Allen Bradley Clearmark printer

So the inks for the AB Clearmark printer are about $80/each for 25ml of ink and the printer will not function if any of the color inks are empty, even if your only printing black.

I'm looking for any information on the type of ink they use to attempt to just refill the cartridges. Has anyone had any luck with this? I'm not sure if it uses die or pigment ink which is my biggest hesitation for trying this..

Does anyone know who makes this printer for AB?

Who knew AB made (relabeled) a printer?

I did some searching and couldn't come up with a picture of the cartridge, the plan being to put this image in to Google Images and let it search based on the image. With luck, you will come up with the exact same cartridges as the AB ones made by others. It's a last resort type of thing, but it has worked for me in the past.

Assuming that you are beyond the warranty phase, I would open it up and get the FCC ID number and look it up to see who actually made it.

http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/

I've done this a number of times, and usually come up with something meaningful.

You make a good point about the type of dye it uses, I watched a video on it and it looks like it's got a smelter working in there.

And finally, just because you fill a used cartridge, doesn't mean that the printer is going to treat it as new. Some printer manufacturers add a chip to the cartridge that will have to be reset to get the printer to use it.

That's a good suggestion, im going to take a few pictures of the ink and see if google can find it on image search..

As far as the heater you see in there, it's super high tech... a halogen bulb like an easy bake oven heats the label material to dry the ink. You can turn heating off and wipe the ink right off the label, great for testing without wasting a set of labels.

There is no chip on these inks, i think whoever makes the printer supports this as you can see some pins inside that look like they would contact a chip if it had one. The ink levels you see on the screen are ********, they show either full or empty, and nothing in between.

a285323 said:

That's a good suggestion, im going to take a few pictures of the ink and see if google can find it on image search..

As far as the heater you see in there, it's super high tech... a halogen bulb like an easy bake oven heats the label material to dry the ink. You can turn heating off and wipe the ink right off the label, great for testing without wasting a set of labels.

There is no chip on these inks, i think whoever makes the printer supports this as you can see some pins inside that look like they would contact a chip if it had one. The ink levels you see on the screen are ********, they show either full or empty, and nothing in between.

Click to expand...

Be sure to post the the pictures here as well (as well as any part number on the cartridges) for those of us playing along at home.

As for not having a chip, that's good thing. Now if you just knew a ChemE who could reverse engineer the ink for you. ;>

I removed the cover in search for the FCC ID but never found one. But I did find somthing better.. One single chip where the OEM had not taken off there brand name, that being "Ricoh"

I went to Ricoh's website and found only one style of ink jet printer, which they are calling a gel jet printer. In the specs it lists the ink type as pigment ink. The ink cartridges for this printer (GC41K, GC41M, GC41Y, and GC41C) look extremely close to what is on the AB printer.

I went ahead and ordered a set to try them out, will keep you posted on wether or not they work.

Attached are some pics of the inside of the printer and ink cartridges.

I removed the cover in search for the FCC ID but never found one. But I did find somthing better.. One single chip where the OEM had not taken off there brand name, that being "Ricoh"

I went to Ricoh's website and found only one style of ink jet printer, which they are calling a gel jet printer. In the specs it lists the ink type as pigment ink. The ink cartridges for this printer (GC41K, GC41M, GC41Y, and GC41C) look extremely close to what is on the AB printer.

I went ahead and ordered a set to try them out, will keep you posted on wether or not they work.

Attached are some pics of the inside of the printer and ink cartridges.

Excellent! It sure looks like it should work!

Where are you at in Ky? I am looking for someone to do some printing on my terminal blocks.

Update?

How did the Ricoh cartridges work out in your ClearMark printer. We have another rebranding of this same printer under the name Weidmuller and would like to refill the cartridges using bulk ink. $80 a cartridge is ridiculous especially when we fire ours up once ever 3-6 months and it never fails to empty a cartridge requiring us to replace it before printing. And we print very few at a time!

Another ricoh hint is that our driver shows the exact ricoh printer that it is based on.

Hope to hear back? How much where the ricoh cartridges?

more info?

We have the AB Clearmark printer as well. We have used the Weidmueller cartridges as well. I just replaced the black a few min ago and found the ink cartridge cradle had "RICOH" all over it. Made me google search. Found this thread.

I also think you should be able to reload the ink with a syringe and needle. You just need the correct ink.

I am also excited about finding a way to save on the ink. Hoping someone here has already tried it.

Blazer406 said:

We have the AB Clearmark printer as well. We have used the Weidmueller cartridges as well. I just replaced the black a few min ago and found the ink cartridge cradle had "RICOH" all over it. Made me google search. Found this thread.

I also think you should be able to reload the ink with a syringe and needle. You just need the correct ink.

I am also excited about finding a way to save on the ink. Hoping someone here has already tried it.

Click to expand...

Cool! Let us know how it works out please.