The Recycler Issue 306

www.therecycler.com Issue 306 l MAY 2018 l £10
Canon gets legal - Again
Canon launched a swathe of legal actions in the USA against
importers and manufacturers of new build cartridges. Starts page 3
Avoiding supply
chain risks
What are the risks of being
part of a supply chain.
Starts page 26
A busy few weeks...
Welcome to the new look
magazine. Page 21
INSIDE:
ASTER RESPONDS TO CANON
The company issued a statement
in response to the lawsuit
AFRICAN UNION TO DECLARE
AFCFTA
The African Continental Free Trade
Area was announced
THE GREENER SIDE
A recycling success story
INKJET AND CEE MARKET
New data from IDC reveals inkjet
drives CEE market in Q4
RETAIL COLUMN
Running the system of a store
p10
p12
p31
p36
p40

FEATURE
Canon gets legal - Again
Barely six weeks after being granted their 9,874,846 patent Canon launched a swathe of legal actions in the
USA against importers and manufacturers of new build cartridges.
Sound familiar?
You would be right, but it’s not quite a
case of Deja-vu, but you would be
forgiven for thinking it might be
because in June 2010 Canon filed a
complaint with the International
Trade Commission (ITC) against
twenty or more companies for
infringement of one or more of the
following Canon’s patents.
Patent Application Granted
Date Date
5,903,803
The ‘803’ patent 26.03.1996 11.05.1999
6,128,454
The ‘454’ patent 26.02.1999 03.10.2000
The ITC launched an investigation,
337-TA-731 and several companies
settled with Canon, while others
challenged their complaint. In
February 2011 the ITC found in
favour of Canon and issued an
exclusion order that is enforced by the
US Customs and Border Agency (CBA)
which effectively meant that most
remanufactured and non-OEM
compatible cartridges could not be
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
imported and sold in the USA because
the drum gears would infringe
Canon’s 803 and 454 patents.
Round two
In January 2012 Canon again files
a complaint against thirty-five
companies, including some of the
leading remanufacturers, for
infringement of one or more of the
above patents.
In response The ITC launched an
investigation, 337-TA-829, again
several companies settled with Canon,
while others challenged their
complaint. In June 2013 the ITC
found in favour of Canon and issued
an exclusion order that is enforced by
the CBA which effectively meant that
most remanufactured and non-OEM
compatible cartridges could not be
imported and sold in the USA because
the drum gears would infringe
Canon’s 803 and 454 patents.
Getting interesting
The two exclusion orders saw several
patent-free or patented workarounds
enter the market since 2011. These
workarounds were submitted to the
CBA and the CBA approved their
importation and in consequence
weakened Canon’s (and by default
HP’s) market for consumables.
The OEM’s position was further
weakened when, on the 26th March
2016 the 337-TA-829 exclusion order
expired when the 803-patent expired.
The 454-patent expired at the same
time because it was a division of the
803 patent (more later).
Softly, softly
In December 2016 Canon filed five
patents
Patent no:
Filing Date Grant Date
US 9,857,764 B2 13/12/2016 02/01/2018
US 9,841,729 B2 13/12/2016 12/12/2017
US 9,746,826 B2 13/12/2016 29/08/2017
US 9,836,021 B2 13/12/2016 05/12/2017
US 9,857,765 B2 13/12/2016 02/01/2018
All of the above patents where a
division of patent 8,282,278 that was
granted on the 2nd October 2012 but
has its priority date of 22nd December
2006. The above patents therefore
share the same priority date,
even though they were filed in
December 2016.
3

FEATURE
Canon gets legal - Again continued
Canon versus - a history
*All the numbers in the columns represent the patent claims Canon allege are being infringed
Company Court Patent 826 Patent 021 Patent 727 Patent 728 Patent 729 Patent 764 Patent 765 Patent 960 Patent 84
(9,746,826) (9,836,021) (9,841,727) (9,841,728) (9,841,729) (9,857,764) (9,857,765) (9,869,960) (9,874,846) Notes
i8 International LLC A 1,2,4,6,7,9* 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,27,19 1-7 1-3
9010-8077 Quebec Inc C 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Acecom Inc A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2012 prior action
ACM Technologies Inc A 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Apex Eccel Limited A 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Arlington Industries Inc G 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 Canon Partner
Aster Graphics Inc; Jiangxi A 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Yibo E-Tech co. Ltd; Aster 2017 action with SCC
Graphics Co. Ltd
Billiontree Technology USA Inc. A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2015 prior action
Bluedog Distribution Inc. I 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
CLT Computers Inc. A 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
EIS Office Solutions Inc K 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
eReplacements LLC H 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Fairland LLC A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Frontier Imaging Inc A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Ftrade Inc C 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Garvey’s Office Products Inc. G 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
GPC Trading Co. Limited C 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Hong Kong Boze Co. Limited C 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Ink Technologies Printer J 1,2,4,6,7,9 8-11,13,18,20 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Supplies LLC
Kuhlmann Enterprises Inc B 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
LD Products Inc A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2010 prior action
Linkyo Corp. A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Master Print Supplies Inc F 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
4 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

FEATURE
*All the numbers in the columns represent the patent claims Canon allege are being infringed
Company Court Patent 826 Patent 021 Patent 727 Patent 728 Patent 729 Patent 764 Patent 765 Patent 960 Patent 84
(9,746,826) (9,836,021) (9,841,727) (9,841,728) (9,841,729) (9,857,764) (9,857,765) (9,869,960)(9,874,846) Notes
Ninestar Technology A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2010 prior action
Company Ltd; Ninestar
Corporation; Ninestar Image
Tech Limited; Apex
Microtech Ltd.
Online Tech Stores LLC; L 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Imaging Supplies Investors
LLC
Ourway US Inc; A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Kingway Image Co. Ltd;
Ourway Image Tech Co. Ltd;
Ourway Image Co. Ltd; Zhuhai
Aowei Electronics Co. Ltd
Print After Print Inc B 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Print-Rite N.A. Inc; Print-rite 8 1,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,6,8,9,11,14,16-18,20,21,24,26 7,9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Holdings Ltd; Union
Technology Int’l (M.C.O.)
Co. Ltd; Print-rite Unicorn
Image Products Co. Ltd
Reliable Imaging Computer A 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Products Inc.
Static Control Components Inc D 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
V4Ink Inc A 1,2,4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,5-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1,3,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3
Zinyaw LLC K 1-4,6,7,9 1,2,4,5,7 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26,27 1,2,4-7,9-12,15-17,19-22,24,26-28 1-3,6,8-11,14,16-21,24,26 7-9 1,3,4,6,13,16,17,19 1-7 1-3 2014 prior action
Patents
Application 13/12/2016 13/12/2016 24/04/2016 24/04/206 13/12/206 13/12/2016 13/12/2016 10/03/2017 10/03/2017
Granted 28/08/2017 05/12/2017 12/12/2017 12/12/2017 12/12/2017 02/01/2018 02/01/2018 16/01/2018 23/01/2018
Courts
USDC - Central District of California A
USDC - Middle District of Tennessee - Nashville Division E
USDC - Southern District of Florida I
USDC - District of Arizona B
USDC - Northern District of California F
USDC - Southern District of Ohio J
USDC - Eastern District of New York C
USDC - Northern District of Illinois G
USDC - Southern District of Texas - Houston Division K
USDC - Middle District of North Carolina D
USDC - Northern District of Texas - Dallas Division H
USDC - Western District of Tennessee - Western Division L
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
5

FEATURE
Canon gets legal - Again continued
Canon filed four further patents that
are a division of patent 8,282,278
that was granted on the 2nd October
2012 but has its priority date of 22nd
December 2006.
Patent no:
Filing Date Grant Date
US 9,869,960 B2 10/03/2017 16/01/2018
US 9,874,846 B2 10/03/2017 23/01/2018
US 9,841,727 B2 24/04/2017 12/12/2017
US 9,841,728 B2 24/04/2017 12/12/2017
The priority date
The priority date is a crucial date in
the patent evolution and is, in effect
the key date in determining prior art.
The division
The ability to file a new patent and link
it to the priority date of an earlier
patent does provide the possibility to
look at market workarounds that have
had patents granted and received CBA
import approval and patent out that
market advantage.
Round three
Just weeks after the 846 patent was
granted on the 23rd January this year
Canon filed their latest complaint with
the ITC who have now launched their
337-TA-1106 investigation. See table
XX for a list of the companies and
patents involved
If history repeats itself some
companies will settle with Canon,
some will challenge the complaint and
even possible the patents to ensure
they really are a true division of the
8,282,278 patent. The key will be if
there is discovery of any relevant
prior art.
At the same time R&D teams will be
looking at the raft of Canon’s latest
patents and will be busy developing
workarounds.
Round four?
Canon still has several patent
applications in the pipeline that are a
division of patent 8,282,278 with
the December 2006 priority
date. It follows that
they will continue to
aggressively deploy
their resources to
defend their market
position.
Impact on the
aftermarket
The media profile Canon has adopted
is focusing on the makers and
distributors of new build cartridges
and possibly begin to restore some
good faith with the remanufacturing
community.
In the USA the absence new build
cartridges does provide one less
element of completion in the market
and several remanufacturers have
heavily promoted the latest Canon
action to promote their remanufactured
cartridges. Time will tell if
that is a good strategy or not,
especially as one or two have been on
the receiving end of Canon
legal actions in the past.
Aftermarket companies
located in the rest of the
world will probably be
battening down the hatches
as history will repeat itself
and what is banned in the
USA tends to find its way into
other markets and with
increasing numbers of
non-remanufactureable
cartridges in the market
some destabilisation is
inevitable.
The long view
Depending on who you talk to the size
of the OEM market is between seventy
and eighty percent of the total market.
Until a few years ago this was a
straight split between OEM and
remanufactured. Enter the new
build product that is a
significant disruptor for the
OEM and remanufacturing
sector. Like other disruptors
(Uber, Airbnb etc.) they find
their niche and are not
afraid to fight their corner.
There has been litigation
between OEM’s and the aftermarket
for as long as there have been
copiers and printers and that won’t
change anytime soon. Canon is in a
tough place at the moment their
technology is getting older, their
largest customer is changing direction
and what they possibly gain in the US
market they will lose in other markets.
As the technology gets older and
patents expire the ability for divisional
agility will decrease.
A successful imaging market needs a
balance of new and remanufactured
products to provide consumers with a
choice. The OEM’s want the full
market share, the new build
manufacturers want a slice of the
OEM market and remanufacturers
want a viable market.
The recent cross licensing deal with
Memjet is interesting and apart from
the possible threat to HP’s page-wide
market penetration in the business
inkjet sector. The licensing deal could
be a model for the building a
sustainable market and if Canon do
not think this is viable, at least two
other OEM’s are actively looking at
licensing to maximise the value of
their IP portfolios.
R
6 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

In this Issue
City News
22: Bourgogne Laser goes bankrupt; Konica Minolta
acquires Seattle systems integrator
23: Restore reveals latest results and acquisition;
24: Latest financial developments at Ricoh; UBM
becomes latest Visual Edge acquisition
Canon gets legal - Again
Canon launched a swathe of legal actions in the USA against
importers and manufacturers of new build cartridges.
Starts page 3
Avoiding supply
chain risks
What are the risks of being
part of a supply chain.
Starts page 26
Features
3: Canon gets legal - Again
World Focus
10: Aster Graphics responds to Canon lawsuit
11: A busy month for ARMOR
12: African Union to declare AfCFTA
14: EMEA printer hardware shipments remain ‘stable’;
GIT announces partnership with Canon
15: Paperworld 2019 off to a flier!
16: Epson sheds new light on patent cases; Canon Inc.
announces new patent infringement case
18: USITC launches investigation at Canon’s behest;
Amazon Japan investigated under antitrust laws
19: The ink cartridge ‘scam’ explained; Premium
pigments from leftover toner
Editorial
21: A busy few weeks...
A busy few
weeks...
Welcome to the new look
magazine. Page 21
Features
28: Avoiding supply chain risks
Around the industry
30: IOP announces Mostefaoui appointment; Apex
announces the relocation of its office; Excess Toner
Buyers calls creditors meeting
31: The Greener Side: a recycling success story
32: Mombasa remanufacturer wins OEM approval;
EKM Global partners with PrintReleaf
34: Why GDPR is a boon for B2B SMEs; Lightwords
Imaging unveils new website
35: Brexit and industrial product legislation
36: Inkjet drives CEE HCP market in Q4 2017
38: Katun’s R&D: behind the scenes; ECi appoints
Chief Marketing Officer
39: Trade Copiers future plans now extension is near
completion
Retail Column
40: Running the system of a store
Wide Format Column
42: The coolest thing in Wide-Format is a cure
43: Wide-Format news in brief
Products & Technology
46: IR Italiana Riprografia announces new
remanufactured cartridges; Nikon files 3D printer
patent; TNCore releases update
47: Apex latest releases
48: Latest products unveiled by Utec; CIT release new
chips
49: Canon expands its i-SENSYS range; New
remanufactured cartridges from Ecoservice
50: New TASkalfa combines speed and functionality;
CET unveils compatible toner cartridges for Ricoh
51: Katun’s latest releases in Europe and North
America; Ricoh partners with TheMagicTouch
8
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

