some of these
problems?
Robbins:
TUV Rheinland in Germany
tested a range of our products with
both genuine and compatible toners.
The machines fitted with compatibles
had a number of problems: some
actually caused damage – one third
party toner damaged four developer
units in two printers; three out of four
compatible toners caused machine
downtime, compared to none of
the genuine cartridges; third party
supplies produced up to 73% more
waste toner; and there were up to
nine times more non-usable prints
when using compatibles.
PrintIT:
Why are you launching the
campaign now?
Robbins:
More people are using
compatible toner in our devices and
we have noticed that the failure
rate of machines under warranty for
those that do is going up. People
are experiencing poor quality prints,
they are getting excessive jams, they
are getting lots of waste paper and
waste toner and this is down to the
toner they put in the machine. Our
campaign is to ensure that people
who use our machines get the best
out of them every time.
PrintIT:
Why are more people using
compatible toner in your devices?
Robbins:
Because there are now a
lot more compatible supplies for our
products than there used to be. As
we have increased our market share,
more and more manufacturers have
come to the market with versions of
our toner. And the route to market is
much faster. Five years ago, it would
be 18 months before the compatible
manufacturer brought out a toner for
a new product. Now, it takes just six
months.
PrintIT:
What proportion of
consumables used in your
machines are now third party?
Robbins:
Context have analysed the
distribution channel and what is being
sold out to the end user and reseller
markets, and they have calculated
that 10% of consumables used in
KYOCERA devices are compatibles.
For some other manufacturers it
would be about 25-30%. They have
also looked at the counterfeit side,
and that is very small – less than one
percentage point.
PrintIT:
Your technology is based
on long-lasting components and
the only replaceable element is
the toner, so it must be easy for
a company to produce a toner
cartridge for one of your devices.
Robbins:
We manufacture our own
toner and our own machines and
there are things within the toner
that protect the machine and make
it last. Unlike devices that use all-in-
one cartridges, KYOCERA machines
have toner cartridges and separate
drums and developers designed to
last for 100,000 to 600,000 pages
(depending on the model). If you put
in toner that hasn’t been made for
that machine it can cause damage to
the drum and developer so that they
don’t last as long as they should, and
you can’t guarantee what the quality
will be like over a long period of time.
PrintIT:
Presumably the potential
problems are even worse with
counterfeit supplies.
Robbins:
Yes. Compatibles are
made legitimately and they have
the manufacturer’s name on the
packaging. However, a counterfeit
toner is made to look genuine. The
box will look exactly the same as
genuine consumables; it will have the
KYOCERA name on it and KYOCERA
toner codes. People buy counterfeit
toner because they see an advert for
genuine consumables at a very low
cost, but anything could be inside
the toner. Some we’ve analysed have
contained charcoal and iron filings.
Just think of the damage that would
do to your machine.
PrintIT:
What are you doing to
counter the counterfeiters?
Robbins:
We have been training
customs and excise officers at
ports and airports to spot KYOCERA
supplies that come into the UK
through unexpected channels. All
toner goes from Japan to Amsterdam
and then into the UK through one
port. If it enters by any other port,
customs officers will alert our
legal team. We have made several
seizures in this way and have also
followed the trail back to a plant in
China and had it closed down.
PrintIT:
Do you have holograms
and QR codes to validate your
supplies as genuine?
Robbins:
We already have holograms
on our toner containers to ensure
they are genuine, and we are
moving towards serialisation of our
consumables so that we can reward
people for buying genuine. This
means that when a customer enters
the serial number of a genuine toner
on a web portal, we could offer a
voucher or we could implement a
reward scheme where you get one
free toner for every x number you buy.
To find out more about KYOCERA
Document Solutions’ campaign
and the TUV Rheinland toner
test results, please visit
www.
kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk
PrintIT
quizzes Jonathan Robbins,
Consumables & Spares Manager at KYOCERA
Document Solutions, about the company’s
campaign against third party toner cartridges.
Buyer beware
Jonathan
Robbins,
Consumables
& Spares
Manager,
KYOCERA
Document
Solutions
