Wide Format news 1-2017

years 

CELEBRATING TWENTY FIVE YEARS 

OF THE RECYCLER MAGAZINE 

• 

Wide-format supplement of The Recycler trade magazine 

Wide-format Quarterly 

Issue 5 - February 2017 

Issue 5 - February 2017 

Illustration of a Mars mission by Pat Rawlings in 1995 of a Mars mission (courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech) 

Plans for 3D printers beyond 

imagination 

Editor’s note: This is the third article of a three-part series. This article will focus on innovative uses of 3D printing in living spaces and 

space. 

It takes thousands of gallons of fuel to launch a payload into space, or on Mars, and use those materials to print the building and not 

but what if you could launch a 3D printer to an asteroid, moon or bring with us the materials to make the building, that would be an 

planet and “mine” existing materials to make structures? That’s amazing feat. It would make it much easier to launch things. You 

just one of the things being considered by the USA’s National wouldn’t have to launch the material. That’s one thought.” 

Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion The current 3D space innovation spreads across multiple 

Laboratory (JPL) as uses for 3D printers. 

areas. 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot 3D, based in 

“One of the key things for us is what limits what we can Brooklyn, New York, had a contest in 2014 called the 

do in space?” said Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and MakerBot Mars Base Challenge, seeing designs for Mars habitat 

Innovation Officer, JPL Office of the Chief Information Office. “One for astronauts. Another company, Space Architects, has designs 

is to get it out of Earth’s atmosphere…launch is expensive and the for a Lunar South Pole base called SinterHab, designed at the 

expensive part is due to weight. The less weight you have to International Space University in collaboration with NASA and 

launch, the better off you are. 

JPL to use materials from the moon 3D printed for the base. NASA 

“Therefore, if we could 3D print parts without having to awarded three teams cash in the first stage of the 3D Printed 

launch them, but we just use the material, such as on an asteroid Habitat Challenge Design Competition at the New York Maker last 

©2017 The Recycler www.therecycler.com Page 1

Space recyclers 

The MakerBot 3D printing company, in partnership with NASA, had a contest in 2014 called the MakerBot 

Mars Base Challenge, seeing designs for Mars 3D-printed habitat for astronauts. This design by Noah 

Hornberger won first prize 

September. 

Structures are also contemplated for earth habitat. The UN 

estimates that approximately three billion people will need 

housing by 2030. Italian engineering company WASP has 

constructed a 40 by 20 foot (approximately 6 by 12 metre) 3D 

printer that layers clay and builds houses. The project, consisting 

of a metal frame suspending a nozzle, is expected to help solve the 

global housing crisis with sustainable materials. 

For now, actual printers capable of 3D printing in zero-gravity 

are smaller. The first zero-gravity printer from NASA/JPL partner 

Made in Space was launched on 21 September 2014 as part 

of a pack of experiments. The device, tested on a specially-made 

aircraft to simulate zero-gravity flight and sent to the International 

Space Station, built an ABS-plastic ratchet wrench later tested 

on the ground, but proved its value in building tools and parts as 

second-generation zero-gravity 3D printers are being devised. 

“We are actively researching traditional methods and novel 

techniques that use extraterrestrial regolith simulants as feedstock 

for additive manufacturing,” said Brad Kohlenberg, Business 

Development Engineer for Made In Space, based in Mountain 

View, California. “We expect these efforts to help in the overall 

goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. Ultimately, 

our participation towards that end could take many forms.” 

The Additive Manufacturing Facility by Made in Space was 

installed at the International Space Station in April 2016, and this 

3D printer will print with a wide range of polymers, is designed 

to last the entire lifetime of the space station, and is commercially 

available for any customers on Earth who wish to get hardware 

into space. 

Now that Made in Space has demonstrated technical ability 

and built relationships with partners, Kohlenberg said “we are 

looking to finally do the things we dreamed about when we started 

the company - building the necessary infrastructure for human 

spaceflight, in space. That infrastructure could entail everything 

from on-demand satellites and habitats to space elevators and 

kilometre-scale colony ships. 

“As these manufacturing technologies become more 

sophisticated and as we reach further away from Earth, Made 

In Space imagines a future in which advanced in-situ resource 

utilisation and additive manufacturing techniques allow us to use 

the resources we find out in space, rather than having to bring 

everything we need with us, allowing us to live sustainably and 

permanently off-world”. 

Pat Carey, Vice President of Go-to-market Strategy and 

Programmes for Stratasys, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, 

says any technology goes through goes through a curve of early 

adopters, then mass adoption, which becomes more affordable 

because of the volume. All technology follows the same curve, he 

said, and with 3D printing, “we’ll follow that same curve and there 

will be innovations we can’t imagine that will come out”. 

A recycling project called R3DO is a material reclaimer by 

Made In Space to reuse material for printing a 3D-printed object 

when the original objects breaks or is obsolete. JPL’s Soderstrom 

saw similar projects at an electronics show about three years ago: 

“In order for us to be able to print in space, we have to be able 

to recycle the material…that’s going to be a key to the future, 

especially in space.” 

Reprinting parts 

The recent movie, The Martian, starring Matt Damon, showed 

the need for parts in space. “When things go wrong and all of a 

sudden, you need something, how do you get it in space?” 

Soderstrom said. “It’s not an easy thing. You’ve got to have a 

launch vehicle; you have to know what you need, and by that time, 

days and days have gone by. What if you could just reprint that 

part? We’ve demonstrated that with NASA using Made In Space. 

It’s usually made out of ABS plastic, but it shows that it’s possible 

to do that.” 

It will mean better handling emergencies with speed, he said, 

adding: “It’s extremely important for logistics.” 

