Supertank printers are a type of

continuous ink system A continuous ink system (CIS), also known as a continuous ink supply system (CISS), a continuous flow system (CFS), an automatic ink refill system (AIRS), a bulk feed ink system (BFIS), or an off-axis ink delivery system (OIDS) is a method for ...

(CISS)

inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of printer (computing), computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper or plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range f ...

. Supertank printers differ from traditional inkjet printers in that the printhead is connected via a tube system that draws ink from large ink tanks built into the printer, which are filled and refilled via ink bottles, eliminating the need for

ink cartridges An ink cartridge or inkjet cartridge is a component of an inkjet printer that contains ink to be deposited onto paper during printing. It consists of one or more ink reservoirs and can include electronic contacts and a chip to exchange informat ...

. Cost-per-page (CPP) is significantly lower than traditional cartridges, as replacement ink bottles contain enough ink to print thousands of pages, and typically cost under $20.

Advantages

*Printing costs are lower with the use of low-cost replacement ink bottles vs. ink cartridges. *The convenience of printing thousands of pages with fewer interruptions to replenish ink. *As an inkjet printer, it dispenses ink droplets at a very high speed, which allows for a relatively long distance between the printhead and the substrate, and a high drop-ejection frequency, allowing for high-speed printing. *The reduction of waste due to the elimination of used cartridges and their packaging. *The printer manufacturers are being forced to measure the ink volume remained in the printer by optical measurements and cannot use smart chips for

planned obsolescence In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is the concept of policies planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, u ...

, since the ink cartridge is integrated into the printer, and filled every time ink runs out.

Disadvantages

*The initial cost to purchase is higher than equivalent cartridge printers, which often follow the

razor and blades model The razor and blades business model is a business model in which one item is sold at a low price (or given away) in order to increase sales of a complementary good, such as consumable supplies. It is different from loss leader marketing and pro ...

of selling the printers at or below cost to generate later sales of proprietary cartridges. *In supertank printers with fixed printheads (all models from

Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, commonly known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, t ...

and HP, and some

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

models), printhead replacement can be expensive, if possible at all.

Examples

Epson pioneered this technology by launching the EcoTank range, first in Indonesia in 2010, with a North American launch in 2015. The supertank concept proved commercially successful, and Canon and HP launched their own lines of supertank printers, under the names MegaTank (Canon) and Smart Tank (HP).

References

{{reflist Inkjet printers