Lexmark International, the leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of printing solutions, was short-listed this month for the European Green IT awards.

The European Green IT Awards recognise the companies and individuals that have demonstrated innovation and drive in Green IT. Lexmark was short listed for the 'Use of IT to Support Green Process or People Change' award, alongside BP, iBase Systems for iTRACE and London Borough of Hillingdon.

Lexmark was acknowledged for its contribution to educating printer users on the 'Print Less, Save More' message, using tactics such as a Sustainable Technology roadshow across EMEA internally and its technology showcase in Suresnes, France. Throughout 2007, this gave 150 customers, prospects, industry experts and members of the media insight into effective and responsible printing, and the environmental steps Lexmark is taking internally.
"The impact of printing on the environment is greatest at the usage stage, and we feel an obligation to educate users on how they can contribute to reducing paper wastage," said Béatrice Marneffe, Head of Sustainable Affairs EMEA at Lexmark. "Being a finalist in the European Green IT awards is recognition of the steps we're taking to help the environment, and encouraging users to adopt more responsible printing practices."

The award is well-timed, ahead of Earth Month in April. This is an initiative unique to Lexmark that forms part of its ongoing commitment to reducing paper waste and persuading users to print less - through changing attitudes and using strategies like double-sided printing. Lexmark's Earth Month will run from April 1 to May 1 throughout EMEA.

source @ IT Web

Lexmark's color desktop printer, the Z1320, is now available. This compact inkjet printer is mainly intended for home use.

The printer offers print resolutions of upto 1200 x 1200 pixels (Black) and 4800 x 1200 pixels (color). It promises print speeds of up to 22ppm Black and 16ppm color. The printer comes with an optional six-color printing feature, and claims to be capable of creating color photos and professional-quality text and graphics, as well as borderless prints up to 5-inches x 7-inches. It can print on transparencies, envelopes, and photo paper.

 

The Z1320 comes with high-yield Black and color cartridge, and has an option for additional higher capacity ink cartridge as well, which offers users best cost-per-page among printers of its class, says the company.

The printer's package includes "Lexmark Software Suite" which includes the "Lexmark Imaging Studio" software to edit images. Through this, users can crop, rotate, and resize photos, manage colors on the photo, and enable red eye reduction as well.

Supporting Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, XP Professional x64, and Apple Mac operating systems, Lexmark Z1320 promises a duty cycle of 3000 pages per month, and comes with a one-year limited exchange warranty.

A cartridge contains a print head (the metallic-looking portion of the cartridge), nozzles and circuitry. All are housed within the cartridge itself. The print head, nozzles and circuitry perform most of the work when printing.

Nozzles (where the ink comes out): Cartridges can contain between 48 and 320 nozzles (and more), are smaller than a human hair and connect to a heater or resistor which heats and cools the ink inside the cartridge. When the ink is heated, a bubble forms. When the heat is removed, the bubble bursts, sending dots of ink through the nozzles and onto the page. The dots form the characters on the page at a rate of 6,000 drops per second.

When your cartridge wears out, it is actually the heaters that are "burning" out. This will happen, on average, every 3-5 times you refill or recycle.

The only reason cartridges have a limited refill life is the resistors that control the current to each outlet jet. When a cartridge runs out of ink, the resistors can overheat and burn out. Most printers will warn you of a low cartridge before it completely runs out of ink. At the first sign of low ink, refill or top off your ink cartridge to ensure a long refillable life!

Prevent Print Head Burnout: (Lexmark cartridge types)

Did you know that one of the most common causes of printer cartridge failure is print head burnout?

When the printer gives the command for an inkjet nozzle to print, many things happen. A certain quantity of ink is already in the firing chamber, having been pulled there by capillary, gravity or vacuum action after the last firing. The electronics package (the copper circuitry on the side of the cartridge) instructs the heating resistor to heat the ink in the chamber, causing it to expand. This very quick expansion forces ink to shoot through the print head nozzle onto the paper.

The actual structures that make up the print head are quite small. Each print head nozzle assembly consists of the nozzle plate with hole, a chamber to contain the ink, the resistor plate in the chamber and walls to guide the incoming ink to the correct position. These microscopic structures are very sensitive and delicate, and there are over 300 on the end of a typical printer cartridge.

The ink that flows through this assembly is to the print head what water is to the engine of an automobile. With no water in your car radiator, your engine will soon burn up. The same is true for your printer cartridges. The resistor that heats the ink quickly achieves a temperature of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit! Without the cooling action of the ink, the microscopic print head substructures crack and begin to break apart, and the nozzle plate begins to warp and pull away from the cartridge.

Once print head burnout has begun, the cartridge can no longer be expected to perform as well as it did. The cartridge may leak, print with streaks of ink on the paper, or may just print poorly -- resulting in banding, poor color definition, bad coloration, missing characters and light / dark text. Printing even part of a page with no ink in the cartridge can damage your print head.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to refill your cartridges before they run dry. Print head burnout is one reason this is so important.

Late model printers may offer an "ink level gauge" letting you know when to replace your cartridge. Unfortunately these software gauges are "guesstimates" of the actual ink level in the cartridges and are based on pages printed, not on any physical measurement of ink levels.

For this reason we suggest that you top off your cartridges on a regular basis. If you know that you use a cartridge every two months, refill every month. Place a sticky note on your printer to remind you when to refill next. If you rely on your printer ink level gauge, be sure to refill before the "out of ink" indicator pops up. Note: If you have ink left over, don't worry, it'll keep!