Kohlenberg said ongoing developments that will make 3D 

printing more practical on earth are the same things that will make 

An artist’s conception of a Mars base (NASA/JPL public domain) 


it more practical in space. “Namely, faster speeds, increasing the 

range of materials, improving the integrity of printed parts, and 

making it easier to use. However, some things like ease of use 

are actually less important in space because the zero-G 3D printer 

is almost entirely remotely operated by experts. All the astronaut 

need do is say, ‘I need such and such’ and the ground teams will 

use the printer to make it so.” 

materials.” 

NASA/JPL is seeking partnerships with companies and 

universities to make new materials for 3D printing, which is a 

commercial development, Soderstrom added. There is quality 

assurance with materials to validate that the material will work. 

“One of the most interesting things is that when we send 

something into space, it’s extremely risky, so we demonstrate that 

it’s going to work as much as we can. So there is a lot of QA. We 

will x-ray the materials to assure there’s no problem with it.” 

Borgonia said that polymers are a good “show and tell” toy, 

but can 3D-printed titanium parts behave similar to the wrought 

version of the material? It’s something JPL is working with the 

America Makes Consortium to determine (so far, titanium does 

behave similarly). 

Dramatic innovation 

LavaHive, designed by the LavaHive team in the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge Design 

Competition, won third place in the NASA-awarded competition, using a ‘lava-casting’ 

construction 

Changing methods 

An engineer designing a component of part with subtractive 

manufacturing is classically trained to understand how to do 

it, said John Paul Borgonia, Technologist at JPL Materials 

Developments and Manufacturing Technology Group. 

“There are some limitations to that type of manufacturing,” 

Borgonia said. “With additive, it completely changes their way 

of thinking as engineers, because there are features that would 

not have been possible to add to the hardware without additive 

manufacturing. Take, for example, I want a particular structure. 

Now, I want the actual inside of that structure to be cellular. With 

additive manufacturing, those features can be added.” 

In space, materials become important as it is super-hot and 

super-cold and airless, so they have to handle all that, Soderstrom 

noted. Now robots that fly, swim and climb are being made with 

more speed, in contrast to the delay in sending out plans and would 

take a week to come back. “This cycle that used to take weeks, 

now that we have the multi-material printer in house, that cycle 

that used to take six weeks is now a day and a half.” 

Soderstrom says innovative things are being done with 3D 

printing of food. One of his favourite devices is the “Star Trek” 

replicator. “How 

far away is that? It 

may not be that far. 

It all comes down 

to material, and I 

think being able to 

experiment with 

new materials is 

something that’s 

extremely important 

Jason Dunn, CTO of Made In Space (foreground) and Mike 

Snyder, Director of Research and Development (background) work 

on the 3D printer sent to operate in the microgravity of the 

International Space Station (courtesy of Made In Space) 

for us in space and 

here at JPL. We at 

JPL are working 

quite heavily now 

by looking at new 

Soderstrom says now, designs can be done over the internet with 

programmes through Thingiverse or similar websites, and with 

social networks, there is a collaboration that has never been done 

before. He says 3D printing is enabling us being on “the very cusp 

or dramatic innovation”. Kohlenberg says with the research efforts 

at Made In Space, they hope to expedite humanity’s ability to 

survive any potential future events that could jeopardise life on 

earth. 

“As we develop solutions for living sustainably in space, we 

can take those lessons of sustainability back to earth and better live 

on a planet with finite resources. In the very near term, we hope 

that our research leads to more products like Made In Space - Fibre 

On the right is the 3D printer by Made In Space launched to the International Space 

Station in 2014, and on the left is an electronics box that supplies power and stores data. 

The printer was deemed successful in 3D zero-gravity printing, and another larger 3D 

printer is currently at the ISS (courtesy of Made In Space) 

Optics with clear and tangible economic benefits that can further 

enable our long term vision.” 

Soderstrom says it’s about future thinking, with one of the 

key things considering how 3D printing can help NASA/JPL 

stakeholders - the public. 

“In fact, it’s all of humanity. Being able to engage the public 

and all of humanity in the idea of ‘What could we do with 3D 

printing?’ is one of the goals, and we’ve had quite a few of those 

already, but I think we’re just scratching the surface. All of the 

innovation that is happening in 3D printing in industry and homes 

throughout the world and in universities is really going to help us 

a lot.” 


Dom Perignon prices for wide-format ink? 

Try a third party 

Alternatives to expensive original equipment manufacturer inks are an attractive option when ink is more expensive than champagne or 

expensive perfume. A Consumer Reports magazine 2013 study shows OEM printer ink as costly as top champagnes and pricey perfumes. 

Legitimate suppliers in the wide-format third-party ink 

industry successfully frame their inks as an alternative to the 

champagne-like OEM prices. Some have succeeded in ink that 

retain its colour, can “hot swap” and work in the machines 

perfectly. But some small businesses have been burned by ruined 

printheads or drifting colours in prints from inferior ink. Vetting a 

legitimate supplier is important and easy in this internet age. 

Small businesses usually have the option to experiment 

with third-party ink for wide-format machines. Aqueous-ink 

technology allows the business to easily print high-quality prints 

that range from photography to indoor graphics and posters to 

banners with low cost, extended colour gamut range and easy 

drying and lengthy colour-fastness. OEMs such as Canon, HP Inc 

and Epson continue to produce versatile machines using aqueous 

inks producing vibrant output on diverse media. 

With the advent of water-based latex inks, also available as 

third-party ink, the range of wide-format printing has extended to 

an almost infinite range of applications - printing on vinyl, wall 

coverings, PVC banner and PET film in addition to paper. 