WORLD FOCUS
Search for The Recycler on Facebook for more news and industry coverage
NORTH AMERICA Aster, Canon, Lawsuit
Aster Graphics responds to Canon lawsuit
The company has issued a statement in response to the patent infringement
lawsuit recently filed by Canon, one of a multitude embarked upon by the OEM.
The Recycler spoke to Aster Graphics, to
gain their insight on the case, and Aster
responded with this statement,
reproduced below in full:
Canon files again
If you don’t know it by now, we can
confirm that this is the third time in less
than seven years that Canon has targeted
aftermarket competition at both U.S.
District and ITC court.
Patent lawsuits are common in many
industries, and it is also common for
businesses to utilise lawsuits as a way
to harass competition. Between OEM’s
this can often result in cross-licensing
agreements. In the aftermarket Canon
files lawsuits against remanufactured and
new-build producers alike. In spite of
these actions against remanufactured and
new-build producers alike, the OEM
alternative business has thrived.
Remanufacturing impact
Remanufacturers are not 100 percent safe
from patent infringement claims. The
remanufacturing of patented products
need to abide by Permissible Repair law,
sometimes referred to as repair vs
reconstruction. A remanufactured
cartridge may be subject to patent
infringement claims by merely replacing
an OEM print drum with a new print
drum. It is common for remanufacturers
to replace OEM components with new
parts, in an effort, to maintain quality.
Remanufacturers are also required to
comply with the many OEM patents that
new-build products need to observe.
Positive manufacturing
The products manufactured by Aster are
embedded with our own innovations,
protected by valid and enforceable patents
which are registered with the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office. Aster Graphics has
applied for over 300 patents worldwide,
we have always respected the intellectual
property of third parties. Innovation has
and will continue to be a core business
initiative.
Aster became the first company to
attain a solution to the 2012 337-TA-829
GEO by introducing our own Gear Tek
products (covered by Aster’s own U.S.
Patent NO. 8,805,242) which was
approved by the United States Customs.
Similarly, during the 337-TA-918
investigation filed by Canon in 2014,
Aster’s Smart Gear products (covered by
Aster’s own U.S. Patent NO. 8,731,435)
were approved by the United States
Customs, and Aster again became the first
company to overcome the GEO of 337-TA-
918. Our products have never been
subject to a seizure order, and our product
supply has never been interrupted.
Aster Graphics respects the intellectual
property of other companies and
individuals and expects others to similarly
respect Aster Graphics intellectual
property rights. We allocate a significant
amount of its resources into patent
research during the development process
of new products and designs, and we
expect that Aster’s patented products
will not be affected by this litigation and
that our supply chain will remain
uninterrupted.
Negative messages
Recently, Aster Graphics has noticed
malicious, uninformed and negative
messages from some of our competitors
who allege that Aster’s products are
infringing other’s patents and intellectual
property. Some go as far to say that Aster
produces clone products, which Merriam-
Webster defines as …a copy of an original
form. Our gear design innovation refutes
the erroneous claim that Aster’s products
are clone cartridges. These comments are
baseless, reckless and completely false in
their assumptions.
Whether or not Aster’s products
infringe other’s patents are part of the
commercial too and fro of competitors
will be a decision for the courts, not
Aster’s competitors or paid for and biased
gossip bloggers. Aster will always defend
itself, its products and its customers from
disparagement, slander and defamation.
Going forward
Aster’s customers are fully indemnified,
and Aster stands behind its products and
customers and will continue in its
mission to provide our customers with
products that compete fairly and utilise
Aster design technology to provide
innovative and high-quality products that
help win in the marketplace.
Aster Graphics thanks its loyal
customers for their support. Our
customers will continue to have our
support, and we will continue to provide
innovative and high-quality products that
help win in the marketplace.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
10 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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WORLD FOCUS
EUROPE ARMOR, Business, Environment
A busy month for ARMOR
The French company has enhanced its OWA Print Services, acquiring more than 15 partners so far, in a month that has
also seen a new triple certification for its Singaporean subsidiary, and a summit appearance in India.
The Nantes-based company has
announced the acceleration of its shift to
offering managed services to businesses,
explaining that MPS represent a great
opportunity for market participants.
The company launched OWA Print
Services in 2017, acquiring over 15 active
partners since, and explains that the
appeal of the service lies in the fact that
ARMOR executes the entire service for
the partner, who simply has to re-invoice
his client and develop his commercial
relationship. As a result, the partner
remains the direct and unique point of
contact for the management of their
customers’ printing fleet.
The strength of ARMOR is to offer a
complete service for the management of
printers and consumables. We control the
consumable, regardless of the brand or
technology, which makes us relevant to
fleet recovery, and simplifies the switchover
from the end customer to the OWA Print
Services solution, explained Pierre Lefort,
ARMOR’s Managed Services Manager.
Currently, the company states,
thousands of printers and MFPs are
supervised by ARMOR teams on a daily
basis, with over 15 million pages being
printed, saving users money while allowing
them to enjoy OWA’s ecological benefits.
ARMOR states that its goal is to continue
on this trend to have more than 10,000
short-term contract machines.
Now, OWA Print Services has been
enhanced by a personalised program of
commercial and technical training for
reseller partners, helping them to promote,
market and contract the outsourcing
printing services.
There was further good news for the
company’s Singapore site, which has
recently been awarded a triple Quality,
Security, Environment certification with
zero non-conformities, for the third
consecutive year. The new versions of ISO
9001:2015 (quality) and ISO 14001:2015
(environment) were successfully passed,
meaning the site becomes ARMOR’s
eighth triple-certified site worldwide,
including others in Brazil, Mexico, and
India.
Wesley Alves, Vice President of
Operations for ARMOR Asia, thanked the
facility’s staff, and commended them for
their commitment. He explained the
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
Wesley Alves
benefits of achieving yearly recertification
in all three areas, calling it a statement to
the stakeholders, employees and senior
management that we wish to operate to a
set framework in order to achieve our
company objectives.
Whether in terms of our objectives
relating to customer satisfaction,
production or environmental requirements,
Alves continued, we will make
every effort to retain our external
certification that proving the company’s
commitment to these objectives, as well as
increasing the credibility and customer
confidence in our brand and product. ISO
Certification also adds credibility, by
demonstrating that our product or brand
meets the expectations of our customers.
Earlier in March, ARMOR also put in
an appearance at the One Planet Summit
in Delhi, organised by the International
Solar Alliance (ISA). The summit was coorganised
by India and France, in
response to President Macron’s assertion
that we are in the process of losing the
climate battle.
Alongside Macron, and a host of other
heads of state, ARMOR announced that it
will be one of a handful of French
companies present in Delhi to take up the
challenge set by the ISA of placing solar
energy within everyone’s reach.
Hubert de Boisredon, Chairman & CEO
of ARMOR, also appeared, to promote the
benefits of the company’s photovoltaic
innovation, ASCA: a disruptive technology
designed for winning the climate battle,
according to ARMOR.
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is
described by the company as a vital
imperative, with ARMOR explaining that
the equivalent of 12,000 million tonnes
of oil must be reduced to zero in less than
12,000 days!
This weighty challenge requires the
allocation of significant resources. As the
designer and manufacturer of the ultrathin
and flexible photovoltaic film ASCA,
ARMOR stated that it already has fully
operational facilities able to produce 1
million m2, supported by the industrial
know-how to deploy its solution on the
large scale.
We are ready for a genuine Marshall
Plan in the solar field! said de Boisredon.
The company has already invested
€60 million ($73.7 million) in renewables
in order to design and produce its
photovoltaic modules.
The member states of ISA are
proposing to invest $1 trillion (€813.3
billion) in solar energy by 2030;
ARMOR’s contribution would be to create
a world-leading French sector in the field
of organic photovoltaic films. This would
be possible with a public-private coinvestment
of €100 million ($122.9
million) – a small sum given the
stakes for the planet, concludes the CEO
of ARMOR.
The 121 countries that make up the ISA
are all located between the tropics of
Cancer and Capricorn, and are mostly
developing economies. They require low
cost energy solutions adapted to local
contexts and, if possible, which are
independent from the distribution
monopolies of the large local or national
energy companies.
Multiple pilot projects conducted by
ARMOR in Africa and the Middle East
have already confirmed the ability of the
company’s solar products to meet these
requirements, said the company. In
Africa and Palestine, ARMOR has
established a partnership with Electriciens
Sans Frontières to provide schoolchildren
with kits combining a low-consumption
lamp with an ultra-resistant solar charger,
incorporating the ASCA film. It is a
project that supports both education and
social life within the community, which
ARMOR is in the process of testing in
different forms in Mali and Niger, in
partnership with Orange Labs.
It is the objective of ARMOR to reduce
the environmental footprint of its
industrial production down to an absolute
minimum, in the interests of society
as a whole.
11

WORLD FOCUS
visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
EMEA Africa, Union, Economy
African Union to declare AfCFTA
The Extraordinary Summit of African Union Heads of State and Government
met in Kigali to officially launch the African Continental Free Trade Area,
following months of legal negotiations.
The AfCFTA seeks to replicate the success
of the European Union in Europe, by
creating a development integration
approach, combining regulated integration
of the continent’s markets, with
simultaneous development of industry and
infrastructure. By doing this, it aims to
promote connectivity and harmonisation
between African countries, and reduce
business costs.
Business Report claims it is also forecast to
improve the free movement of goods,
services, and eventually people, across
Africa, via liberalisation of trade and
improved customs co-operation.
Documentation and processes relating to
customs will also be harmonised, causing
better trade facilitation.
Additionally, it seeks to enhance
competitiveness at the industry and
enterprise level, through exploiting
opportunities for scale production,
continental market access and better
reallocation of resources, according to
the AU.
The AfCFTA will also enhance cooperation
between nations in trade-related
areas, including investment, competition,
and intellectual property. Furthermore, it
will establish a functioning mechanism for
settling trade disputes. The chief technical
adviser of the AfCFTA, Prudence Sebahizi,
has also said that an African central bank,
and even a single currency, could follow
within ten years, reports CNN.
According to Business Report, markets
across the African continent are small and
fragmented, a hangover of colonialism; as a
result, they do not possess the significant
size needed for sustainable growth.
Therefore, it calls the AfCFTA the only way
Africa will be able to firmly move up the
value-chain and become a more effective
player in the global economy. It was also
reportedly reduce the vulnerability to global
shocks that African economies are
susceptible to at present, as a result of a
heavy reliance on commodities.
Mahamadou Issoufou, the President of
Niger, agrees that such an agreement is
necessary. Speaking in the Financial Times
recently, Issoufou gave a rundown of the
hurdles that are currently squashing
continental trade, citing border delays,
burdensome customs and inspection
procedures. For example, it is estimated by
the World Bank that a container of car parts
takes as long as three-and-a-half weeks to
pass through Congolese customs,
according to the Economist.
Issoufou therefore believes the AfCFTA
is a positive, with the potential rewards too
great to be ignored. It is speculated that
Africa’s economy will grow to $29 trillion
(€23.61 trillion) by the year 2050, meaning
that the AfCFTA may evolve to cover a
market that is larger than NAFTA [the
North American Free Trade Agreement,
which covers the USA, Canada, and
Mexico] today.
Despite geographical proximity, which is
usually cited as one of the key ingredients
for trade to flourish, intra-African trade
remains low by global standards,
accounting for just 16 percent of the
continent’s total trade.
In partnership with ETIRA
In absolute terms, African countries
traded almost twice as much with the
European Union as they did with each
other in 2016, said the Chief Economist of
London-based think tank the Official
Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum
(OMFIF), Danae Kyriakopoulou. This
defies one of the principles of trade
economics: That proximity matters.
According to CNN, the continent suffers
from uneven, and generally slowing,
growth, falling to 3.5 percent last year from
2012’s peak of 7 percent. CNN adds that
growth is forecast to rise in the coming
years, but not by much.
In 2012, however, the United Nations
suggested that an AfCFTA could boost
trade by up to 50 percent over the course of
ten years. Business Report also considers
that a properly utilised AfCFTA could
become a catalyst for a wave of growth in
the manufacturing sector across the
continent.
The potential for the agreement to
support the continent’s development is
huge, agreed Kyriakopoulou.
The African Union claims all of the
continent’s 55 countries support the deal,
including its two biggest economies, South
Africa and Nigeria, with CNN reporting
that the latter has been chairing the
negotiations.
Not everyone is convinced, however;
Capital Economics’ Africa economist, John
Ashbourne, has reportedly voiced fears the
zone will prove unworkably large and that
the proposed benefits would be more
limited that people expect.
While tariffs are a big problem, there are
also very tangible reasons why intra-Africa
trade is low, he argued. The infrastructure
needed to facilitate intra-regional trade is
poor, and most countries don’t produce
many finished goods that their neighbours
want.
Yet Business Report calls the mooted
project a decisive step towards the regional
economic integration project that African
leaders have dreamt about since the Abuja
Treaty in 1991, which first lay the
foundations for what has become the
AfCFTA. Following this week’s launch,
further negotiations will take place,
surrounding tariffs and rules of origin.
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
12 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

WORLD FOCUS
Search for The Recycler on Facebook for more news and industry coverage
EMEA GIT, Canon, Partnership
GIT
announces
partnership
with Canon
EMEA Printer Shipments, CONTEXT, Market Data
The company’s CEO, Dr Sassan
Dieter Khatib-Shahidi, revealed
this week that German Imaging
Technologies Dubai LLC has
signed a partnership agreement
with the OEM.
As a result of the agreement, Khatib-
Shahidi explains we can now
serve our clients with Canon, HP,
Kyocera, and Epson products.
This collaboration with the OEM
is the latest in a series of positive
developments for the Dubai-based
document solutions provider. These
include the news that GIT passed
STMC product quality recertification,
to become an STMC
Compliant Company, and the
expansion of its partnership with
online store, Souq.com, both events
having been announced by the
provider in January.
While 2018 is already proving
fruitful for the company, 2017 was
similarly peppered with success
stories, including the creation of
new job roles and promotion of
gender equality, the celebration of 18
successful months in Kenya, the
recording of positive financials and
the achievement of ISO 14001:2015.
EMEA printer hardware shipments
remain ‘stable’
New distribution data published by CONTEXT reveals that unit shipments of printer
hardware to the region have remained stable.
This was due to healthy growth across the
Middle East and Africa offsetting a sell-in
decline across Europe.
The MEA region continued to outperform
other regions, witnessing an increase of 16
percent in unit shipments, although in
comparison to Q3 2017, there was a drop in
the performance of most categories, apart
from inkjet multifunction printers, which
continued to show rising growth.
The UAE saw sell-in levels of printer
hardware burgeon by 23 percent year-onyear
(y-o-y), driven mainly by inkjet
MFPs, while Saudi Arabia and South
Africa both experienced double-digit growth,
in comparison to particularly weak
performances in Q4 2016.
Western Europe sell-in accounts for more
than 67 percent of all printer hardware
shipments to EMEA, registering a decline of -
5 percent y-o-y this quarter. Similarly, sell-in
levels of laser printers also dropped, making
a significant contribution to the overall
decrease.
However, sales of single-function inkjet
printers rose compared to the same quarter
in 2016.
The UK experienced an 11 percent yearon-year
decrease driven mainly by falling
sales of inkjet MFPs but Italy witnessed a 6
percent growth due to increasing
demand for inkjet MFPs, and flat
performance in France.
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
mirrored the performance of Western
Europe, with its -5 percent year-on-year
decline driven by falling sales of laser
hardware while sell-in levels of inkjet MFPs
and SFPs continued to increase, registering
growth of 7 percent each.
Russian sell-in accounted for 44 percent
of all printer hardware unit shipments to
CEE, with the increasing demand for
multifunction inkjet devices contributing to
a 1 percent y-o-y growth this quarter.
Meanwhile, in Poland and Hungary, sell-in
levels climbed once again, with increases of
11 percent and 15 percent respectively, due
to the demand for inkjet MFPs.
Shipments to most other major countries
in the region declined, due, for the most
part, to a reduction in the number of laser
technology devices shipped.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
14 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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EUROPE Paperworld, Remanexpo, Events
WORLD FOCUS
ASIA Teleportivity, Business,
Paperworld 2019 off to a flier!
With over nine months until the opening of the annual trade show, early bird
exhibitors are already signing up thick and fast to the first Remanexpo in its
new location.
With this year’s event still fresh in the
memory, a large number of exhibitors have
already signed up to repeat the experience
again next year. 2019’s event runs from the
26th to the 29th of January, and will once
again take place at Messe Frankfurt, in
Germany, although for the first time the
Remanexpo product group will be moving
to Hall 5.1, leaving its previous home of
Hall 6.0. The relocation will allow
Remanexpo to benefit from a more direct
link to the main thoroughfare of the
show’s visitors.
A multitude of industry veterans have
already committed to return in 2019, with
big names from across the globe putting
their names down to exhibit to the
thousands of visitors that the show attracts.
Familiar faces such as CET Group, Data
Direct, ITDL, Hubei Dinglong, and
ARMOR will all be in attendance, alongside
dozens more to have taken advantage of the
early bird discounted registration offer,
which you can do for yourself until the 13th
of April.
Paperworld 2018 featured more than
1,600 exhibitors from 66 countries, and
welcome a staggering 33,000 visitors
through its doors over the four days, 95
percent of whom declared themselves to be
very satisfied with their experience. 2019’s
event will feature what has been described
as a new hall concept which will offer
visitors an even more compact overview of
the extensive range of products on show
and thus to provide a focused overview of
the market.
The Remanexpo product group with
OEM and printer consumables and
components, as well as hardware, software
and remanufactured printer materials, is
moving from Hall 6.0 to Hall 5.1, and will
be on the Via Mobile level. As a result, it
will be linked directly to the main flow of
visitors at the fair and be easy for visitors to
get to.
In the stationery segment, the giving,
wrapping and celebrating product groups
(including papeterie, greetings cards, small
leather goods, accessories, napkins, table
decoration, party articles, licences and
designs) move from Halls 5.1 and 6.1 to
Hall 3.1, meaning that trade visitors will
find lifestyle products for the stationery
trade all together in the same exhibition
hall. The new arrangement offers several
advantages for both exhibitors and visitors:
Exhibitors can now position themselves in
their market setting with their competitors
and have even easier access to additional
groups of buyers, whilst at the same time,
trade visitors can see supplementary
product lines for their fields of business
and make contact to the appropriate
manufacturers. Moreover, the modern,
light-filled Hall 3.1 is distinguished not only
by its architecture but also by its size,
which gives exhibitors the opportunity to
enlarge their presentations at the fair.
Unchanged are the product arrangements
in the other office and stationery
halls, Messe Frankfurt explains, which have
proven their worth in the past.
The new hall layout reinforces the
division of the fair into ‘the visionary office’
and ‘the stationery trends’ and Messe
Frankfurt explains that it will help with the
forging of new business contacts. In this
way, Paperworld is strengthening its
position as pioneering event for the paper,
office supplies and stationery sector and
the international platform for innovations
and trends, according to the organiser.
Paperworld is highly successful with its
clear hall concept and transparent product
arrangement, explained Paperworld
Director Michael Reichhold. Now, we aim
to build on this and create more room for
new exhibitors. At the same time, the
restructuring opens up new perspectives
that are decisive for fresh ideas and result
in valuable business contacts.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
15