Some have made small-business third-party ink the main part 

of their business. Tony Martin, President of Ink2Image, based in 

Glenview, Illinois, has been involved in the inkjet market for 25 

years, and the company’s inks include those for wide-format 

printers by Epson, HP Inc, Canon, Noritsu and Fuji. The company 

is looking at doing some latex, dye-sublimation and eco-solvent 

inks in the future. For now, aqueous fills Ink2Image’s dance card, 

and Martin noted that in 2000, the third-party market boomed and 

has increased since then. 

“There is definitely - particularly with the larger users of 

printers - more acceptance of third-party inks than there was, 

probably, 10 years ago,” Martin said. Mostly, Ink2Image takes in 

empty cartridges from sources from customers and cartridge 

brokers, then fills and recycles the cartridge. Most customers are 

small businesses, but they supply some chain reprographers in 

print production. 

Ink Specialist, in the Maastricht area of the Netherlands, 

remanufactures wide-format cartridges for all makes, but mainly 

water-based cartridges. Ink Specialist also supplies bulk ink for 

certain printers. 

Robert Grafton, President of the Ink Specialist group of 

companies, says: “There has been a greater awareness of thirdparty, 

but not as much as we all would like. If you compare it to the 

desktop cartridges, we have a very long way to go.” 

What do dealers in wide-format think about thirdparty 

ink? Advanced Color Signs and Graphics based in Newtown, 

Pennsylvania, is a Canon and HP Inc dealer. The company’s Brad 

Schwartz says he does not recommend such inks. “I have never 

and would never,” he said. However, he has a UV-curable CET 

printer the company uses that uses third-party Vanguard ink, 

which has “hot swap” capability (does not require flushing the 

OEM ink before substituting third-party ink), and a colour gamut 

he knows is correct, and he has been using for five or six months 

with no problem with the output. 

Challenge of the chips 

Being a non-OEM in the ink market for these machines is a 

challenge, particularly with OEM computer chips, usually on 

printheads. Frequently, smartchips in printers won’t recognise 

third-party cartridges, giving a warning or refusing to print. But 

third-party suppliers of chips are adept at versatility, too, and 

have enabled workarounds for third-party ink in wide-format by 

sourcing third-party computer chips and reset options. 

But for third-party ink manufacturers using the chips, 

finding the right chip is sometimes a challenge. Grafton says it has 

become hard to compete when the older printers are phased out 

and replaced with the newer models. Sometimes the chip number 

is different, though the cartridges are the same and the chip boards 

are the same. And sometimes Grafton says he can’t determine how 

many chips he will need. 

“I have also given them ideas about making blank chips have a 

small programming device, and we can then programme the chip 

according to model, colour,” Grafton said, adding that so far, it has 

“fallen on deaf ears”. 

For Ink2Image, chips the printer reads is also part of the 

challenge of recycling cartridges with third-party ink. “The issue 

for us is the same for most recyclers. If you’ve got a great ink, the 

biggest issue is that you have to get it into the printers, because the 

cartridges and chips are a lot of the business,” Martin said. 

“The biggest problem that third-party inks on cartridge 

machines have is not being able to recycle cartridges or being able 

to recycle original cartridges or being able to use cartridges that 

don’t infringe patents or being able to get chips that read on the 

printer […] that’s the age-old recycling problem – it doesn’t matter 

whether you’re doing ink or laser.” 


Aqueous perks 

Aqueous printing’s debut in wide-format printing arrived 

with inkjet wide-format in the latter part of the 20th century. 

Aqueous has since dominated the small-business area. Aqueous 

ink is often lower-priced than ink in other types of printers. Ink 

formulations include pigmented aqueous inks resistant to UV 

light, which provide superb archivability, ozone-resistance and 

water-resistance. Such advantages have brought about plentiful 

aqueous pigment inks used in outdoor applications. Resin-based 

inks, an alternative to latex, provide an ability to print on a wide 

range of substrates. 

While often wide-format printing is handed to a designated 

person within a small business, it is not too complex to operate 

the modern wide-format, aqueous printer. OEMs have added 

automation like iPad-like displays, and technology like drag-anddrop 

printing and preview features that have made it easier for 

ordinary personnel at Main Street retail businesses, governments 

and schools to use these printers. Media is often front-loading, and 

the larger cartridges are swapped in a manner similar to those in 

desktop machines. 

Mobile options have made aqueous printing more accessible, 

including to the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) 

market. Major manufacturers such as HP Inc, Canon and Epson 

are all making applications compatible with mobile technology, 

and making printing off mobile devices easier. For Ink2Image, the 

expertise is in aqueous as their chemist is an expert in the aqueous 

area. “It’s a nice area to operate in, because our margins are still 

good,” Martin stated. 

Having completed 10 years at this company, Martin says they 

have learned about third-party ink and the needs for the ink, 

“particularly on these types of wide-format aqueous printers”. 

Here are some major components needed for manufacturing 

third-party ink, according to Martin: 

• Colourfastness and colour reliability so you don’t need 

colour profiles and colour settings. 

• “Hot swap” capability so no flushing of the printhead is 

needed when changing ink. 

• Printer reliability - Martin says this is “probably the most 

crucial one. An ink has to be in development for at least 

three to five years before we can honestly say we’re a 

direct replacement for the OEM. Colour-matching is not 

too difficult, but getting the printer reliability is the key”. 

All this takes a lot of testing, he says. Ink2Image has no 

machine warranty, because Martin says for their users, most 

warranties have expired. They offer a warranty on the 

product, but he says in the past five years, have not had a product 

complaint. “There have been instances of failures on machines, but 

the machines were going to fail, anyway,” Martin noted, “but there 

has never been a complaint against us, or anything like that.” 

Since Martin has a lot of expertise in the photography 

market, Epson is a favorited for developing inks. The new Epson 

wide-format printer is the SureColor, but Martin comments: 

“I don’t know of anyone, including us, supplying cartridges for 

those printers as of yet.” Ink2Image also offers bulk ink for Epson 

printers. 

“We supply, for Epson printers, particularly, the refillable 

cartridges. They are basically cartridges that go in like an ink tank 

that you can pour ink into,” Martin added, and cautions that users 

need an environment where the operator has a high level of 

expertise for using the bulk ink apparatus. 

Third-party ink market challenging 

Like most OEM media, OEM ink is not manufactured 

directly by the OEM, according to Martin: “Something most 

people don’t realise is that most of the OEMs don’t make their own 

inks, anyway.” 

But OEMs place a protective wall around it with 

printhead-placed smart computer chips in most all of the wideformat 

printers. As Grafton indicates, chips are a major challenge 

for third-party ink suppliers wishing to supply customers with a 

wide array of ink options. 

But most encouraging in the third-party ink area is that the 

aqueous inks continue with availability, and a telescoping range 

of adjuncts. And third-party latex ink has been available at least 

since 2014, as more jump in. And third-party ink is likely not far 

off for the new Memjet wide-format and HP Inc XL ultra-fast wideformat 

machines. 

The market will always be there for alternative inks when 

OEM-sanctioned ink is so costly. 


USA recycling of e-waste gaining traction 

Recycling, recovery and de-manufacturing wide-format and other large office machines is up to each individual state to legislate in the USA. 

Unlike other countries, such as the European Union with its WEEE legislation, there is no unified push. 

The USA has 25 states that have passed legislation mandating e-waste 

recycling requirements, with several more states either improving 

laws relating to e-waste or passing new ones. Most legislations use a 

“producer responsibility” approach that mandates manufacturers 

pay for recycling. It causes manufacturers of hardware to scrutinise 

strategy for managing returns. But while legislation is inching along, 

there are options for people who wish to recover steel, boards or 

precious metals from machines in the USA. Wide-format machines, 

though, are notoriously hardier than desktop counterparts. Recovery 

and refurbishing is often the option, even for machines brought into 

e-waste facilities. 

At Forever Green Recycling, based in Chantilly, Virginia, the first 

option is to sell the machines. “We’ve been fortunate,” said Duke Scott, 

who has run the facility 30 miles west of Washington, D.C., with his 

brother for nine years. “We’ve been able to resell most of the ones we 

get”. 

If it can’t be resold, they strip out the parts, as “a lot of people 

will re-use the parts.” Precious metals are saved and sent to a smelter. 

Panels are crushed and made into steel beams. “I had one guy tell me 

to think of it as urban mining,” Scott added. 

Urban mining grows up 

The fledgling sorting programmes that marked the ’90s have been 

replaced with behemoth shredders that can shred refrigerators, and 

sorting into commodities on a grand scale. 

Precious metals are not found to a large degree, but the recovery 

of precious metals is significantly helpful to the environment, too. For 

instance, for the traditional mining and production operation for 2.2 

pounds of gold (one kilogramme), it takes 182,543 gallons (691,000 

litres) of water and 310 pounds (141 kilogrammes) of cyanide. Mining 

one gold ball the size of a golf ball, you’d move over nine tonnes (8,165 

kilogrammes) of dirt, costing approximately $919 (€817) per ounce 

using traditional mining methods. 

But precious metals in modern machines are scarce, says Dave 

Beal, Vice President of EPC, Inc., based in St. Charles, Missouri. “Most 

of the places that we used to get it from were servers and systems, but 

even now, you don’t really recover that much of it.” 

EPC is one of the largest resellers of used IT gear in the Midwest 

United States, in addition to being a major asset recovery solution 

provider in the USA. Since 1998, EPC has been a wholly-owned 

subsidiary of CSI Leasing, one of the largest independent IT leasing 

specialists in the world, with operations in North, Central and South 

America, and throughout Europe. 

“We actually refurbish more equipment than we recycle,” Beal 

noted. “It’s just because most of the stuff that we get is newer stuff and 

so it still has a value in the market, and so that’s where we go with it. 

Honestly, a lot of the wide-format printers, the plotters and that sort of 

stuff doesn’t lose its value as much as a system does. For the most part, 

those don’t evolve as fast as a system.” Printers retain value longer than 

systems and servers. 

According to the University of Washington, Seattle, electronic waste (e-waste) like this accounts for over 40 million metric tons (tonnes) of waste around the world 

annually, and is responsible for 70 percent of heavy metals that end up in landfills (University of Washington) 


The process 

Beal says with large computer towers now the size of a notebook, 

everything is smaller. 

“Everything has gone down in scale,” Beal said. “I’ve been demanufacturing 

and reclaiming 3.2 million pounds the last few years, 

but have actually done more units. It’s just that everything is getting 

smaller. There’s more stuff out there and it’s getting smaller, so you 

don’t get an increase of weight.” 

“If it’s a small printer, like a desktop, you remove the toner and 

the paper and it all is recoverable. When you throw it into a shredder, 

you’re going to end up with plastic; you’re going to end up with steel, 

which is, by far, what you have most prevalent in a printer. Then you’re 

going to have a little bit of a circuit board and a little bit of aluminium.” 

Metal panels and circuit boards are the most valuable items in 

printers, Beal stated. Shredder-sorter systems, like the one being 

installed by EPC, take a large machine, and it grinds and shreds it. 

“On the other side, a magnet comes first and it will pull the steel 

out. Then there are what they call Eddy currents. and those will 

remove the aluminium and copper (an Eddy current separator uses a 

powerful magnetic field to separate non-ferrous metals from waste). 

After all ferrous metals have been removed previously by some 

arrangement of magnets, and then as they go down the line, the stuff 

that’s left over, like the plastic, there are little air jets that will blow those 

off into their own area. 