WORLD FOCUS
EUROPE Canon, IP, Injunction
Canon Inc.
announces
new patent
infringement
case
The OEM has announced that it
has obtained a preliminary
injunction, which inter alia
contains injunctive relief,
granted by the District Court
Düsseldorf against Biggest
Discount Ltd. as well as
against its managing directors.
The OEM explains that the
preliminary injunction is based on
the infringement of the German
portion of Canon’s European patent
EP 2 087 407 relating to a drum unit
and a process cartridge. The accused
act consists in the offer and
distribution of laser toner cartridges
comprising a drum unit via
amazon.de under the ASINs
(=Amazon Standard Identification
Number) B00532ADSO and
B002KNJKGA. These cartridges
replace the cartridges CE505X and
CE505A compatible with certain HP
laser beam printers.
The preliminary injunction
granted by the District Court
Düsseldorf is not yet final, according
to Canon, and the defendants have
the option to file an objection against
the preliminary injunction.
Biggest Discount Ltd is a familyrun
business started in 2004 in
Berkshire by Trevor Andrews, and
since taken over by his son Phillip.
The business began as a mail order
company, specialising in discounted
printer ink cartridges but has since
expanded to offer a range of other
products. The business sells via eBay
and Amazon as well as its official
website.
EUROPE Epson, IP Lawsuits
Epson sheds new light on
patent cases
Epson has broken its silence on its latest patent infringement lawsuits, offering fresh
insight into the cases and the OEM’s enforcement program that underscores them.
Epson has announced this week that Epson
America, Inc., Epson Portland Inc. and Seiko
Epson Corp. filed two patent infringement
complaints, one on March 1, 2018 against Try
The Ink, LLC/InkPro2day, LLC and another on
March 2, 2018 against E-Z Ink Inc.
The complaints allege infringement of
claims from U.S. Patent 6,502,917, U.S.
Patent 8,794,749, and U.S. Patent 8,454,116.
These patent claims were already adjudicated
in well-publicised actions filed with the U.S.
International Trade Commission (ITC),
resulting in two General Exclusion Orders
barring the importation of all newly built and
remanufactured cartridges that infringe the
claims.
The OEM explains that these two additional
lawsuits underscore Epson’s expansion of its
enforcement efforts to include infringing
sellers of large format printer cartridges and
remanufactured cartridges using third-party
infringing circuit boards. Epson’s concerted
campaign is focused on protecting Epson’s
intellectual property and ensuring that
legitimate resellers can compete fairly for sales
of printer supplies for Epson printers.
Epson has a long history of vigorous legal
action to protect the company, consumers and
legitimate resellers from unfair competition.
These two most recent lawsuits supplement
Epson’s earlier enforcement efforts and allege
extensive sales of patent infringing cartridges
and seek permanent injunctions against
further infringements and monetary damages.
Epson’s enforcement program has included
the following broad range of efforts to reach
infringers throughout the distribution and
sales channels:
visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
• Two ITC actions resulting in the -565 and -
946 General Exclusion Orders that prohibit
all imports into the U.S. of a wide range of
infringing cartridges for Epson consumer
inkjet printers, business inkjet printers, and
large format professional printers.
• Since November 2016, Epson has filed ten
patent infringement lawsuits against
internet marketplace resellers infringing
Epson’s patents and violating the General
Exclusion Orders.
• Frequent enforcement takedowns against
intellectual property infringements and
trademark misuse through the brand
protection programs administered by eBay
and Amazon.
• Notice and communications programs to
encourage fair competition by informing
resellers of Epson’s intellectual property
rights and the procedures for accurately
and fairly listing printer supplies for
marketplace sales.
We are encouraged that our enforcement
programs have resulted in compliance on top
internet marketplaces, which largely sell
consumer and business inkjet printer
cartridges, said Jilana Miller, Assistant General
Counsel for Epson. However, we continue to
address the persistent culture of
infringement and unfair competition
perpetrated on internet marketplaces and
through other channels. These recent
complaints mark an expansion of our program
to include enforcement against resellers of
large format printer cartridges and
remanufactured cartridges that negatively
impact fair competition.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
16 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

WORLD FOCUS
visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
NORTH AMERICA Canon, USITC, Investigation
USITC launches investigation
at Canon’s behest
In response to the complaint filed by Canon on 28 February 2018, alleging
patent infringement on the part of 50 companies, the USITC has elected to
launch an investigation into the contested products.
This week the U.S. International Trade
Commission (ITC) revealed that it has
voted to institute an investigation of
certain toner cartridges and components,
in response to the complaint against 50
companies filed by Canon in February.
In the complaint, Canon alleged
violations of of section 337 of the Tariff Act
of 1930 in the importation into the United
States and sale of certain toner cartridges
and components thereof that infringe
patents asserted by the complainants.
The patents involved in the complaint
are Canon’s US patent numbers
9,746,826; 9,836,021; 9,841,727;
9,841,728; 9,841,729; 9,857,764;
9,857,765; 9,869,960; and 9,874,846.
As part of the investigation, ITC is
inviting proposed respondents, other
interested parties and members of the
general public, to file comments
regarding any public interest issues raised
by the complaint.
ITC made the following statement
regarding the investigation:
By instituting this investigation (337-TA-
1106), the USITC has not yet made any
decision on the merits of the case. The
USITC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge
will assign the case to one of the USITC’s
administrative law judges (ALJ), who will
schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing.
The ALJ will make an initial determination
as to whether there is a violation of section
337; that initial determination is subject to
review by the Commission.
The USITC will make a final
determination in the investigation at the
earliest practicable time. Within 45 days
after institution of the investigation, the
USITC will set a target date for
completing the investigation. USITC
remedial orders in section 337 cases are
effective when issued and become
final 60 days after issuance unless
disapproved for policy reasons by the U.S.
Trade Representative within that
60-day period.
ASIA Amazon, Japan, Investigation
Amazon Japan investigated under antitrust laws
Amazon’s Japanese division is under investigation by Japan’s antitrust regulator, following allegations that it has
been requesting a percentage of its vendors’ sales revenue.
The Nikkei Asian Review reports that the
online retail giant has been asking its
vendors for what it terms ‘cooperation
payments’ since approximately last year,
with the assurance that these payments
would contribute towards system
upgrades, and other unspecified
improvements. The amount requested
varied, between a few percent and well
over 10 percent of sales prices.
Furthermore, it has been accused of
asking vendors to help absorb the costs of
discounting goods. The company’s
Japanese subsidiary has reportedly been
struggling recently, owing to rising
shipping costs, alongside other
operational outlays.
Now, the Japan Fair Trade Commission
has begun an on-site investigation at
Amazon Japan’s office, on suspicion of it
having violated the nation’s Antitrust law.
The Commission reportedly suspects
Amazon of using its dominant position in
the country’s e-commerce market to
pressure suppliers, making it virtually
impossible to refuse the request,
according to Nikkei. It adds the the
regulator is seeking to clarify with
Amazon Japan the details of the
aforementioned payments. Amazon
Japan has said it will cooperate fully with
the investigation.
The retailer has previously found itself
in hot water with Japan’s regulatory body
over the use of the so-termed ‘mostfavoured
nation clause’, which requires
its vendors to offer the same, or better,
prices and product lineups as they do on
other marketplace websites. Amazon
Japan agreed to delete the clause after an
investigation last June.
In partnership with ETIRA
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Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
18 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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EUROPE Cartridge Scam, Video
The ink cartridge ‘scam’ explained
A video claiming that ink cartridges are a scam has gone viral on the internet.
YouTuber Gregory Austin McConnell’s 12-
minute video details how the cost of ink
cartridges is so high compared to the cost
of the printers themselves, something he
first noticed whilst working in a technical
support role, when replacement cartridges
with a manufacture cost of 0.23 cents were
being retailed for $59.95 (€48.82).
McConnell describes printer ink as the
most expensive liquid in the world
(behind king cobra venom, scorpion
venom, Chanel No. 5, insulin, and
mercury) and explains the tactics used by
OEMs to prevent competitor-brand, refilled
or remanufactured cartridges being used
in their printer models, as well as the
allegedly-nefarious methods deployed to
force users into buying more and more
cartridges.
These methods that McConnell cites
include the printers falsely claiming a
cartridge is low when it may still be halffull,
and that when printing in solely black,
many printers use a small quantity of cyan
GLOBAL Waste Toner, Business, Award
Moock Environmental Solutions Ltd. (MES)
recycle used printer consumables that have
been disposed of, under the WEEE
legislation. They previously considered the
remnant powder to be useless, but in
collaboration with Dundee University, have
been turning the leftover into high-quality
pigments.
There’s always activated toner powder left
over when recycling cartridges, explained
MES’ Sales Manager Graeme Clowe, it can’t
be reused and is classed as a hazardous
waste.
As well as the obvious innovative aspect,
Clowe also stressed the environmental
aspect of the idea. The used toner would
previously have been sent to landfill, he
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
ink as well, to give a nicer shade of black.
This of course means that the cyan ink will
start to run out even when not being
selected for use, and therefore causing the
need to replace the whole CMYK cartridge,
when one colour expires.
McConnell also elaborates on an
economic trend called the razor and blades
model, when an item – in this case a
printer – is sold at a low-price (indeed,
most printers are sold at a loss, he claims)
with the complementary consumable
products, such as the ink cartridges, then
being sold at a disproportionate price in
order to recoup the money.
The video ends with McConnell
destroying a printer with a sledgehammer,
and calling upon viewers to help him start
a revolution, for both financial and
environmental reasons, and to tell OEMs
that people want affordable ink, printers
that work and printers that last.
It has so far been viewed nearly
600,000 times.
Premium pigments from leftover toner
A company based in Cumbernauld, Scotland, has won an award for its
innovation of reusing old toner powder from toner cartridges.
elaborated. However, working with Dundee
University, we managed to develop an
admixture which enables this waste
material to be reused as a high-quality
pigment.
The new products, named Premium
Pigments, are available in all four CMYK
colours, and can be mixed to make virtually
any other, according to Clowe. He also adds
that the pigments are already now being
used in a wide range of industries –
including arts and crafts, concrete and
agriculture.
Earlier this year, the company was
honoured with the Social and
Environmental Impact Award at the 2018
Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards.
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Dell 3110CN/3115CN
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www.dl-kg.com
19

EDITORIAL
A busy few weeks...
Welcome
Welcome to the new look and size
magazine, we hope you like it. Thank you
to the reader group that have inputted
their thoughts into the refreshed look
and change of size.
The changes started out last year
when we looked at our whole
production and distribution process
following some unforeseen disruption
to our supply chain and as part of our
three-yearly business review and a
desire to streamline as much of the
work activity and factor in the new
GDPR legislation. Our mobile working
feature was part of that review, and over
the last six months, we have invested in
new servers, technology and various
upgrades to our software and cloud
platforms. As ever with any website the
investment is always an ongoing work
in progress.
If you have not reviewed your
business for some time, I suggest you
read our supply chain feature on page
26. You will be surprised what has
changed in the marketplace and the
services that are now available that can
enable you to improve your business.
Ink cartridge scam
Last month we published a story on our
website about YouTuber Gregory Austin
McConnell’s 12-minute video detailing
all the woes consumers face with their
inkjet printers. We had one comment
from a curmudgeonly OEM centric
industry sage that the story was tired
and old hat and why were we bothering.
Yet inkjet stories like this and the
problems with HP instant ink garner
more hits on our website and enquires
to our help desk than any other single
issue. Old hat for some, but an ongoing
itch for a lot of consumers.
Canon Memjet
The recent cross-licensing deal with
Memjet is interesting and apart from
the possible threat to HP’s page-wide
market penetration in the business
inkjet sector. The licensing deal could
be a model for the building a
sustainable market and if Canon does
not think this is viable, at least two
other OEM’s are actively looking at
licensing to maximise the value of their
IP portfolios.
Tariff wars
The United States government recently
announced a range of tariffs against
Chinese computer products. It is very
likely that printer consumables will be
impacted by the tariffs.
In the USA that will see a tariff
applied to all imported cartridges from
China, OEM and new build alike. Some
estimates suggest the tariff could
increase pricing by twenty-five percent.
That is great news for US remanufacturers
and an excellent opportunity
to increase market share.
For the rest of the world, it is very
likely that the tariff barrier will see
OEM and new build cartridges diverted
to other markets and increasing the
competitive pressures.
Oh, yea Africa
The member states of the African
Union have agreed to create an African
Continental Free Trade Area, big deal
you say. But it is a big deal. Today Africa
accounts only for a small percentage of
the global imaging market the
population is set to expand massively to
over three billion people by 2040. A
harmonised pan African market will
make market access and trading
significantly easier than it is now.
Stefanie Unland Managing Editor
Budapest
We are pleased to announce that The
Recycler Live summer conference is
being held in Budapest, Hungary, a
historic and amazing city sat on either
side of the Danube river. The office
imaging market in Hungary is, in some
respects, bucking the European trend
and while challenging has an active
aftermarket and remanufacturing
sector.
We look forward to seeing you in
Budapest this coming 21-22nd June.
Au Revoir
Au revoir to Bourgogne Laser who filed
for bankruptcy recently. This long
established French remanufacturer
and printer and IT repair business has
seen their business decline as the
market continues to contract and
change.
Across the English Channel, it is also
goodbye to Excess Toner Buyers Ltd
which is being wound up after three
years of harsh trading conditions.
We’re getting ready for GDPR…
At The Recycler, we are busy updating
our privacy policy and updating the
information we collect and use to
ensure we comply with the new GDPR
framework. Bear with us as we progress
these changes.
R
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
21