“It sorts off the materials – it will do that with the circuit boards. It 

will throw that off to a line. It uses an optical sorter, so it can figure out 

the difference between a circuit board and a piece of plastic.” 

Beal has been in the reclamation business for 12 years now, he 

said, and saw his first shredding-sorting system about 10 years ago, 

which has improved. 

“It can sort out more different things than it used to,” Beal added. 

“Cleaner streams, I guess is what commodities are.” 

The two standards 

There are two standards for e-waste in the USA – e-Steward and 

the more modern standard, R2. These are based on the ISO 140001 

environmental management system standard. Currently all seven 

EPC processing centres in the USA are certified to e-Steward 

standards. That means no exporting out of the USA. 

There are 26 states with e-waste legislation, and Beal is involved 

in pushing the legislation e-waste recyclers are pushing in Missouri, 

but it will be considered in the next legislative session, at the earliest, 

going through the Solid Waste Advisory Board as a prefiled bill this 

November. 

There are flaws with the current method of handling e-waste. 

For example, takeback legislation is such that if an OEM sold 

100,000 pounds (45,360 kilogrammes) into that state in a given year, 

then the company is required to recover or recycle 60 percent of that. 

“All the manufacturers, and in most cases, the state didn’t care 

whose you recycled, just as long as you recycled 60,000 pounds of 

electronics,” Beal said. “What happens is these manufacturers go 

after this and when they get to their quota, they don’t pay for anything 

else. So they may get their quota the first four months of the year, then 

the next of the year, they’re not funding it at all. Then these CRTs and 

printers and all that are still coming in to recyclers, and for the most 

part, the recyclers will not take a CRT after that.” 

So recyclers often will stockpile CRTs until the next cycle begins 

(see sidebar on CRTs on page 8), as Beal says no money can be made 

recycling CRTs unless the OEM or someone is paying for it. 

Federal e-waste legislation needed 

Beal and many other recyclers on the state level point out the need for 

e-waste legislation on the nationwide level, but as he says, it is not a 

priority now for a USA Congress that has “bigger fish to fry”. 

The main federal law governing solid waste is the Resource 

Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, dealing mostly with 

CRTs. Steps have been taken to not stockpile e-waste in third-world 

countries, and there is more sophistication in the legislation being 

considered among states, but only a fraction of e-waste is processed. 

There are many arguments for enhancing the processing of 

electronic equipment through e-waste centres. One is the tremendous 

amount of electronic equipment that is out there, and recovery of 

plastic items that would last centuries in a landfill. Another is the 

potential resources – from precious metals to metals like steel, copper 

and aluminium – that would not have to be mined. And responsible 

e-waste recycling has long-term benefits for keeping contaminants out 

of the environment. 

More federal legislation is needed to make the current patchwork 

of regulations among states universal. 


Cathode-ray tube monitors huge problem 

Although cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors are not a usual 

component of printers, the salvaging of the monitors is becoming a 

problem for those recycling e-waste material. 

Dave Beal, Vice President of EPC, Inc., says CRT monitors are one 

of the reasons e-waste legislation should be a priority, “because we’ve 

had all these companies that have abandoned CRTs, for the most part. 

It costs so much to get rid of those. We’re looking in Missouri for a 

secondary lead smelter we can send them to, but they’re shut down 

now and they shut down every once in a while, so you just have to hold 

them until they allow you to get everything in again. If you have a fairly 

big operation, you might have to hold two or three truckloads before 

they open up again.” 

Beal stated that a company stood up at conferences, saying they 

were going to build a furnace and take care of all the CRT glass. “They 

just needed enough to stockpile so that once they got their furnace 

running, they could take care of everything. Now, they’ve got millions 

of pounds of CRTs sitting in Arizona and Ohio.” 

A CRT monitor’s components are an electron gun and focusing 

equipment, a plastic casing and leaded glass. Because of x-rays emitted 

by the electron gun, lead is present to shield people. An analysis of the 

glass resulted in the following results by weight: 

The lead, a dangerous component, can be recovered through a 

pyrovacuum process, vaporising lead with high heat and low pressure: 

then it is recovered with carbon powder. 

The composition of materials has also changed. LEDs have 

replaced LCD screens that replaced CRTs in screens. There are 

fluorescent tubes in the background of LCD screens. CRTs contained 

lead, but now there is a need to be concerned with mercury in LCD 

screens. 

As for the glass in machines, Beal says he can take the glass to 

someone who will process it, but it is not profitable at all. 

“You can find people that will take the glass,” Beal said, “but for 

the most part, it’s not a sellable option.” 

LEDs don’t have hazardous materials and materials are easily 

recovered. Beal says there is not much value there. Some people take 

the front panels, which have rare earth metals in them and that they’ll 

recover. “That’s a long process, too,” Beal said. “You don’t get a lot out 

of it.” 

LINK: http://www.appropedia.org/Metal_reclamation_and_ 

recycling_of_electronic_waste#cite_note-Chen-11 

• 49.61 percent silicon dioxide 

• 24.11 percent lead oxide 

• 7.79 percent potassium oxide 

• 5.32 percent sodium oxide 

• 3.63 percent aluminium oxide 

• 2.99 percent strontium oxide 

• 2.30 percent calcium oxide 

• 1.96 percent barium oxide 

• 1.49 percent magnesium oxide 

• 0.58 percent zirconium oxide 

• 0.07 percent iron oxide 

• 0.07 percent phosphorous oxide 

Alternative energy spreading in business 

Solar, wind and other alternative energy platforms have been possible for decades. Now the prospect of going off the grid is coming true, 

with countries like Sweden enjoying the prospect of freeing that country from fossil fuels completely. Cutting energy costs and using 

“green” energy is one of the major profit centres for a small business. In addition to buying energy-efficient appliances, printers and 

computers, it’s only one step farther for long-term investment in alternative energy. 