CITY NEWS
OEM share prices
April 2018
Prices correct as of 1st April 2018
Share Prices
COMPANY MAR APR
Brother Industries (Yen) ¥ 2468 2477
Canon (Yen) ¥ 3861 3900
Dainippon Ink & (Yen) ¥ 3610 3650
Chemicals
Sun Chemicals parent company
HP Inc. (US$) $ 18.94 17.53
Hubei Dinglong (RMB) ¥ 10.45 9.73
Jadi (MYR) M 0.06 0.06
LG Chem (S Korean Won) W 385k 367k
Matsushita Electric (Yen) ¥ 1611 1536
Industrial Co.
Panasonic parent company
Mitsubishi Chemicals (Yen) ¥ 1306 1022
Ninestar Corporation (RMB) ¥ 26.89 27.72
Formerly Apex Microelectronics
Oki (Yen) ¥ 1437 1428
Samsung (S Korean Won) W2431k 2443k
Seiko Epson (Yen) ¥ 1953 1938
Turbon AG (Euro) € 7.05 6.85
Xerox (US$) $ 30.04 28.32
UK Waste Prices
price per tonne
Aluminium € 22.00 17.78
Plastic € 9.88 66.20
Paper € 1.26 1.98
Currency
€/US$ 1.24 1.24
€/£ 0.90 0.87
£/US$ 11.39 1.42
Oil Price
Crude oil - (US$) $ 62.07 64.36
‘Brent Crude futures,
1-Pos IPE close’ per barrel
Shipping Prices
Europe (Hamburg/Antwerp/ $ 827 617
Felixstowe/Le Havre)
Mediterranean (Barcelona/ $ 721 616
Valencia/Genoa/Naples
USWC (Los Angeles/ $ 1252 1128
Long Beach/Oakland)
USEC (New York/Savannah $ 2375 2150
Norfolk/Charleston)
Sources: HMRC, FT.com, krx.co.kr, tse.or.jp,
Environment Exchange, packagingnews.co.uk
*Brent Crude price is for April 2018
Search for The Recycler on Facebook for more news and industry coverage
EUROPE Bourgogne Laser, Bankruptcy, France
Bourgogne Laser goes bankrupt
Proceedings to wind up the Champforgeuil-based company began
in January.
The French company has filed for
bankruptcy, following the opening of
judicial reorganisation proceedings on
the 11th of January, with the date of
cessation of payments coming two days
earlier.
Bourgogne Laser specialised in the
repair of computers and their
peripheral equipment.
The news was announced by the
Tribunal of Commerce for the Châlonsur-Saône
commune in the East
of France.
It is the second French company to
NORTH AMERICA
Konica Minolta, Acquisition, Business
bring the final curtain down in as many
months, following the closure of Proton
in February, after its annual turnover
became unsustainable.
Konica Minolta acquires Seattle
systems integrator
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. has announced the
acquisition of TechLine Communications, Inc.
TechLine is a Seattle, Washingtonbased
systems integrator that
specialises in the design and
implementation of Process
Automation, Content Integration
and Business Information Delivery
Systems.
partners like OnBase, OpenText,
Dialogic, and AVST.
This acquisition expands our reach
into the Pacific Northwest through a
well-established group that does a
considerable amount of work with
both the public and private sectors,
TechLine works closely with its said Kevin Kern, Senior Vice
clients to automate and streamline
key business processes. The
President, Business Intelligence
Services and Product Planning,
company provides professional Konica Minolta. We couldn’t be more
services for consulting, implementation,
custom development, training
and support. It has successfully
implemented hundreds of
solutions since 1993, and has
years of continuous relationships
supporting its customers. TechLine
is also a reseller of an ECM product
line that includes the offerings of
thrilled by the addition of this
new group.
John Fisk, President of TechLine,
added, This deal solidifies our
longstanding commitment to
provide our customers with a
broader set of resources and software
solutions to better meet their
continuing needs.
22 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
CITY NEWS
EUROPE Restore plc, TNT Business Solutions, Acquisition
Restore reveals latest results
and acquisition
British office services provider Restore plc has published its latest full-year
financial results for 2017, with the news looking good for the company.
Restore’s revenue rose from
£129.4 million ($179.7 million/
€145.6 million) in 2016, to £176.2
million ($244.7 million/€198.3
million) in 2017, a rise of 36
percent. A similar increase was to
be found in the company’s
operating profit, which increased
by 35 percent, from £25
million ($34.7 million/€28.1
million) to £33.7 million ($46.8
million/€37.9 million) over the
course of 2017.
Its profit before tax, meanwhile,
increased to £31.2 million ($43.3
million/€35.1 million), from £23 million
($31.9 million/€25.8 million) previously, a
surge of 36 percent.
Charles Skinner, the company’s CEO,
voiced his pleasure at the results.
We are pleased to report another strong
performance in 2017, during which
Restore continued to extend its position as
a leading operator in the UK office
services market, he said.
Organic revenue growth across the
Group ran at 7 percent, with all of our
activities showing year-on-year growth,
whilst PHS DS has been a highly successful
acquisition for our Document Management
division, transforming our shredding
business into one of the two UK market
leaders and adding critical mass to both our
records management and scanning
businesses. We will continue to pursue our
strategy of organic and acquisitive growth
and we are well positioned to gain further
market share across all of our businesses.
Trading at the start of the year has been in
line with our expectations and we look
forward to delivering another year of
progress in 2018.
This news was shortly followed by the
announcement that Restore plc has
commenced the acquisition of TNT
Business Solutions, with the purchase
expected to be completed on 1 May 2018.
UK office services provider, Restore, has
revealed that it has entered into an
agreement to acquire TNT Business
Solutions, the records management
business of TNT UK Limited, for a sum of
£88 million ($125 million/€100.7
million), on a cash and debt free basis.
The completion of this acquisition is
scheduled for 1 May 2018.
Restore has also announced a placing,
conditional on the acquisition
completion, with institutional investors
to raise up to £51.5 million ($73.1
million/€58.9 million) before expenses
through the issue of up to 10, 100, 000
new ordinary shares of 5 pence each at
510 pence per Placing Share. Restore
revealed that the placing was
significantly oversubscribed with demand
from new and existing institutional
shareholders.
The acquisition will be financed partly
from the funds Restore raises from the
placing, as well as partly through new
debt facilities with Barclays, Royal Bank of
Scotland, Lloyds Bank and Bank of
Ireland.
TNT Business Solutions operates from
five sites in the Midlands and the outskirts
of London, including two freehold sites at
Swadlincote, Derbyshire and Thurrock,
Essex. TNT BS currently employs over
250 staff, who will transfer to Restore
once the acquisition is completed.
Restore explained that the acquisition
would further strengthen its position in
UK records management, particularly
with public sector customers who
represent the majority of TNT BS’s
revenues. The company also revealed that
it expects that there will be operational
and property synergies deriving from the
acquisition, as well as cross-selling
opportunities.
Key management is expected to remain
with the business and the acquisition is
expected to enhance Restore plc’s
earnings.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
23

CITY NEWS
You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia
ASIA Ricoh, OEM, Financials
Latest financial developments at Ricoh
The OEM has made three new announcements over the last few days, revising its consolidated full fiscal year results, and
offering an update on the repurchase of its Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings shares.
The first announcement related to the
company’s revision of its consolidated
operating results for the full fiscal year and
included an announcement of impaired
losses.
Initially, in February 2018, the company
forecast net sales of ¥2.04 trillion ($19.3
billion/€15.6 billion), which has been
repeated in the new forecast. However, the
February forecast for operating profit was
¥20 billion ($1.9 billion/€1.5 billion), but in
the new forecast announced last week this
figure was reduced by ¥160 billion ($1.5
billion/€1.2 billion), giving them a loss of
–¥180 billion. Meanwhile the profit before
income tax was originally predicted to be
¥14 billion ($133.1 million/€107.3 million)
and the new forecast reduces this figure by
¥166,000 billion ($1.5 billion/€1.2 billion),
giving another loss of – ¥180 billion ($1.7
billion/€1.3 billion).
Ricoh’s consolidated operating results
for the full year ending 31 March 2018 are
scheduled to be announced on 27 April.
Ricoh explained that its sales subsidiary
in the United States, Ricoh USA, Inc.
(RUS), is expecting to allocate impairment
losses of ¥140 billion ($1.3 billion/€1.07
billion) in their fourth quarter financial
results ending 31 March 2018, from fixed
assets including the goodwill of IKON
Office Solutions, Inc. (already merged with
RUS and referred to as IKON from here),
acquired in 2008. In addition to this, RUS
is expecting to allocate impairment losses
of ¥40 billion ($380 million/€306
million) in their fourth quarter results 31
March 2018, from companies such as the
IT services company, mindSHIFT
Technologies, Inc. (mindSHIFT) acquired
in 2014.
Ricoh’s President and CEO, Yoshinori
‘Jake’ Yamashita, explained the financial
developments in more detail in an open
letter penned to the company’s
stakeholders, in which he stated that he felt
personally responsible for any concerns
that customers, partners and shareholders
might have as a result of the adjustment.
He explained that the adjustment is
coming mainly from the amortisation
caused by our acquisitions in North
America before going on to write the
following lengthy break-down of events:
Under our 19th mid-term management
plan, RICOH Resurgent, we strength-ened
our core business and undertook structural
reforms in order for us to apply our
management resources to growing the
business.
With the support of all our stakeholders,
our structural reforms are on schedule and
we have succeeded in expanding our value
proposition. We launched our growth
strategy, RICOH Ignite, on 6 February,
with three main strategies. To ensure their
execution we reset our business
management units based on our current
six business domains. Based on the profit
we can expect from each unit we evaluated
the business assets in each unit. Then we
found that we needed to impair the value of
some of these assets.
The assets that we needed to impair are
mainly companies we acquired in the past,
principally IKON Office Solutions (2008)
and mindSHIFT Technologies (2014).
With this impairment, our business P&L
forecast will show a negative adjustment to
our operating Income. To reiterate, this
accounting action has been caused by the
revaluation of our assets, and doesn’t have
any impact on our cash flow.
This impairment is regrettably negatively
impacting our business performance for
this year but this is necessary in order to
execute our growth strategy, change our
business structure and move forward for
the future.
In Fiscal 2017, we have been working on
structural reforms to strengthen our
profitability and modify our asset base. In
2018, my role is now to ensure we execute
our growth strategy.
In Ricoh’s third announcement made
last week, the OEM revealed that it had
tendered all of its Ricoh-owned shares in
Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings Inc,
completing the tender on 22 March 2018.
After offering more detailed information
on the shares, Ricoh concluded its
announcement with the following
statement:
Regarding the impact on its financial
results, Ricoh is going to allocate a nonconsolidated
extraordinary profit of ¥50.6
billion ($481.8 million/€387.8 million) as a
gain on the sale of investment securities in
fiscal year 2019, ending 31 March 2019.
Regarding the consolidated financial
performance, Ricoh has complied with
International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS), and the IFRS 9 Financial
instruments will be applied from next fiscal
year, ending 31 March 2019. Consequently,
there will be no impact on net sales on a
consolidated basis.
NORTH AMERICA Visual Edge, Acquisition, Business
UBM becomes latest Visual Edge acquisition
Visual Edge Technology has acquired another company, with its recent run of acquisitions seemingly showing no
signs of slowing down.
The Ohio-based company has
purchased United Business Machines,
of Londonderry, New Hampshire, a 33-
year-old office equipment dealer,
reports The Imaging Channel. UBM
will continue to trade in its current
guise, albeit under the control of Visual
Edge subsidiary Axion Business
Technologies. It will retain all of its
present employees, and Ken Lamalfa,
UBM’s former owner, will stay on as
branch manager.
Axion’s President, Robert Ferland,
said: By joining forces with Visual
Edge, UBM will have full access to an
expanded portfolio of managed print,
managed network services, document
management, and productivity
software, allowing them to go deeper
and wider into their accounts and truly
sell a total-solutions strategy to their
customers. With the financial strength
of Visual Edge behind both Axion and
UBM, this is really our first chance for
organic expansion, especially in the
northern New England territories of
New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.
24 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

FEATURE
Avoiding supply chain risks
How can companies avoid the risks that might arise from being part of a supply chain, when it comes to the
law, and if a supplier becomes a competitor?
Many companies in the aftermarket
operate as part of a supply chain with
the channel – with products sold
to businesses through reseller
consortiums and companies, and
such chains including wholesalers,
distributors and other such
businesses. However, as with every
aspect of a chain, one weak link can
cause the rest to collapse – and when
it comes to IP, all it takes is one
company’s illegality to affect the rest.
So how can the aftermarket avoid
risks in the supply chain?
Work with and trust suppliers
Competition is one particular issue
that affects most industries, and in the
aftermarket price is too often king
over quality. This also extends into the
supply chain, whether it be the cost of
components or consumables for
remanufacturing, or a reseller or
distributor refusing to do business
with companies over price.
Sean Blanks, Marketing Director of
cartridgesave.co.uk, highlighted in an
article for Channel Pro why it is better
for businesses to work with suppliers
in their supply chains rather than
trying to “squeeze” them on a
financial basis. Blanks argues that
businesses should take a collaborative
approach to working with each other
as opposed to seeing it as a battle and
adopting tactics to “unsettle and win
over suppliers”.
Blanks begins with what he believes
is the most important piece of advice
for companies reselling products on
their own websites: “share your data
with suppliers”, adding that showing
suppliers the traffic their product
receives on a business’ website will
enable them to see the volume of
products they could be shipping, or
demonstrate the boost in volume sales
generated by a previous discount.
Producing theoretical models to
show the profit made by both your
own business and the supplier’s are
also listed by Blank as good ways of
collaborating, as “your suppliers
won’t renegotiate prices if the only
benefit they can recognise is a larger
profit margin for you”. He also urges
businesses to “be realistic” in terms of
pricing, and ensure that they are
sensitive to suppliers’ margins and
brand protection as “no one wants to
see their item being flogged”.
Offering a further incentive is a
further suggestion to show support of
a supplier’s product, for example by
making their product a featured item
on a website homepage. Additionally,
trialling different prices could also
beneficial, Blanks adds, as it may
demonstrate that more business could
be generated, as long as new prices
are trialled during a season that
would not invalidate the results.
Beware of the “letter of
indemnity”
Trusting suppliers also works both
ways, and The Recycler discussed this
in issue 258 in our feature about
understanding the so-called “letter of
indemnity”. Many distributors in the
industry have, in the past, asked
suppliers for such a letter, sometimes
known as a Hold-Harmless Agreement
– a document which they believe
allows them to state that products
they use and that they are provided
are legal and in line with patents.
However, the reality is that the
letters are - in many cases - unable to
protect a distributor from any form of
legal action. A distributor will want to
ensure that products it’s supplied with
are legal, and many of the legal
actions involving the aftermarket see
companies approached and indicted
for distributing products which they
did not manufacture, but which have
been manufactured without regard
for the patents concerned.
26 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

FEATURE
For many distributors and other
such companies, avoiding this means
forming a relationship of trust with
patent-aware suppliers, but many
other distributors have been under the
mistaken impression that asking
suppliers for a letter of indemnity will
save them from being prosecuted if
faced with patent lawsuits. These
people are unaware that a letter of
indemnity could be worthless when it
comes down to being brought into a
legal action.
Freedom-to-operate (FTO) letters are
one way to fix this, as they show the
opinion of the patent professional
engaged on whether or not IP rights
identified in the letter are infringed.
Such a letter can give a level of
certainty that the product in question
is patent-free, but this does not mean
that the retailer is completely free of
the risk of facing any lawsuits – it
comes back to building a relationship
based on trust.
Work together to address other
threats
The issue of clones has become one of
the major problems facing the
cartridge aftermarket, and a study a
couple of years ago from market
analysts lnfoTrends looked at the
North American and European
markets, distinguishing between all
newly-made compatible cartridges
(NMCs) and clones, which are
“a subset of NMCs and suggest an
exact copy”.
The study found that the
penetration of compatibles in the two
regions have “interesting differences”,
with Europe seeing more clones than
North America. Looking at the impact
of NMCs in market share and impact
terms, for inkjet and toner cartridges,
the study stated that “because
resellers are the route to market for
clones”, there is a “strong need to
understand what the channels believe
or do not believe about clones”.
This expands to “their awareness
across various risk factors on clones”
as well as what “education is required
in the channel” to reduce the
“negative impact” on both the
channels and the industry itself. The
study’s results showed that awareness
“varies by channel”, with larger
wholesalers, chain retailers and
contract stationers “very aware of
possible risks associated” with clones,
and “consequently are minor
participants in the sale of them”.
However, as addressed earlier, the
patent issue is what clouds the
situation for suppliers, wholesalers
and distributors in the chain. The
study stated that the “exception” is for
the NMCs where “the understanding
is that patent issues, if they even exist,
are small and easily circumvented”, as
well as where “remanufactured
cartridges don’t exist or are in very
short supply”.
As is obvious to all of us in the
industry, both regions’ OEMs and
remanufacturers said that they
weren’t happy “about having to
compete against a product that is 30
percent [of] the OEM price and may
also be infringing patents”, and
InfoTrends’ Director of Communications
Supplies Consulting Service,
John Shane, added that “more action
needs to be taken to make the internet
specialists who do sell suspect
products realise that there are risks”.
After this report meanwhile, in
2017 some exhibitors at the
Remanexpo product group element of
Paperworld noted that a change had
been seen in many customers who
had lost trust in Chinese products.
Toner manufacturer Integral’s Jan
Hagemann told The Recycler that the
company had enjoyed a “good year,
with a lot of business from companies
buying Chinese in the past, but
experiencing dissatisfaction with
them. They’ve now tried to return to
more reliable companies and spend
more to have quality – this was a new
trend last year, and it’s been easy to get
orders from those who have not had
good experiences with previous
suppliers”.
Another way to address the clones
issue would be to follow the work
undertaken by ETIRA and ARMOR’S
Guide to Clones, which provides a
multilingual document advising all on
the differences between different types
of cartridges, and informing on the
issue of clones. The document has
already been very successful in the
aftermarket, and it follows that
introducing either the document itself
or another tailored to companies in
the supply chain would improve
knowledge of remanufactured
cartridges as well as the dangers of
clones and some compatibles.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
27

FEATURE
Avoiding supply chain risks continued
Additionally, such a document
aimed at those areas of the supply
chain would reinforce the trust some
already put in remanufactured
suppliers, and make some think twice
about the focus on price that they
might have when it comes to
consumables. This might perhaps also
have the roundabout effect of causing
many clone manufacturers to lose
business and improve competition for
remanufacturers in procurement
terms as well as in the reseller market.
What to do if suppliers become
competitors
Another different and non-legal risk
in a supply chain can come from a
supplier becoming a competitor. Stella
Hmaine, an Entrepreneur and
Marketing Director at Milady Asia,
wrote an article entitled Will you or
will you not feed the competition
when your supplier becomes your
competitor? Hmaine starts by noting
that the question “how do I compete
against a supplier who becomes my
competitor” is always “at the back of
your head”, and that “you are not
alone” in thinking this.
She adds that “with industry
consolidation, it is becoming very
common that manufacturers and
suppliers are seeking new growth
opportunities to climb up the value
chain”, and that “as a result, they
become your competitors with unfair
advantages!” Particularly, she notes
that “it’s very common in [the]
aftermarket trade when OEM[s] find it
tedious to produce the products inhouse
with [a] series of production,
QC, R&D, etcetera processes to deal
with, they chose to outsource the
tasks to someone else”.
This means that “they only do what
is most important to their business:
branding, marketing and innovative
designing”, but Hmaine adds that
“when your supplier [is] getting
greedy to what is called climbing-upthe-value-chain,
going out to the
market and knock[ing on] your
customers’ doors, most tend to think
that they [are] only left with little
choices: fight or flight!”, or “whether
to dump the supplier or spend
more (money) to secure that exclusive
deal”.
She points out that this is “painful
in either way, and it is [a] very
expensive process to deal with”, but
that “you can have [a] third
alternative – build the relationship
with your supplier to [a] deeper level
and share your value”, as “you can
share more profits with suppliers
when the deal becomes mature with
[a] long-standing time commitment”.
She asks that readers “trust me,
most customers do [this] the other
way round, they squeeze their
suppliers more and more, orders after
orders. And that backfire[s on] them!”
Hmaine comments that “you can
strategically phase out your own
product lines and come out with
newer products”, but “in another
way, you and your supplier can
win together along the deal”,
though “that has to be done since
[the] beginning of your supplierrelationship”.
In order to “successfully compete
against your supplier”, you need to
“know your positioning and
understand your purpose of business
and sales concept”, Hmaine adding
that “it’s most important to
understand your positioning in the
market, whether your role is just to
create [a] client base and market the
products created by manufacturers,
or provide value to your clients’
businesses by using the products
as a mean”.
In this sense, “the difference is in
product-centric versus client-centric
approaches in maintaining your
status quo”, and she explains both.
In terms of a product-centric
approach, she notes that manufacturers
“are mostly (and naturally,
I may say) product-centric to the
market”, and “limit themselves to
sell[ing] their product rather than
providing [a] solution to customers
by using their products.”
These manufacturers are also
“limited to sell[ing] specific products”
and “view clients as transactions to
reach their sales and revenue goals”,
which means that in “most” cases,
this approach is “lack of co-creation
and not considering the customers’
needs in client value chains. Simply
put, it’s [a] WIN-WIN but I-WIN-
FIRST then YOU WIN kind of deal”.
Those with a client-centric
approach meanwhile “of course” are
“100 percent client-centred”, and
use “products as a means to an end”,
with such suppliers always “striv[ing]
to differentiate themselves with
innovative marketing ideas”, as
well as always “co-create and think
about [the] customers’ core value
before anything else”, which is a
“WIN-WIN situation for both clients
and suppliers”.
Hmaine advises that companies
“choose your side wisely” as “your
supplier is likely to be on [a] productcentric
approach”, and states that
“you can create your unbeatable
combination” by “setting your right
sales concept” up, and then “topping
[this] up with sound selling skills”.
In her view, the customer-centric
approach is “the most efficient way to
compete against your supplier and
also [the] best way to differentiate
your business from the polluted
crowd!”
She concludes that “no matter how
[many] unmatched advantages your
supplier may have, there are some
ingredients that [are] still very
important to your clients”, including
“who you are”, “your business goals
that [are] in-line (and/or) co-exist
with your clients”, and “your ethics
and personal values”.
R
28 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

AROUND THE INDUSTRY
NORTH AMERICA Expert Laser,
Video Game
Expert Laser
Man live and
ready to play!
The new video game from Expert
Laser Services is now officially
live and ready to play for free,
with USA-based players given the
chance to enter a sweepstake each
time they play to potentially win a
$500 (€406) cash prize.
Expert Laser Services first broke the
news of their video game project in
January this year, with creative director
Nathan Dube explaining, “The premise
of the game is that rogue printers,
copiers and scanners become sentient
through artificial intelligence gone awry
and begin to attack people in the office
building where they work. The
protagonist, ‘Expert Laser Man’, is the
head of the IT department. He bravely
arms himself with a couple of firearms
and works his way through the office
building, destroying the sentient printers
until finally he fights a copier that
transforms into a mechanised robot in
the boss level of the game.
“Defeating the boss will result in a
coupon code which players can register
for a chance to win a really great prize
which is yet to be determined.”
Expert Laser Services has announced
that the game is officially live and ready
to play for free internationally.
USA-based players can also enter a
nation-wide sweepstakes, which was
made available from 16 March 2018,
with the winner to be notified by email
on 19 June 2018 and awarded a $500
(€406) cash prize.
EUROPE IOP, New Appointment, Business
You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia
IOP announces Mostefaoui
appointment
Internet of Printing BV (IOP) has today announced the hiring of its new
International Business Development Manager.
Internet of Printing has
announced the appointment of
Youssef Mostefaoui as the
Netherlands-based company’s
International Business Development
Manager. Co-founder and
Managing Director Mark
Dawson spoke of his delight at
welcoming Mostefaoui on board:
“Youssef joins us with a deep
understanding of the supplies
channel, and knows how to
develop networks of resellers
and manage distribution.”
Dawson added that Mostefaoui “brings a
unique combination of entrepreneurship
and structure to the table. He will focus on
France and on a number of other strategic
markets in Europe. He joins the team at IOP
with a very impressive OEM background
and understands the power of branding.”
Mostefaoui himself said he was
“delighted to be on board with such an
innovative organisation,” and praised IOP’s
“unique, exciting and powerful portfolio of
ASIA Apex, Office relocation, Business
Apex explained that, while the company has
already relocated to the new site, its main
telephone, facsimile numbers and email
address will remain unchanged.
The new address is as follows:
Building 1, No. 83 Guangwan Street,
Xiangzhou, Zhuhai, Guangdong
P.R. China
Apex iterated its continuing commitment to
providing its customers “with better products
Youssef Mostefaoui
products, services and
solutions.”
“These will unquest-ionably
help resellers to address the
current and future challenges
presented by the market
dynamics,” he said. “The
range of 3D printer, supplies
and services is specifically
designed to help drive new
revenue streams and the IBM
brand of Replacement Toner
Cartridges will help resellers
optimise margins. The software solutions
that IOP has available will help both
transactional resellers and those in the
managed space to drive customer
loyalty. This is especially important given
the attempted “Amazonification” of the
channel.”
“As IOP begins to accelerate its
sales and distribution of the IBM
brand of Replacement Toner Cartridges,
[Mostefaoui’s] experience will help us make
quantum steps forward,” Dawson declared.
Apex announces the relocation
of its office
The Chinese supplier has issued a statement explaining that it has now moved to
a new location, and apologising to customers for any inconvenience.
and services” and thanked them for their
“trust and support.”
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
30 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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AROUND THE INDUSTRY
EUROPE The Greener Side, Business, Collection
The Greener Side: a recycling
success story
Since it was founded, ECS explains that The Greener Side has had clear goals
when it comes to finding a solution for the growing problem of accumulated
waste electrical and electronic equipment, from toner cartridges to mobile
phones, as well as tackling the ever growing, ever increasing landfills that
pollute the earth.
Over 65 million toner cartridges are sold
every year in the UK alone – 85 percent of
which are sent to landfill while only 15
percent are recycled.
“Sending toner cartridges and other
single use plastics to landfill can have
some pretty disastrous consequences.
Nearly all materials that end up as waste in
landfills contain toxic substances and
produce greenhouse gases which pollute
the soil over time. These landfills also
produce methane which has terrible
impacts on both the climate and the
atmosphere, not to mention the countless
habitats that are ruined as a result of
having a landfill in the first place”, states
Recycling Director Adrian Lovatt.
With more plastic being produced year
after year, ECS recognised that a different
approach was needed from the industry as
a whole, with a completely different
outlook on the use and re-use of plastic
being the main requirement.
“The Greener Side has provided not only
ourselves, but the industry as a whole with
a clear and concise solution for a problem
that has plagued the industry for such a
long time, helping not only the
environment, but our Partners and their
waste compliance too.” states Director
Chris Fink.
The benefits of the Greener Side are
“unrivalled”, according to ECS, helping
the industry to make the planet a better
place. Achieving a circular economy has
been a goal at ECS since it was founded,
the company explains, as “recycling works
to aid the remanufacturing process by
providing much needed empty, used toner
cartridges.
pSharp Business Systems (UK) Ltd have
their say on the Greener Side: “There are
many companies in the market place that
can recycle our waste. However we started
working with ECS The Greener side last
year mainly because they could provide the
detail our clients were looking for as a
competitive cost. The service has been
excellent but even more impressively we
have found when we have requested
changes, and in our opinion improvements
to their system, they have been willing to
accommodate us. We at Sharp take pride in
the fact we take a flexible approach to work
with our clients so if we can find partners
like The Greener Side that have the same
attitude it makes it easier for us all to deliver
great customer service.”
The Greener Side is designed to provide
a recycling solution for photocopier
toners, laser cartridges, ink cartridges,
mobile phones, printers, laptops and
copiers, while meeting WEEE Directive
regulations and helping those in need of a
recycling service to be compliant with
environmental legislation.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
31

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EMEA Coastal Image, Remanufacturing, Business
Mombasa remanufacturer wins OEM approval
Coastal Image Technologies, a Mombasa-based business which has been making compatible toner cartridges for the last
12 years, has transformed into a “technology enterprise” with ties to global brands.
The story of the company’s success was
published in a recent newspaper article in
Business Daily’s Enterprise section.
The article described how two brothers,
Mohamed Mustafa Somji and Mohamed
Abbas, “stepped out of the common craze
for tourism-linked entrepreneurship to
build a multi-million-shilling professional
toner cartridge empire”.
“In 2005, I discovered that photocopying
businesses had no place to replace their
toner cartridges and often had to buy new
ones,” explained Mustafa.
With this realisation, the two brothers
came up with a plan for a new business, in
which they invested 100,000 shillings
($989/€805). Their goal was straightforward
– to create a remanufacturing
company “that would make quality
compatible toner cartridges, significantly
cut their costs and make them affordable to
a larger consumer base.”
“Setting up systems and processes that
would deliver this dream was our greatest
challenge,” recalled Mustafa.
“It has been a journey of many
challenges that we would not have survived
without our team of employees and loyal
customers,” he went on to say.
Gaining clients was a major hurdle
initially, which Mustafa attributed to the
fact that the business was a start-up, and
“its efficiency untested.” This first
stumbling block led the two brothers to
seek foreign expertise “that came in the
form of training in the USA”.
Training completed, the brothers
returned to Kenya “to build what has
become one of the most trusted service
providers” in the country, specialising not
just in toner cartridges now but also in
laptops, desktop computers and
photocopiers.
Since its humble beginnings, the
business has developed into “a busy
operation” which has gained several
certificates over the years, as well as
clinching deals with “local distributors of
international IT brands” such as Microsoft,
HP, Canon and Acer.
“In 2013, we became the official partner
for HP brands and in 2014 we received
Gold partnership from Lenovo that enabled
us to sell their brands. We have a certified
partnership with Microsoft Corporation,
which enables us to sell genuine Microsoft
products,” explained Mustafa.
Just two years ago the company received
another boost when it was ranked number
18 in the annual Business Daily and KPMG
Top 100 SMEs survey, which Mustafa said
“opened a new chapter for the business
attracting new customers who are now
driving its expansion agenda.”
NORTH AMERICA PrintReleaf, EKM Global, Partnership
EKM Global partners with PrintReleaf
EKM Global, the international managed print service software supplier and consultancy, today announced it has
entered a partnership with PrintReleaf to drive environmental sustainability in printer paper consumption.
PrintReleaf is a rapidly growing
organisation dedicated to sustainability by
monitoring printer paper consumption at
companies and, by each paying a small fee
for every piece of paper used, to fund
reforestation programs to balance or grow
our global forestry system.
PrintReleaf has developed a standard,
methodology, and technology platform –
PRX - that makes it simple for customers
to certifiably reforest their paper
consumption. EKM’s Insight print
management solutions enable its
customers optimise print resources and
operations and lock the gains in through
advanced service delivery automation
software. EKM and PrintReleaf have
integrated the two platforms to provide
fully automated reporting from any EKM
customer site directly to PrintReleaf PRX.
This makes it straightforward for
customers to offset their paper
consumption with equivalent, certified
paper reforestation.
“Care for the environment has rightly
become a key concern for all companies -
something that they both want to do and
to be seen to be doing as well,” said Ian
McRae, CEO, EKM Global. “Our
partnership with PrintReleaf makes it easy
for our customers to improve their green
credentials and make a real, measurable
and positive impact on the environment.
It is said that trees are the lungs of the
earth and bold initiatives such as this will
help it breathe a little more easily.”
“Our partnership with EKM Global is
another positive step toward growing our
global network of partners and customers
to drive certified reforestation in the print
industry,” said Jordan Darragh, CEO,
PrintReleaf. “We look forward to
extending our solution to new markets
with EKM Global and planting more trees
with their customers.”
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
32 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

AROUND THE INDUSTRY
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EUROPE GDPR, Business, SMEs
Why GDPR is a boon for B2B SMEs
A recent blog by officefriendly explains why, instead of being a threat, GDPR will
benefit businesses in the B2B small to medium enterprise sector.
As the blog explains, GDPR involves the
“updating of existing data protection laws”
to include digital as well as physical data.
As a result, consumers “will have greater
power over what happens to the data
companies hold on us”, while from a
business standpoint, GDPR will mean
business owners can no longer contact
“customers and prospects for marketing
purposes” as has been the practice in
recent years.
While at first glance this may seem
like a negative, officefriendly advises
business owners to place themselves in
their customers’ position, asking,
“Would you rather get relevant email
updates from a mailing list you’ve opted
into, or continue to receive impersonal
promotions from a company you’re
EUROPE Lightwords, Website, Business
not sure you’ve ever heard of?”
Because the regulations “even out the
playing field” for consumers, this means
the marketing options they do decide to
choose will have enhanced value. While
this may seem daunting to business
owners at first, because they may fear
customers opting out of their marketing
tools, “it represents a valuable opportunity
Lightwords Imaging unveils new website
Lightwords Imaging, a digital
imaging market research, analysis
and consulting agency specialising
in wide format ink jet printing, has
revealed that it is excited to
announce the launch of their new
website, www.lightwordsimaging.
com.
The new website repositions
Lightwords with its new strapline
“Turning Research into Insight” as
the company expands its presence
in custom research and consulting
for digital printing markets.
The Market Focus section of the site
now contains a chart which discusses
research conducted by Lightwords in
selected countries from the top ten
industrialised nations, revealing that
Canon have a similar total cost of
ownership when compared to Epson
business ink jet products with a similar
product specification in the competitive
30-39 ppm segment.
However, HP has an almost €800
($982) TCO advantage when its 50-59
ppm business ink jets are similarly
compared to those Canon laser-based
for businesses to overhaul their data
handling and processing and end up with
better results.”
In order to be GDPR compliant,
businesses will have to be “transparent”
with customers and “use a permissionsbased
strategy in order to contact them”,
which will contribute to “a better
reputation and stronger relationships”.
GDPR will also give businesses the chance
to analyse and “narrow down” their
marketing end goals.
While GDPR may seem threatening
initially, through the implementation
of the permissions-based method,
officefriendly assures owners that their
businesses will “soon see the impact of
increased customer confidence, positive
change, and more effective marketing.”
The company has announced the launch of a new website, which sheds new light on the Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) of laser and business ink jet MFP models.
MFP’s and Epson business ink
jets in the 30-39 ppm segment
Peter Mayhew, Managing
Director of Lightwords Ltd said,
“We are now seeing the proof
that there are potentially
significant cost savings for all
types of business by switching to
ink jet, especially as there is
essentially no difference in the
MFP’s performance by almost
any measure. Lightwords
analysts excel at revealing
critical, competitive, insights like this
Laser vs Business Ink Jet example. We
plan to conduct and publish more, chart
based, analysis from our research over
the coming months and intend to make
sharing insights a regular web-site
feature, in the future.”
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
34 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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AROUND THE INDUSTRY
EUROPE Brexit, Business, Legislation
Brexit and industrial product legislation
The European Commission has published information relating to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, and the
effect it will have on industrial product legislation.
One of the primary effects that the
Commission highlights relates more to the
remaining 27 Member States, than it does
Britain itself: Companies that are currently
registered as distributors of products
placed on the market by British entities will
instead become importers, as Britain will
no longer be within the legislative
framework of the Union.
The Commission states that post-Brexit
(currently envisaged to be March 2019), “a
manufacturer or importer established in
the United Kingdom will no longer be
considered as an economic operator
established in the Union. As a
consequence, an economic operator
established in the EU-27 who, prior to
the withdrawal date, was considered
as an EU distributor will become an
importer for the purposes of Union
product legislation in relation to products
from a third country that this economic
operator places on the EU-27 market as
from the withdrawal date.”
It goes on to add that as a result of this
change, such entities “will have to comply
with the specific obligations relevant to an
importer, which are different from those of
a distributor.”
Another important change as a result of
Brexit is that under current EU legislation,
in certain product areas the intervention of
a qualified third party is required in the
conformity assessment procedure. This
third party is known as the Notified Body.
The newly published information
stipulates that “Union product legislation
requires Notified Bodies to be established
in a Member State and be designated by a
Member State notifying authority for
performing the conformity assessment
tasks set out in the relevant act of Union
product legislation.”
As a result of Brexit, UK-based bodies
will lose the ability to be Notified Bodies,
and will no longer be on the Commission’s
database of such organisations; they will
therefore not be eligible to perform
conformity assessments tasks, and should
Britain attempt to place products onto the
European market, it will require some
form of partnership with a Member Statebased
Notified Body that can deliver the
certificate on the UK’s behalf.
Similarly, any other companies based
within the remaining Member States that
have previously used a UK-based Notified
Body will be required to seek a different
one, as UK-based ones will become
ineligible.
These rules and regulations refer to a
wide variety of industrial products,
including electrical equipment designed
for use within a certain voltage.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
35