The year 2015 brought a surge of investment in renewable 

power and fuels in developing and industrial countries, according 

to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). BNEF reported that 

wind power was the leading source of new power-generating power 

capacity in Europe and the USA in 2015. But non-European and 

non-USA countries such as China helped bring the capacity up by 63 

gigawatts (GW) to 433GW worldwide. Solar was up 25 percent in 

2015 over 2014, totalling 227GW, and 10 times that of a decade earlier. 

Photovoltaics and solar have marked a dramatic increase in 

innovation. In PV (photovoltaics), commercial development of solar 

paint materials to power a building by its parking lots have reached 

viability. Wind power that fits into the landscape is becoming more 

viable. In addition, some unusual alternative-energy forms have shown 

dramatic growth. The US Department of Energy reports that fuel cell 

growth from 2013 to 2014 grew from $1.3 billion to $2.2 billion (€1.18 

to €2.01 billion) in the year, shipping 50,000 fuel cells. 

Solar - from panels to paint 

Solar power - a type of energy technology rather than a fuel - has 

prices falling over a hundred times less than the 1970s level, 

according to BNEF. Prices at $50 (€45.57) per megawatt in the ’70s 

have fallen to near a dollar (€0.91) per megawatt installed today. 

Batteries to store solar power are also falling in price while 


Dr. K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, shows one of the company’s fuel cells. Sridhar 

has assembled a management team of leaders in energy, technology, manufacturing, 

and global business (courtesy of Bloom Energy) 

accelerating in technology. 

Solar drew the most renewable energy money in 2015. The US 

Energy Information Administration predicts solar will eclipse 

any other energy-production sector. The prospect of putting solar 

panels on top of big-box stores could use the 4.5 billion square feet 

available, according to Free Speech Radio News’ article ‘Superstores, 

small businesses across the U.S. could double the country’s solar 

production capacity’. 

For residential or small commercial, specialised shingles affixed 

to houses or businesses can generate electricity and blend into the 

existing roof. Several types are now available. But what about the 

possibility of solar paint? That’s right: use of special photovoltaic paint 

to paint the side of a business, a parking lot or other surface - think 

vehicles like buses - that can also generate electricity. This technology, 

helped by a host of various universities researching it, is generating 

experimentation in universities. 

Solar paint is three to 11 percent as efficient as traditional 

photovoltaic panels, but barriers are few for manufacturers of the 

paint as it’s cheap to manufacture, doesn’t need specialised equipment 

and there are no hazardous chemicals involved. The University of 

Toronto, in its work on solar paint, is experimenting with crystals 

used in solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and computers called 

colloidal quantum dots. 

The paint can be sprayed on and transported just like a roll 

of wallpaper. Others working on solar paint technology, according 

to UnderstandSolar, in an article, ‘Solar Paint: A Spray-On 

Alternative to PV’, include Johns Hopkins University, the 

University of Buffalo, the University of Texas at Austin and the 

University of Sheffield, which is working with a mineral named 

perovskite. A crowdsourcing campaign for a company called 

SolarLayer has been started by a consortium of companies interested 

in commercial development of solar paint. 

Wind-power breezy alternatives 

If it’s a small office-supply store inside a mall doing its own printing 

that wants to power itself, the solar method of power offers some 

attractive advantages. But wind power has come of age for the small 

business willing to do research and make the investment. 

One option is the vertical wind turbines mounted on a tree-like 

structure, an option from NewWind, based in Paris, France. The 

“Wind Trees” provide 3.1 kilowatts of power each, using an array of 

about 50 functional decorator-design turbines. An array of such trees 

might be enough to charge a battery-bank of a small business for 

necessary activities. 

There is also the other option of a tower, if zoning and 

business neighbours permit. Usually the option would be a small wind 

system, which is growing dramatically. The American Wind Energy 

Association predicts a thirty-fold increase of such systems within five 

years in the USA. 

This option takes some research. Small businesses in the USA use 

an average of 15,000 to 25,000 kilowatt-hours per year. Winds need 

to be at least 9.8 to 11.5 miles per hour (16 to 18.5 kilometres per 

hour). Don’t know the speed of the wind? Find wind resource maps 

from government agencies, or there is an option of borrowing an 

anemometer, which determines wind speed. 

A fairly tall tower is required. Investment in the system is roughly 

$4,000 to $8,000 per rated kilowatt (€3,846 €7,292). If there isn’t a good 

wind speed consistently, spending tens of thousands on such doesn’t 

make sense. 

Fuel cells rising as electrical source 

Fuel cells were most notably used on the USA space program, but 

newer earthbound alternatives are more cheaply made. Fuel-cell 

growth in the USA was at $2.2 billion (€2.01 billion) in 2014. 

Solid-oxide fuel cells use a ceramic electrolyte for an 

electrochemical reaction using fuel such as natural gas. The solidoxide 

fuel cells of Bloom Energy, based in Emeryville, California, are 

next-generation high-temperature fuel cells that require no precious 

metals, acids or molten materials to convert natural gas and air into 

electricity. It is a battery that is always “on”, providing clean, affordable 

energy through fuel, air, and heat. The potential power grid can be 

used for transportation, smartphones and laptop computers. 

Forecasts by WinterGreen Research, based in Lexington, 

Massachusetts, show the stationary fuel cell market at $1.2 billion 

(€1.09 billion) in 2013 projected to increase to $14.3 billion (€13.03 

billion) in 2020. Its press release noted: “Stationary fuel cells are on 

the cusp of becoming commercially viable, creating companies that 

are profitable and produce electricity at or below parity with the grid 

giving every user alternatives to the grid.” 