AROUND THE INDUSTRY
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EUROPE CEE, Inkjet, Market Data
Inkjet drives CEE HCP market
in Q4 2017
New data from IDC reveals that the Central and Eastern European HCP market
grew 1.4 percent in Q4 2017, with inkjet sales a significant factor.
According to the International Data
Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly
Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, HCP
shipments in the region were in excess of
1.7 million units during Q4 2017.
Meanwhile the shipment value increased
by 3.9 percent year on year, to over $493
million (€398.8 million).
Inkjet shipments posted year-on-year
growth of 12.6 percent in units and 14.3
percent in value. The inkjet market was
characterised by a significant shift towards
ink tank models. Ink tank models recorded
26.5 percent growth in unit terms. Ink tank
printers represented more than 30 percent
of the overall inkjet market in unit terms
and over 48 percent in value in Q4 2017.
“Low cost per page and high ink yields
make ink tank models attractive not only
for consumers, but, increasingly, for
business users, as well,” says Ilona
Stankeova, Research Director with IDC
CEMA’s Imaging, Hardware Devices, and
Document Solutions group.
The laser market saw a decline of 5.7
percent in units compared to Q4 2016,
but increased by 2.2 percent in value.
While monochrome laser sales, especially
those of cheaper entry-level models
declined, colour laser sales increased.
Shipments of colour laser MFPs increased
13.4 percent in units, supported by healthy
growth of midrange and higher-end
models, which are often delivered as part
of a print service contract.
In terms of vendor ranking, HP Inc.
remained the overall leader in the CEE
hardcopy peripherals market in Q4 2017,
with unit market share of almost 37
percent despite a shipment decline of 13.4
percent year on year. It is worth noting
that Q4 2017 was the first quarter that HP
Inc results included both HP- and
Samsung-branded machines. While
shipments of HP-branded machines
recorded a moderate 7.8 percent decline,
Samsung-branded shipments contracted
by more than 40 percent.
Canon ranked second, with a minor
decline in shipments and 19.9 percent
market unit share. Epson’s shipments
increased by almost 17 percent, raising
its market share to 12.0 percent.
Although Brother ranked fourth, it
outperformed the market with shipment
unit growth of 18.4 percent.
In partnership with ETIRA
Russia
The Russian HCP market recorded a
6 percent increase in units and a 9.1
percent increase in value year on year in
Q4 2017. Although still below pre-crisis
levels, the Russian market, started to show
signs of recovery in 2017. The gradual
improvement of the economy, as well
as GDP growth resulting from
stabilisation of the ruble and an increase
in crude oil prices helped boost the
Russian market. Both inkjet and laser
market segments recorded positive unit
growth, of 3.5 percent and 7.6 percent,
respectively. Ink tank models represented
close to 39 percent of the inkjet market in
units and more than 57 percent of the
overall value.
Poland
After several quarters of decline, the
Polish market posted growth of 10.5
percent in units and 2.6 percent in value
in Q4 2017. Inkjet shipments recorded
remarkable unit growth of 28 percent,
supported by both consumer and business
demand, while laser unit shipments
declined over 9 percent. Ink tank models
represented 15.4 percent of the inkjet
market in unit terms and more than 28
percent in value.
The positive result in Q4 did not
balance the previous quarters of decline,
however. The total Polish HCP market
recorded an annual decline in units of 3.2
percent and of 7.4 percent in value in 2017
when compared to 2016 annual results.
Czech Republic
Contrary to Poland, the Czech HCP
market declined in Q4 2017, after several
quarters of moderate growth. The
dynamics for ink and laser segments were
similar to that seen in Poland: while the
Czech inkjet market recorded a 3.6
percent increase in units, the laser market
declined almost 13 percent. Shipments of
ink tank models experienced double-digit
growth, and ink tank sales represented 17
percent of the total inkjet market in units
and close to 30 percent in value.
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
36 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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EUROPE Katun, R&D, Video
Katun’s R&D: behind the scenes
The supplier has released a new video on Youtube which offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the company’s lab
and its rigorous R&D processes.
Beneath the video, the Corporation
explained: “Developed and tested in our
practical applications laboratory, virtually
every Katun product must demonstrate
excellent in-machine performance before
it is introduced. We maintain over 550
copiers, facsimiles, printers and
multifunctional devices to conduct our
tests, and our entire testing area is
constantly maintained at a “normal”
operating environment for office
equipment: 70° F (21 C°) ± 2°, and 50
percent relative humidity (50% RH) ± 5%.
In addition to the new and oldergeneration
machines in which we conduct
performance and life testing, trained
technical specialists operate high
technology instrumentation to analyse
critical materials properties and
corresponding performance characteristics
of both Katun and competitive
products. Many of these sensitive
instruments are operated in a Class M6.5
Clean Room for measurement integrity
and precision.”
In the video itself, Katun’s Vice
President of New Product Development,
Jean Guay, explains that the lab runs
nearly 1,000 tests a year using “complex,
high-technology evaluation equipment”
which has been specially designed for the
industry.
Next, Robert Moore, the Corporation’s
President and CEO, revealed that the
NORTH AMERICA ECi, New Appointment, Business
ECi appoints Chief Marketing Officer
ECi Software Solutions has announced the appointment of Leslie Bodnar as Chief Marketing Officer.
In this role, she is responsible for building
the ECi brand and driving the company’s
global go-to-market, digital marketing and
demand generation strategies.
“We are pleased to have Leslie join our
team and lead our marketing efforts as we
work to provide more value to our
customers and the industries we serve,”
said Ron Books, Chief Executive Officer of
ECi. “Leslie has extensive software
industry experience in products,
marketing and business development.
Along with her dynamic leadership
abilities and customer focus, this makes
her uniquely qualified to expand our
brand and digital presence, as well as help
us identify new marketing opportunities.
I look forward to her contributions to our
company and customers.”
“I’m delighted to join ECi at such an
exciting time in the company’s growth
trajectory,” said Bodnar. “As a trusted
partner to small- and medium-sized
businesses around the world, ECi
continues to invest in innovative digital
technologies that transform businesses
and their day-to-day operations. ECi’s
deep industry and domain knowledge
opens new doors for companies looking
to differentiate, serve their customers
better and drive sustainable growth. I’m
eager to collaborate with such an
outstanding team as we continue building
value for our clients going forward.”
Bodnar has had an impressive 20-year
career in software marketing, product
analytical equipment can analyse particle
size and shape, and profile the mechanical
and electrical characteristics of the
company’s different products.
Guay went on to say that the Katun
lab has three different environmental
chambers for printers and copiers, which
Moore explained was important as
customers in different altitudes and
climates should be able to expect the same
OEM-level quality of performance from
their product.
Finally, Lab Manager Robert Wuollet
described the testing process in more
detail, explaining how Katun ensures its
products are up to OEM standard in terms
of print quality.
Moore concluded the 2:55-minute video
by saying that the whole R&D process of
the company was about “ensuring quality
and co-developing products” which offer
reliability for customers.
management, and business development
demonstrating leadership through her
vision and strategic thinking that
anticipates industry needs. At MSC
Software in Newport Beach, CA, she served
as General Manager of the company’s
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
business, Senior Director of Product
Marketing & Go-to-Market and Vice
President of Global Marketing & Inside
Sales. Bodnar was also Head of Americas
Marketing at Siemens PLM Software and
VP of Global Marketing at ACTIVE
Network. She holds a Bachelor’s of
Science degree from Oakland University
and an MBA in Business and Marketing
Strategy from California State
University - Northridge.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
38 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
AROUND THE INDUSTRY
EUROPE Trade Copiers, Business, Future
Trade Copiers future plans now extension
is near completion
The company has announced that its Managing Director, Stephen Armistead, has
been featured in March’s In-Cumbria magazine, on the Director’s Cut page.
Work started on the expansion of its
Cumbria depot back in January, and the
company has declared that the work is
nearly finished, “with just roller doors and
a few internal finishes to be added.”
The successful work includes an
expanded loading bay, which Trade Copiers
says will allow the storage of shipments
away from the main warehouse, creating
easier and faster loading and unloading. In
addition to this, the floor space of the
warehouse itself has increased, which
according to the company means that it
“can store more copiers, and give our
customers better deals.”
“It may seem like a lot of work just to
increase floor space,” opined Operations
Manager Dik Stoddart, “but what the
extensions now enable us to do is process
and test machines much faster, load
containers from a dedicated area which is
vastly more efficient and of course store
more machines.”
“The upshot of all these improvements is
that more containers full of copiers are able
go out every week,” Stoddart added.
In March’s In-Cumbria magazine
Managing Director, Stephen Armistead
was interviewed looking at the company’s
future plans. The article describes how
Armistead, 54, founded Trade Copiers
“from the back of a van in 2002”, going on
to develop the Penrith-based company into
a business which “buys and sells
photocopiers and consumables around the
world” and is expected to generate a
turnover of £6 million ($8.2 million/€6.7
million) this year.
As a marker of its 12-year process of
growth and expansion, the company, which
was named Best Exporter at the In-
Cumbria Business Awards, now employs
over 30 staff and has recently embarked
on a £500,000 ($690,726/€561,738)
expansion “to its warehouse and office
facilities”.
In the magazine, Armistead speaks of
Trade Copiers’ humble beginnings, saying
that initially “there was just me in a van”
after he “saw a niche in the export market”
and opted to become a sole trader.
Despite such undistinguished
beginnings, Armistead explained that he
“had no doubts” and “was confident” that
he could “make a success of it.”
His optimism paid off, and these days
Trade Copiers is “one of the leading
suppliers of consumable products”, which
it exports as far afield as Botswana, China
and the UAE.
Armistead describes himself as a handson
boss and revealed that the company is
now something of a family affair, as his two
sons and daughter both work for Trade
Copiers. When questioned on his business
philosophy, he responded, “Work hard and
the rewards will come,” adding, “don’t be
afraid to knock on doors.”
Looking to the future, the Managing
Director explained that he would like to see
Trade Copier “double in size within the
next three years” and describes 2018 as “a
big one for us”, as the company expands its
premises, creates a call centre and prepares
to “launch a new e-commerce site”.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
39

RETAIL COLUMN
Running the system
of a store
Too many managers think their job is “running the store.” They couldn’t be more
wrong. A manager’s job is creating the team that runs the store. It’s running the
system of the store. One that meets the needs of a particular set of customers
better than any other store or website on the planet.
First, your customers already value
your Retail can get unnecessarily
fragmented. Early in their careers,
employees are told to focus on inventory
or operations or merchandising.
Software vendors and service providers
expand those fractures with solutions
that focus just on just one aspect of
retail. Just the website. Or just
marketing. Or just POS. Retail managers
and owners struggle with aligning so
many different points of view within
their organization. The average staff
member cannot see across all the
different components to understand
how to integrate and prioritize
resources.
Great retailers last beyond the bubbles
and trends. They adapt and serve
generations of shoppers. They understand
how to orchestrate the
intersection of every retail element:
Strategy, Service, Merchandising,
Pricing, Managing and Operations.
A retailer may be excellent at
selecting an attractive range of
products and pricing them well, but
if their customer service is lacking,
they will not thrive. A retailer might
run a tight ship and have an attentive
staff. But if their pricing is out of line
their customers will abandon them
over time. Every one of these
fundamental principles have to
harmonise to make a retailer profitable
and enduring.
For each retailer, store, or manager
there will be areas where they excel and
areas where they lag competition. To be
great, work on your fundamentals each
day and with each generation of
employees. Because falling short in one
or two areas will show up in the
customer’s experience.
You cannot hide a sloppy back room
operation when a you can’t find
products featured in an advert. You
cannot hide an unfocused marketing
campaign when new customers dry up.
Like a gardener, store managers must
attend to every component. Gardeners
know they must site their plants well,
water them, fertilise them, weed them,
prevent pests, and watch their plants
carefully to know when to do each
thing. A gardener who breaks ground,
scatters seeds and then waits for
autumn will be disappointed in the
harvest. Store managers must know
when to freshen their assortment, lower
(or raise) prices, reward employees, cut
back hours, drop a coupon and order
more inventory to create the profit
“harvest” they want.
For everyone, there will be an area
that you simply prefer less than the
others. That’s natural. Everyone has
things they enjoy doing more than
others. Maybe you love working the
sales floor or operating an efficient
back room. Like most of us, you
probably have delegated the tasks
you do not enjoy to someone else. Or
you ignore that portion of the
operation. Or you repeat the same
Flora Delaney
work plan to minimise your effort.
Let’s say the portion of the work you
most dislike is marketing and
advertising. It seems expensive, requires
creativity or is difficult to see results.
Chances are, you are just repeating
what you have done in the past. It
requires minimal effort and “checks the
box” for getting it done. But because the
effort drains you, instead of energises
you, it isn’t a focus area. That is evident
when you look at new customer rates.
Every area where we minimise focus
and resources will eventually impact the
overall business.
Maybe you love marketing. You are
out in the community drumming up
new business and never miss an
opportunity to network and build
relationships with potential new
customers. But inside the store, your
minimal staff engagement is leading to
lower conversion rates, lower units per
transaction and sloppy customer
service. Over time, no matter how
many new customers you invite into
the store, the mediocre service will
reduce your sales.
40 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

RETAIL COLUMN
The point is, every aspect of store
operations and sales need attention to
create an excellent store or website. To
address your store, first track your time.
Where do you honestly spend most of
your time? If it is vendor management,
who is supervising the staff? If it is
merchandising, who is maintaining the
back-room operations? Simply track
your time for two weeks and then look at
how the rest of the store is managed.
Use a time tracker like this to help you
aggregate your tasks:
believe your staff is capable of
managing work to meet your
standards, that is a reflection on their
training. You will never be able to let go
of tasks until you have trained your
team and shared your knowledge. Set a
goal for yourself to transition work to
others on your staff by training them,
demonstrating how to do the tasks and
holding them accountable for
achieving the results you expect.
Do you love doing some work
because it is where you derive
Time Focus Area Example
Sales & Customer
Service
Website/online
maintenance
Vendor Management
Staff Management
Merchandising
Operations
Marketing
working the sales floor, helping online customers,
resolving customer issues, assembling and
executing web orders
setting up promotions and sales, managing
product descriptions and managing images,
managing online inventory
working with suppliers, placing orders, paying
and reconciling invoices
setting schedules, coaching and training, hiring,
cleaning and restocking shelves and displays,
changing price tags, selecting and setting up
new items
receiving product, conducting inventory, cleaning
the store and back room, remanufacturing and
creating product for sale
setting up ads, social media posts, networking
outside the store, cold and warm calls
If you track your time for 2 weeks, as
a store manager or owner, your time
should ideally be split like this:
Target
Focus Area
15-20% Sales & Customer Service
5-10% Website/online maintenance
5-10% Vendor Management
35-50% Staff Management
10-15% Merchandising
10-15% Operations
15-20% Marketing
Naturally, your time will vary. Both
seasonally and from these guidelines.
But if your time study shows focus areas
that are over- or under-focused, this
should be a warning.
Do you resist delegating sales or
operations because you believe no one
does it as well as you? If you do not
satisfaction but ignore others because it
is difficult or “not worth it?” If you
cannot bring yourself to manage the
website or marketing, it is time to find a
service or employee who can take on that
responsibility. To believe you will change
“because you should” may not be within
you. It takes honest self-assessment to
realize what you can and cannot do on
your own. Often paying for an outside
service will bring all the value we need to
free ourselves of the tasks we hate.
There is one exception: Staff
Management. If you do not spend
enough time focused on coaching and
improving the effectiveness of your
team, your store will suffer. They are the
key to the system of the store. Find out
how to deploy team members to be at
their best. Set high standards and
celebrate every time they achieve them.
Build their capabilities and let them
have the independence to achieve their
own victories to create a store or website
that runs like a virtual system. R
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
41

WIDE FORMAT COLUMN
The coolest thing in
Wide-Format is a cure
Drying with mercury-vapour lamps brought new technology to the drying of
prints that use ultraviolet-sensitive ink. Now UV-LED curing cuts the energy use
by 40 percent over the use of mercury-arc lamps.
Neal McChristy
The process uses light-emitting diodes
(LEDs) emitting a narrow band of
ultraviolet light, delivering a peak of
UV energy. These lights provide a wide
distribution of output across the
visible and infrared light spectrum.
The technology in these versatile
machines has been welcomed by the
wide-format printing industry. But of
particular interest is the development
of third-party inks to use in them.
Companies such as Bordeaux, INX
Digital, Colorific and SunJet have
developed specialized inks for the
machines that use the UV-LED
technology.
Often the machines cost $50,000
(€40,882) or more, but with decadeold
technology, some used machines
are lower in price now.
The machines
The machines are manufactured by
companies like Agfa, Fujifilm, Roland
and Mimaki. The machines started
appearing at the 2008 drupa show
The Acuity LED 1600 debuted at Graph Expo
in September 2011, a hybrid printer at 215
square feet (19.97 sqm) per hour. It prints
on roll and flatbed rigid board and sheet
substrates up to a half-inch thick and 63
inches (160 cm) wide.
and have increased dramatically in
availability.
Xanté has a UV4000 UV-LED
printer just released in North America
in January, for example. The heavyduty,
six color, 720 x 1200 dpi 36-
inch (91 cm) printer shoots four
colors plus two white inks. Dual wide
UV-LED lamps work in tandem with
the six Ricoh print heads to cure the
ink as ink is applied to the surface In
addition to traditional usage for signs,
posters or other items, it is capable of
custom and backlit signage and
interior decor, It is compatible with
materials such as Coroplast, acrylic,
metal, wood and glass up to 11 inches
thick. Speed is 119 square feet (11
sqm) per hour.
This EFI 65-inch (165 cm) wide-format UV-LED printer prints up to 458 square feet per hour
(42.3 sqm per hour) in CMYK and white inks at 600 x 1200 dpi. Media can be versatile and up
to two inches thick.
42
Many advantages over
mercury-vapour arc lamps
The number one advantage of the UV-
LED lamp array is that it sports a cold
light source and radiates less heat. In
addition, UV-LED curing uses 40-70
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

WIDE FORMAT COLUMN
percent less electricity, mostly due to
the fact that mercury-vapour arrays
are left on more frequently and UV-
LED has on/off capability that can
save energy and have no need of
warm-up. LED-UV lights are more
than 10 times longer-lasting.
Printing is more predictable, with
better adhesion and scratch
resistance. Ozone emissions are
lowered and some carbon-dioxide
emissions are reportedly lowered.
End-of-life problems with disposal of
mercury-vapour lamps are solved.
The push for UV-LED inks
In the past decade, the move to make a
variety of inks that are sensitive to the
narrower-band UV-LED light has been
substantial. Companies such as
Bordeaux, INX Digital, Colorific and
SunJet have been working to provide
ink for the new UV-LED machines.
According to Fujifilm at
https://www.fujifilminkjet.com/uv-inkpart-1-uv-curable-ink-works,
the basic
make-up of UV-curable inks consists
of monomers, oligomers, pigments
and photoinitiators.
“Monomers provide a building
block of the ink and can contribute
certain properties such as
softness/hardness of the ink when
cured as well as flexibility or
elongation characteristics of the 0ink
for varying types of applications.
Monomers also help control ink
viscosity which is essential to jetting
reliability.
“The oligomers in the ink
formulation consist of reactive resins
and uniquely formulated adhesive
components for printing on particular
substrates.
“The pigments provide the color.
However, the pigment dispersion is a
critical component of the UV ink
make-up as the particles need to be
ground to less than 200 nanometers
(one-fifth the size of a human nerve
cell process) to fully develop color,
with each nanoparticle coated to
prevent agglomeration (clotting).
Particles that are too large or
agglomerated would compromise
jetting accuracy, resulting in
unacceptable print quality. Essentially
all inkjet inks, whether UV or
aqueous, need to be nano-sized to jet
reliably and provide precise drop
placement to optimize print quality.”
More versatility, better
prints, more substrates
Many companies don’t have the need
for a printer so expensive, but for those
that do, investing in a UV-LED
machine will provide versatility,
economy and the ability to use thirdparty
ink. That could be a selling point
for someone looking for a printer. R
Wide-Format news in brief
Casio-designed 2.5D printer makes textured pages
Photoshop 3D tools are improving
and soon there could be a printer
that turns Photoshop textures into
actual textured pages.
During the Consumer Electronics
Show, Casio unveiled the Mofrel, a
2.5D printer that uses heat from
near-infrared light to make pages
that both look and feel like wood,
stitched fabric, leather or any
texture imaginable. The definition
of 2.5D printing is a printing
mechanism that falls in between a
regular painting process and
new 3D printing technologies.
Light sculpting and special paper
is used in the Mofrel 2.5D printer to
re-create textures on paper covered
in a special micro-powder that
expands when heated. First the
printer applies the “ink” and then
near-infrared light, generating the
heat to activate the “ink” and
generate the right bumps for the
texture in all of the right places.
Casio personnel, explaining the
process, say the texture is applied in
the first run through the printer —
then a microfilm is peeled off and a
second run applies actual ink to
give the textured surface color.
The Mofrel can also create doublesided
prints that are textured on
both sides.
Textures are designed in
Photoshop using a Mofrel Utility
plug-in. The plug-in helps people
using it to translate textured
designs into “bump” data for the
printer and show the designer a
preview of the resulting print.
ZINK inkless printing enables compact devices
Soon your photo printer may fit in
the palm of your hand.
ZINK, a spinoff of Polaroid, claims
it can make ultraportable printers
that can fit in a human hand or
be integrated into digital cameras
and cell phones, writes the MIT
Technology Review.
This Bluetooth-enabled printer
could be used to print pictures
captured on mobile phones.
This printer is one of two ZINKenabled
devices that the company
expects to make available by the end
of the year.
The company’s trick is to use a
novel type of photo paper that
changes color when heat is applied,
says Steve Herchen, chief
technology officer at ZINK, told the
MIT Technology Review.
Herchen says it’s the first new
digital printing technology in more
than a decade.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
43

WIDE FORMAT COLUMN
Wide-Format news in brief
Flexible electronics and sensors coming
The field of flexible and printed
electronics is generating more interest
in numerous markets, with sensors
being one of the most prominent
early successes. These sensors are
appearing in markets ranging from
medical, airplanes and automobiles
to packaging and cosmetics, to name
a few.
“I would say there’s tremendous
growth in both the number and
diversity of applications for sensors –
there are many applications in
monitoring all sorts of things,”
Malcolm Thompson, executive
director of NextFlex, America’s
Flexible Hybrid Electronics Institute,
told Printed Electronics magazine.
“We’re all familiar with the athletic
and medical monitors that are being
developed, but it goes way beyond
that. There are structural monitors,
sensors for measuring stress in pipes,
dams and airplane wings, all the way
through to agricultural sensors.
These devices can measure the
amount of water in soil, as well as
monitor chemicals around plants to
determine contamination or assess
when they’re ready to be harvested.
German company Toolcraft 3D prepping for
Industry 4.0
“The sheer diversity of sensor
applications is staggering,” Thompson
continued in the magazine, “They
must be inexpensive so they can be
produced in large numbers, and
they’re designed to be consumable –
they essentially biodegrade, and then
you start again, which makes for a
great business model. Basically, the
potential applications for sensors are
practically limitless.”
The company’s goal was to create a
wearable that wouldn’t interfere with
the user’s daily routine and was
comfortable, flexible and thin.
MBFZ Toolcraft, (https:// www.
toolcraft.de/) a pioneer of
forward-looking tech-nologies
in Georgensgmünd, Germany,
has been developing innovative
methods in areas such as 3D
metal printing and the
construction of customized
turnkey robotics solutions.
Toolcraft has been
manufacturing 3D-printed
precision components in metal
since 2011 and will soon be
moving into its newly-built
laser melting center. The
company has implemented Industry
4.0, billed as the fourth industrial
revolution, in the field of turning and
milling and is considered an
innovator in 3D printing.
Now the 3D printing and Industry
4.0 are to be combined. According to
Wikipedia, Industry 4.0 is a name for
the current trend of automation and
data exchange in manufacturing
technologies. It includes cyberphysical
systems, the Internet of
things, cloud computing and
cognitive computing and referred to
as the fourth industrial revolution.
The company tests and develops
innovative engineering processes
until they are ready to be used on
production lines. As a provider of
comprehensive solutions, Toolcraft
covers the entire process chain, from
the initial idea to manufacturing,
quality assurance and testing. Clients
include market leaders in the
semiconductors, aerospace, medical
technology, optical, special
machinery manufacturing, motor
sports and automotive industries.
Building close working relationships
with collaborative partners as
well as universities, other institutions
of higher education and
research centers is an
important part of its
corporate philosophy.
Toolcraft offers qualified
solutions – fast, with
precision, and to highest
standards of quality.
3D printing and Industry
4.0 are the buzzwords
currently defining the
economy. Although
additive manufacturing for
plastics has already
produced the first
affordable printers for the home,
metal laser melting is and remains in
the hands of innovative industrial
companies.
Editor’s Note: Neal McChristy is a
freelance writer with over 30 years
journalism experience in magazine,
newspaper and web-based work. He has
been contributing editor for a magazine
column in the wide-format industry for
seven years. He also has 20 years’
experience as writer, editor and editorial
contributor in the printing and
imaging area. He likes to correspond with
readers and can be reached at
freelance9@cox.net.
44 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia
EUROPE IR Italiana, Cartridges, Remanufacturing
IR Italiana Riprografia announces
new remanufactured cartridges
The Italian company announced new remanufactured toner cartridges for use in
Sharp machines.
Latest products released by IR Italiana
include remanufactured cyan, magenta
and yellow toner cartridges for use in
SHARP MX-3050N with a page yield of
24,000 pages.
The above-mentioned cartridges feature
the “following advantages”, according to IR
Italiana Riprografia: “OEM equivalent print
quality”; “100 percent compatibility with
OEM toners”; “significant savings over
[the] OEM” and “MSDS in compliance with
REACH”.
Additionally, the cartridges were
produced “in a certificated environment”
including the ISO 9001:2015 quality
management system certificate; the ISO
14001:2015 environmental management
system certificate; and the BS OHSAS
18001:2007 occupational health and safety
management system certificate. All IR’s
remanufactured products have the
environmental certification (Ecolabel) ISO
14021:2016.The “product performances of
several items distributed” by IR follow the
standards set by STMC and ISO 19752 and
ISO 19798.
For more information, please visit
www.itrip.it.
ASIA TNCore, i-Prog, Chip Resetter
TNCore releases
update
The company has announced an
update for the i-Prog chip resetter
system.
In an email newsletter released by TNCore,
the company is asking all customers to
“please update your i-prog to the most
update version so that you can receive the
benefits.” New benefits include, according
to TNCore a new “credit consumption” for
Xerox chip resetting.
For further enquiries TNCore ask to
contact their sales representatives who will
be able to help and assist with any updates
and enquiries.
For further information please visit
www.tncore.com.
ASIA Nikon, 3D Printer, Patent
Nikon files 3D printer patent
Nikon, more commonly known for its cameras and photography equipment,
is branching out, and has a published a patent application for a new type of
3D printer.
The Japanese company, which celebrated
its centenary last year, filed the patent back
in 2015, suggesting the branching out is
not a recent spontaneous decision. The
patent-filed includes a feature that would
make Nikon’s 3D printer unique – the
ability to correct its own mistakes.
3Dprint.com reports that the patent
includes an “inspecting unit”, which would
examine the print’s layers one-by-one to
spot holes or rough surfaces, and would
then fill in any holes, or take action to
ensure the subsequent layer still adhered to
the rough surface. The website suggests
that “this self-correcting mechanism would
take care of some of the most common
flaws in metal powder-based prints to
deliver better quality overall.”
Nikon’s move into 3D printing makes it the
latest in a long line of seemingly-unrelated
companies jumping on the bandwagon,
including Apple, Airbus and even
Disney, all of whom have filed patents in
the 3D printing industry in recent years.
It also positions itself alongside other
photography equipment manufacturers to
have made the sideways move into 3,
following Kodak and Polaroid, the latter of
which is also putting its branding on
remanufactured printer cartridges.
3Dprint.com believes that with this patent,
“Nikon has the potential to change the 3D
printing industry”, as it claims that
“porosity is one of the biggest problems
in powder-based 3D printing […] a
printer that can repair that issue as well
as other surface imperfections would be a
big thing.”
“Sometimes it’s the newcomers that are
truly innovative, that come into the
industry after their own products start to
become obsolete and offer entirely new
ideas,” it continues. “Will Nikon’s 3D
printer proposal become a reality? We’ll
have to wait and see, but if it does, it could
certainly be interesting.”
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
46 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
GLOBAL Apex, Chips, Remanufacturing
Apex latest releases
Apex has released a series of replacement chips for use in the Samsung MLT-
D115/111 series and announced new ASIC designed replacement chips for OKI
C612/C712 series.
For the replacement chips for use in
Samsung MLT-D115/111 the hardware of
the chips has been “totally upgraded and
enable the highest level of encryption
module, which can satisfied the
requirements of the encryption algorithm
for the latest firmware.” The chips are all
currently only available for black
cartridges.
The first set are for use in the Samsung
M2020/2020W/M2070/2070W/M2070
F/2070/M2071/2074FW/SL-M2077/
M2022 2022W and SL-M2026, and
come in two variations of page yield,
1,000 and 1,800.
The second set of chips has a page yield
of 3,000 and is for use with the Samsung
SL-M2620/2620DN/SL-2820DW/2820/
SL-2830ND/M2670N/2670FN/
M2870FW/2870FD/M2880FW/M26
21/M2671N and M2671FH.
Apex has also released two sets, for use
with the Samsung SL-M3320/3820/
4020/ M3370/3870/4070, which have
two page yield options, of 3,000 and
5,000.
It has also released a chip with a page
yield of 10,000 for use in the Samsung
SL-M3820/4020/M3870/4070, and one
with a page yield of 15,000 for use with
the Samsung SL-M4020 and M4070.
Furthermore, two sets of chips have
been launched for use with the Samsung
SL-M2625/2625D/SL-2825DW/2825WN/
SL-M2675FN/SL-2875FW/2875FD/SL-
M2835/M2825DW/SL-M2885FW, which
have yields of 1,200 and 3,000.
In addition, Apex has launched two sets
of chips for use in the Samsung SL-
M3325/3825/4025 and SL-M3375/3875/
4075, with yields of 3,000 and 5,000, and
a set for use with the Samsung SL-
M3825/4025/SL-M3875/4075, with a
yield of 10,000.
As well as the Samsung chips, Apex has
recently launched chips for use in the
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
Xerox Phaser 3020 and WorkCentre 3025
(with a yield of 1,500); the Xerox
WorkCentre 3215 and Xerox 3225/3260,
(with a yield of 1,500); the Xerox
WorkCentre 3215/3225, WorkCentre
Phaser 3052, and WorkCentre Phase 3260
(all with a 3,000 page yield.)
Apex’s latest release are new ASIC
designed replacement chips for OKI
C612/C712 series.
In October 2016, OKI released a series
of new A4 colour laser printers. This
series of printers uses advanced LED
imaging technology. The C712 series is a
comprehensive medical colour printer
that is compatible with all types of media
such as porcelain white film used in
medical reports.
The Apex replacement chip is in the
company’s ASIC design.
The replacements chips announced
are for use in OKI C612n/dn, OKI
C612dnw and OKI C712dnw printers.
The replacement chips for use in OKI
C612n/dn come with page yields of
8,000 for the black cartridge and 6,000
for the CMY cartridges.
The replacement chips for use in OKI
C612dnw printers, come in three
variations of page yields. The first has a
page yield of 3,000 for the black and
2,000 for the CMY cartridges; the second
comes with page yields of 8,000 for the
black and 6,000 for the CMY cartridges
and the third comes with a page yield of
11,000 for the black and 11,500 for the
CMY cartridges.
Also announced were replacement
chips for use in OKI C712dnw printers
which come in two variations of page
yields. The first has a page yield of 5,500
for the CMYK cartridges and the larger
version comes with a page yield of 11,000
for the CMYK set.
For more information go to
www.apexmic.com.
47