Fuel-cell systems from Bloom Energy were installed beginning in 

2015 for home-furnishings stores of IKEA. The 300-kilowatt system 

for stores operates on biogas and produce approximately 2,497,651 

kilowatt-hours of electricity annually for the IKEA stores, the 

equivalent of reducing 1,304 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). That’s 

equal to the emissions of 249 cars or to providing electricity for 163 

homes yearly. 

And when it comes to fuel cells, what entrepreneur hasn’t wished 

there were another way to power or recharge cell phones differently? 

There is, using alcohol, with a 10-year waiting period forecast for the 

perfection of the technology. 

Researchers are working on such devices worldwide, with a 

prototype developed by a researcher in Finland. Giammario Scotti, 

the Finn researcher designing the Aalto University fuel cell, 

developed a device that he thinks can work inside a smartphone, 

will be superior to even a lithium-ion battery and runs on ethanol or 

methanol (denatured alcohol), with ethanol preferred. It’s a tiny 


wafer 14 millimetres squared (about half an inch), and output is half a 

volt. You can’t just give yourself and your smartphone a drink, though. 

Recharge is through a pump or capillary action with ultra-clean fuel. 

Rocky Mountain solar incentives 

The typical small business today has computers, printers, modems 

and servers that all take electricity - one of the most expensive 

components of running an office. Finding alternatives for 

electricity helps the bottom line. Some of the technologies in this 

article are around the corner, but will definitely be available. 

Businesses are moving toward solar in more rural areas. 

Sun Valley, Idaho is often a skiing destination, nestled in the Rocky 

Mountains just a stone’s throw from Big Sky country in Montana, and 

where trout-fishing enthusiasts throw a fly in crystal waters beneath a 

sky with huge, craggy mountains jutting into it. 

Harry Griffith, executive director of the Sun Valley Economic 

Development Association, works in Sun Valley. He said 40 

photovoltaic systems were completed for businesses for about 

$900,000 (€820,307) in the valley. In addition to local programs 

encouraging investment in water production, the south central area 

where he works has some wind farms. Some agricultural farms used 

small wind turbines, he said. 

From Idaho to Botswana, alternatives are being explored with 

alternate energy that may make the air more breathable, Band-Aid 

some of the damage from pouring fossil fuels into the atmosphere, and 

make businesses and homes spend less on electricity. 

It may look more like Junkyard Wars than high-tech, but University of Toronto researcher 

Illan Kramer’s device is the first step towards a spray-on solar cell (Marit 

Mitchell/Univeristy of Toronto Engineering) 

Sometimes large-format is more than speed 

The speed of wide-format machines today is something phenomenal. But what about those tried and true machines being introduced that 

aren’t Memjet or XL machines, but have features that the average business user might like? One of the most global features of these printers 

is the capability to be versatile. Printing from a thumb drive is almost the new standard in printers. Mobile, Wi-Fi and portable printing 

capability is likewise a common add-on. 

As for prices, not too many people can plop down the money for a new 

ultra-fast machine, so on our review of new machines, we’re reviewing 

those that have potential to be used in a small business environment: 

• One of those is the Epson SureColor P20000, a 64-inch-width 163 

centimetres) printer that is geared toward high-output production, 

but delivers photo-quality prints. 

• Canon/Océ, whose aqueous printers churned out in previous years 

are preferred by many small businesses, has an eight-colour 60- 

inch imagePROGRAF Pro-6000S (152 centimetres) and 44-inch 

(112 centimetre) Pro-4000S. These are within the price range of 

many small businesses, although designed for the production 

printing industry. 

• HP Inc has introduced the DesignJet Z5600 and Z2600 PostScript 

Printers in 2016, which have a six-ink printing system that is 

miserly with ink, but doesn’t cut colour quality. 

• Then there are some offerings from other companies in the latex 

area that are worthy of mention, such as the Mimaki and Ricoh 

units. 

The best older printers will be reviewed in the next issue of The 

Recycler. But there are a host of features in the machines recently 

introduced that small businesses might find are worth the money. So 

here we go. 

Epson SureColor SC-P20000 

The Epson SureColor SC-P series has added the 64-inch-width 

SC-P20000 (163 centimetres), with printing speeds of 188 square 

Epson SureColor SC P20000 

feet or 17.5 square metres per hour. The permanent PrecisionCore 

MicroTFP printhead yields Epson’s flagship 2,400 x 1,200dpi 

photo-quality printing that is the hallmark of Epson’s SC-P models. 

For outdoor or interior signs, exhibition, promotional, photographs 

of points of sale, the printer is extremely versatile. Its output has highprecision 

media feed technology. A camera-based paper feed 

stabiliser and media inductive roller system makes sure even when 

unattended, the printer will feed smoothly. 

Epson’s SC-P20000 features include an Epson UltraChrome Pro 


10-colour inkset that consistently delivers good prints, including 

deep black high-density photo and matte inks. Graininess is reduced 

and better gradation is achieved because it has four shades of black 

ink. With Epson’s Multi-Size Droplet Technology (MSDT) aboard, 

vibration is reduced and accuracy of ink drops and dot-placement is 

assured with a new printhead structure. 

An Epson Colour Calibration utility assures accurate 

colour reproduction. When handling and switching media, 

status of the printing and remaining media can be checked through a 

transparent printer cover window. Users can clean the printhead and 

ink cap after printing as the position of the printhead rests where it 

can be cleaned by the user. The printer has an option for a hard drive 

and spectrophotometer, sold separately. 

For $10,000 (€9,430), this could easily be a cost-effective small 

business in-house printer, even though designed for copy shops, 

print shops, photo labs and photo outlets. 

Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-6000S 

The eight-colour, 60-inch imagePROGRAF 6000S (152 centimetres) 

is one of four new models added by Canon in 2016. Others included 

the 44-inch imagePROGRAF Pro-4000 (112 centimetres) and 24-inch 

Pro-2000 (61 centimetres) for the fine art and photographic markets, 

and the 44-inch (112 centimetres) Pro-4000S. The 6000S is billed as 

affordable for production signage, but we’ll pick the 6000S, priced at 

about $9,000 (€8,487) as also affordable for small businesses. 

The printer processes an A0 print (33.1 x 46.8 inches or 84.1 x 

118.9 centimetres) with coated paper in about a minute and a half 

at 2,400 x 1,200dpi. A colour densitometer uses a three-colour LED 

and condenser lens to ensure peak performance. One printhead is 

installed in each Pro series printer. This printer has a wider 

printhead (1.28-inch-wide or 3.25 centimetres) that features anticlogging 

technology, improving efficiency, preventing wasted ink and 

reducing cleaning cycles. 

A multi-sensor calibrates the printer and assures colour 

consistency. There are 18,432 nozzles, and the 6000S uses a non-firing 

nozzle detection and compensation system. All ink is used up in the 

ink tank before needing to replace the tank. “On the fly” or “hot swap” 

capability allow switching the ink without stopping the print job. 

The printer comes with a 320GB hard drive, a USB port and Wi-Fi 

capability. The multifunction roll system is standard in the 60-inch, 

eight-colour model, which allows varying media in the dual-roll 

system and intelligently send the job to the correct media, automating 

HP Inc DesignJet Z5600 PostScript Printer 

the entire process. Making your own ICC protocols is an expensive 

option, but often desirable. An optional spectrophotometer for the 

6000S is $9,000 (€8,487). 

HP Inc DesignJet Z5600 PostScript Printer 

This 44-inch (112 centimetre) printer is ideal for the architectural 

and contracting market, but the DesignJet Z5600 is fully colourcompatible 

with six-ink capability, so can be used for signage and 

small businesses, too. Using six inks, the printer assures adaptability 

to thrifty budgets. HP Inc’s chromatic red ink enhances the colour 

gamut, ideal for high-impact point of purchase (POP) signs and 

posters. 

The Z5600’s capability of printing at 504 square feet per hour (47 

square metres) makes this printer one of the fastest of the printers 

featured here. Its price at under $5,000 (€ 4,715) makes it one of the 

most affordable printers for small businesses, too. 

HP Inc DesignJet Click printing software enables simple, one-click 

printing of for all PDF, JPEG, TIFF, and HP-GL/2 files. The software 

helps cut media costs with features like nesting and file error warnings. 

It allows users to be more productive with real-time previews, along 

with driverless and multipage/multi-file PDF printing of posters, rollup 

banners, CAD drawings, maps, and presentations. 

The printer has multi-roll printing. For greater line accuracy and 

colour reliability, HP Inc’s Professional PANTONE colour emulation 

is included with Adobe PostScript/PDF, HP-GL/2. Smoother colour 

tones are achieved in graphics thanks to HP Inc’s Multi-Dimensional 

Smart Drop Placement Technology, which enhances colour accuracy 

and reliable operation of the printer. 

The 44-inch (112 centimetre), automatic multi-roll DesignJet 

Z5600 PostScript Printer enhances media loading efficiency 75 percent 

and allows users to print 39 percent faster with quick-drying inks. If 

printing an exterior print or one needing high resistance, the 

pigment-based HP Inc Vivid Photo inks are water and fade-resistant 

and can last up to 200 years. The printer includes a 320GB hard drive 

and USB capability. 

Latex technology improving 

Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-6000S 

Mimaki and Ricoh have entered the latex-printing field in addition to 

HP Inc. It is considered aqueous, and yes, used to have poor scratchresistance, 

but that has improved. It requires high temperatures to dry, 

generating some adverse publicity a few years ago, but HP Inc will give 


anyone an entire spiel discounting that rumour. Ink technology has 

helped lower the ink-cure temperature, which has helped in this area, 

too. 

There is hardly anything that can’t be printed using latex 

printing. Latex ink is highly ultraviolet-light resistant. Vehicle 

appliques have surprising resistance. People with latex allergies 

aren’t allergic to this type of latex, which isn’t related to plants. The 

latex printer is not completely volatile solvent-free, but is much more 

VOC-friendly than organic printers elsewhere. Still, advances in the 

ink technology, and the addition of an optimising fluid, have helped 

lower the temperature at which the inks cure. 

But the versatility – from backlit films to trade-show graphics to 

vehicle appliques to wallpaper or flooring or even upholstery – is what 

makes people who own the printers sing their praises. While HP Inc 

equipment is well-known, Mimaki and Ricoh offer latex units - the 

Mimaki JV400-130LX and -160LX (54- and 64-inch or 137 and 163 

centimetres) and Ricoh’s Pro L4130 and L4160 (54- and 64-inch or 137 

and 163 centimetres) are available. The latter have CMYK plus orange, 

green, and white aqueous latex inks. 

Some of the latex units offered by non-HP Inc sources have 

come within range of small businesses. The Mimaki JV400-130LX is 

available for about $7,300 (€6,883) on the internet; and the Ricoh 

L4160 is about $31,260 (€29,477), which would place it out of range 

of most. 

Affordable is key 

The OEM printer world is now offering those in small business the 

option to print their own wide-format with these new machines, while 

still also having a warranty to go along with it. “Doing prints yourself” 

is becoming a popular venture and better alternative for the entrepreneur 

who doesn’t want to have to leave all his or her printing in the 

hands of someone else. It allows more control, versatility and often, 

over time, a reduction in costs. 

Mimaki JV400-130 

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