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
Search for The Recycler on Facebook for more news and industry coverage
ASIA Utec, Cartridges, Chips
Latest products unveiled by Utec
Union Technology International has launched a new range of compatible chips designed for use in Kyocera devices,
launched a new range of compatible colour laser toner cartridges designed for use in Brother TN-431/433/436 series and
launched a new range of compatible chips designed for use in the Ricoh SP 310 series.
The latest product releases include
a full colour (CMYK) set of
compatible chips for use in Kyocera
ECOSYS M8130cidn/M8124cidn
devices, with the chip for the black
cartridge offering a page yield of
12,000 and the chips for the CMY
cartridges offering page yields of
6,000.
A compatible chip has also been
released for use in the black
cartridge of the ECOSYS
M4132idn/M4125idn printer
models, with a page yield of 15,000.
Also released were compatible
chips for use in Kyocera TASKalfa
2470ci/2460ci devices, and TASKalfa
2520ci/2510i models.
The supplier has also launched a new
range of compatible colour laser toner
EUROPE CIT, Chips, Remanufacturing
CIT release new chips
cartridges designed for use in Brother
TN-431/433/436 series.
Lastly, Union Technology International
has launched a new range of compatible
chips designed for use in the Ricoh
SP 310 series.
These compatible monochrome
toner cartridges offer OEMequivalent
performance, according to
Utec, as well as “long-life stability”.
There are two different types of
cartridge available.
One is for use in the SP 311XE
(EUR) printer model and offers a
page yield of 6,400. The other
cartridge is for use in the SP 311HE
(EUR) model, and offers a page yield
of 3,500.
Ricoh’s SP 310 series consist of
black and white MFPs and printers
which offer low energy consumption,
coupled with high levels of productivity,
making them ideal for use by small
working groups.
For more information on Utec’s new
cartridges, go to www.union-tec.com
Creative Imaging Technologies have announced the release of chips for use in a range of Lexmark printers in
the CS/CX series.
The company has launched two sets
of chips for use in the Lexmark
CS310n/dn/CS410n/CS510de/CX310n/d
n/CX410e/de/dte/CX510, which are both
available in CMYK. For the first set, the
page yield is claimed to be 1,000 on all
four colours, whilst for the second set, the
page yield is 3,000 for CMY and 4,000
for Black.
CIT has also launched a set of chips for
use in the Lexmark CX310n/dn/
CX410e/de/dte/CX510de/dhe/dthe, in
CMYK, which has a page yield of 2,000
(CMY) and 2,500 (Black).
In addition, it has announced the
release of a set of chips for use in the
Lexmark CS510de/dte and the
CX510de/dhe/dthe, which have a page
yield of 4,000 for the CMY
and 8,000 for the Black.
CIT has also announced the
launch of a set of chips for use
in the OKI C322/C522 series.
The chips for use in the
C332/MC363 offer a yield of
3,000 (CMY) and 3,500
(Black), whilst two sets of
chips are available for use in the
C532/542 and MC563/573 models, with
page yields of 1,500 (CMYK) for one
set, and 7,000 black/6,000 colour for
the other.
It has also launched a set of chips for
use in the OKI PRO 9431/9541/9542dn
series, again in CMYK. The yield for
the CMY chips is 43,000, and for the
Black is 51,000.
Furthermore, CIT has
launched a range of chips for
Black cartridges for use in
the Lexmark XM series.
The chips, which each offer
a different yield, are
compatible with the Lexmark
XM1140/ M1140/XM1145/
M1145/ XM3150/ XM5155 /XM7155.
As well as these, it has released chips
for Black cartridges for use in the Konica
Minolta TNP34-44 series, compatible
with the Bizhub 4700P/ 4000P/
3300P/3300/3301/4020MFP/3320/4050
MFP/4070MFP and 4750.
For further information, visit
www.citbv.com.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
48 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
EUROPE Canon, i-SENSYS, Printer
Canon expands its i-SENSYS range
The OEM has revealed the latest devices to join its extended portfolio of document solutions.
The i-SENSYS MF520 and i-SENSYS
MF420 series MFPs and i-SENSYS
LBP210 series laser printers are designed
to develop partners’ proposition to smaller
businesses and workgroups in various
vertical industry sectors, as Canon explains.
The new compact devices address
partners’ total cost to serve, while providing
high-quality black and white print
technology to add to partners’ suite of
solutions. Partners can draw on existing
sales knowledge to provide consistent
levels of consultancy, and tackle three key
areas of importance to their customers:
security, productivity and control.
Canon’s security credentials are
designed to open new revenue streams for
partners. As information security becomes
an increasing priority for customers of all
sizes, the LBP210 and MF420 and MF520
series come equipped with a range of
solutions for device authentication. From
the built-in Universal Login Manager to
uniFLOW online cloud and uniFLOW onpremise
server solutions, administrators
can control access to the device, manage
permissions and protect document security
with Canon’s secure printing features.
Partners can meet the growing demand for
solutions that minimise the cost and
reputational damage arising from
unauthorised data access, as well as
diversify their offering from the
competition.
The i-SENSYS devices have been
designed with optimum productivity in
mind, according to the OEM. Capable of
printing up to 43 pages per minute, with
single pass, double-sided scanning in
seconds, the devices speed up workflows
and allow partners to appeal to a wide
range of business requirements. All three
ranges come equipped with AirPrint and
Mopria support as standard. The built-in
Mobile Portal enables secure mobile
printing, and compatibility with existing
software and technology platforms allows
partners to better support and promote
new ways of working. Combined with the
Canon Genuine Cartridge, partners can
guarantee that reliability and quality is
maintained throughout the life of the
printer with the technology to minimise
downtime. The design of the cartridge has
been especially improved to increase
efficiency and durability, while the Auto
Seal Removal technology makes
installation even more hassle-free.
Including many cost-effective features
that further reduce the requirement for
training and maintenance, the i-SENSYS
devices minimise the total cost to sell.
Enhanced functionality such as the
intuitive 5-inch colour touch screen and
customisable Application Library featured
on selected models, help partners move
into the lucrative and growing home and
small office space by offering automation
and robust management of everyday tasks.
Administrators can print stored forms,
scan-to-email and copy documents with a
single tap. The feature also allows the
administrator to customise the order of the
buttons on the screen according to user
needs and customise their own displays.
James Pittick, Director of B2B indirect
sales, Canon UK, comments: “For Canon
partners, the latest i-SENSYS devices
present a way of building new revenue
streams. From the point of sale, the devices
are designed to tackle security and
productivity issues, while significantly
increasing ease of management and
reducing the ongoing costs associated with
maintenance for partners. This
combination represents maximum value to
both our partners and their customers.”
The i-SENSYS MF520 and i-SENSYS
MF420, and i-SENSYS LBP210 series will
be available across Europe from April 2018.
EUROPE
EcoService, Cartridges, Remanufacturing
New remanufactured cartridges from Ecoservice
Ecoservice di Santarelli Paolo has unveiled a new range of compatible monochrome toner cartridges,
remanufactured using Lexmark empties.
The cartridges are for use with the
Lexmark MS 317DN/417DN/517DN/
617DN, the Lexmark MX317DN/417DE/
517DE/617DE717DE, Lexmark MS
817DN/818DN.
The Italian company has declared that
the cartridges were produced “in a
certificated environment” following the
criteria of the ISO 9001:2015 and
14001:2015 standards.
For more information, visit www.esecoservice.it.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
49

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia
NORTH AMERICA Kyocera, Printers, TASKalfa
New TASkalfa combines speed
and functionality
KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. has announced the launch of the
TASKalfa 9002i black and white MFP, rounding out the top end of its
multifunctional document imaging devices portfolio.
The TASKalfa 9002i prints at up to 90
pages per minute, with a scanning speed
of up to 220 images per minute, making
it an ideal choice for any office or industry
faced with high output demands and the
desire to keep production in-house.
“Ad agencies, schools, real estate firms,
financial institutions… there are so many
businesses out there dealing with
hundreds, even thousands of documents
every day,” said Terry Knopsnyder, Vice
President of Engineering at KYOCERA
Document Solutions America. “Yes,
they’re printing and copying – but they’re
also scanning, emailing, archiving,
indexing. The 9002i is up to all of it - they
won’t lose a step.”
KYOCERA Fleet Service (KFS) is
Kyocera’s comprehensive remote
monitoring system, offering a window
into almost every aspect of a customer’s
Kyocera device, from toner levels to
detailed analytics reports. With KFS, the
OEM states, your Kyocera dealer can
perform many services right from the
dealership: firmware updates, error-code
resets, real-time diagnostics, and more.
The TASKalfa 9002i comes KFS-ready,
requiring just a few simple steps to
activate this feature that will virtually
eliminate downtime due to unforeseen
maintenance calls, unmonitored
supplies or back-ordered parts. “For any
office using a device as fast as the 9002i,
avoiding downtime will be a priority,”
says Knopsnyder. “KFS eliminates
virtually all of it.”
The TASKalfa 9002i is packed
with all the features an office expects in
a high-volume multifunctional device,
Kyocera explains. With an ecological
design based on long-life consumables
and low TEC values, as well as a
readiness for customisation via a wide
range of plug-and-play business
applications, this MFP will exceed the
requirements of any busy office,
according to the OEM.
Mobility
Mobile print and scan capable, supporting
KYOCERA Mobile Print, Apple
AirPrint ® , Google Cloud Print, and
Mopria ®.
Connectivity
Standard Wireless, Wi-Fi Direct ® , and
Near Field Communication (NFC) for
Android.
Flexibility
Standard Optical Character Recognition
(OCR).
Advanced Finishing & Paper Handling
Expandable to include finishing features
such as stapling, hole-punching, booklet
and tri-folding, and paper capacity up to
7,650 sheets.
Exceptional Print Quality
Produces high quality output at up to
1200 x 1200 true dpi.
ASIA CET. Parts, Remanufacturing
CET unveils compatible toner cartridges for Ricoh
The Chinese supplier has launched a new range of toner cartridges for use in Ricoh devices.
The company launched compatible toner
cartridges designed for use in Ricoh’s
MP2014/ 2014D/2014AD devices, which
offer “OEM-equivalent image quality”,
according to CET, and provide a page
yield of 12,000 pages.
The supplier has also launched a
compatible monochrome toner cartridge
for use in Ricoh MP4054SP/5054SP/
6054SP, which offers a page yield of
37,000 pages.
For more information on CET
products and latest releases go to
www.cetgroupco.com.
In partnership with ETIRA
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
50 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news
NORTH AMERICA Katun, Parts, Cartridges
Katun’s latest releases in Europe
and North America
Katun released remanufactured HP printers in Europe, new “Complete suites”
and more.
Katun has launched a line of
remanufactured HP printers in Europe.
The company calls its models “a reliable,
lower-cost alternative to buying a new
printer” and describes them also as “hasslefree,
dependable and cost-effective.”
The remanufactured printers feature new
pickup/feed rollers, transfer rollers and
transfer belts, as well as a rebuilt fuser unit,
updated firmware, and a zero-reset page
count. All parts have been cleaned,
inspected, and tested, according to Katun,
which also stipulates the “stringent
remanufacturing processes” have been
completed within the European Union.
They are also available in a bundle with
Katun’s toner, and Managed Print Services,
which it claims will further “reduce your
supplies costs”, a choice also available by
“bundling with Katun Dealer Fleet
Management.”
The European launch of the
remanufactured models comes nearly a
year after Katun first put them on the
market in North America.
All hardware comes with a one year
warranty.
Also announced were compatible colour
toners for use in Ricoh and Canon
machines, and new-built black and colour
drum units for Konica Minolta applications.
The supplier states that Katun
Performance colour refill toners for use in
Canon imageRUNNER ADV C1325/C1335-
series MFPs “provide OEM-equivalent
yields and image quality, as well as excellent
colour reproduction.”
Katun Business Colour toners for use in
Ricoh MP C305/C405/C307-series MFPs
have been manufactured to produce
“excellent image quality and deliver great
value to Ricoh dealers.” The Katun
Performance new-build black and colour
drum units for use in Konica Minolta
bizhub 224e-series and C224-series MFPs
enable “Konica Minolta dealers to reduce
their service costs without sacrificing image
quality or performance.”
In North America, Katun launched
compatible waste toner containers for use
in a wide range of Ricoh printers.
The waste toner containers are said by
Katun to have been “designed to fit and
perform like the OEM product, but at
significantly less cost to you.”
They are designed for use in a large range
of models on Ricoh’s Aficio printer line.
Katun has released 8 containers - one
with a page yield of 60,000; three with a
page yield of 128,000; and four with a page
yield of 300,000.
And finallz, the company launched a
“complete suite” for use in a multitude of
Konica Minolta printers.
The range of products, released in North
America, are for use in the Konica Minolta
BIZHUB C224/C224 E/C284/C284
E/C364/C364 E.
Katun has released toner, in CMYK, as
well as two Drum Unit Reset Chips, in
CMY and in Black.
As well as this, it has launched a Paper
Pickup/Feed Roller, and a Waste Toner
Container, for the same machines.
“Katun offers a broad and growing
product range for many of your most widely
placed Konica Minolta applications,” said
the company.
For more information, visit
www.katun.com
In partnership with ETIRA
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
EUROPE Ricoh, TheMagicTouch,
Technology
Ricoh partners
with
TheMagicTouch
The OEM is collaborating with
Transfer Printing Technology
supplier TheMagicTouch to enable
a wider span of businesses to
evolve their offerings with the
Ricoh Ri 100 all-in-one Direct to
Garment solution.
Established more than 25 years ago,
TheMagicTouch has a global network
supplying image transfer papers, heat
presses, laser printers, plotters, cutters,
materials and equipment. It also offers
an extensive range of consumables and
blanks for personalised decoration.
Through its EMEA-wide network the
TheMagicTouch will make the Ricoh
Ri 100 available in France, Italy,
Netherlands, Spain and UK from April.
The remaining EMEA countries will
follow in June this year.
The entry level Ricoh Ri 100 Direct to
Garment printer is an ideal print on
demand solution for Print Service
Providers wanting to print promotional
and personalised garments such as T-
shirts. The consistently reliable system
incorporates versatile Ricoh piezoelectric
inkjet technology to deliver crisp
high quality soft touch prints. The
complete solution, that includes a
printer and an optional heating system
with built-in safety features, uniquely
combines high quality output and ease
of use at an affordable price.
OUR SPONSORS
Budapest
21 - 22 June 2018, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Hungary
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
51

marketplace or
To advertise here
Call: 01993 899800
email: info@therecycler.com
TONER MANUFACTURER
COLLECTOR
COLLECTOR
CBC (Europe) GmbH
toner@cbc-europe.com
Tel: +49 211 530670
www.cbc-europe.com
FBO Organisation, S.L.
fbo@fbo-org.com
Tel: +34 936724863
www.fbo-org.com
LVL
bp.sales@lvlcartridge.com
Tel: +33 251709249
www.lvl.fr
REMANUFACTURER
RESELLER
OPC DRUMS
wta Carsten Weser GmbH
info@wta-suhl.de
Tel: +49 3681 4529710
www.wta-suhl.de
Copy Clic
info@copyclic.com
Tel: +33 0 1 84 18 03 75
www.copyclic.com
Fuji Electric Europe GmbH
contact@fujielectric-europe.com
Tel: +49 69 6690290
www.fujielectric-europe.com
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
TONER DUST PROTECTION FOR PRINTERS
SUPPLIER
LightWords Imaging
admin@lightwords.co.uk
Tel: +44 1270 878850
www.lightwordsimaging.com
PrinterAide
taiwan@printeraide.com.tw
Tel: +886 63319580
www.printeraide.com.tw
TOKO Srl
toko@toko.ro
Tel: +40212327270
www.toko.ro
SUPPLIER
COLLECTOR
TONER MANUFACTURER
Freckles Ltd
info@freckles.bg
Tel: +359 2 955 5560
www.freckles.bg
The Greener Side
info@greener-side.co.uk
Tel: +44 1427 700 700
www.greener-side.co.uk
Primedia Products
info@primediaMICR.com
Tel: +1 304-277-2050
www.primediamicr.com
52 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018

To advertise here
Call: 01993 899800
or email: info@therecycler.com
marketplace
Email d.connett@candugbr.com
to find out about an EU based
solution to handle 10,000 tons
per year.
THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 306 • MAY 2018
53

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