In July of 2007, I formed an LLC, Reality Check, which was the nation's first provider of Same Day, Guaranteed Four Hour Response Time, for the repair or replacement of any Check 21, Remote Deposit Capture, or Branch Scanning Device. As part of routine Preventative Maintenance, I purchased supplies in order to clean said devices, and noticed a recurring problem: Ink Endorsement Legibility was barely, if at all legible, and cartridges had a noticeable build up on the external surface area of the Ink-Jet nozzle head. Not only was the problem impacting the process of Check 21 Technology (an unendorsed check could be re-deposited in the same, or a different, Financial Institution), it was also not reliably, nor easily fixable with the cleaning products currently on the market. Many of these products, aside from being skin, eye, and respiratory irritants, are typically flammable due to their composition of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, along with other cleaning agents derived from a mixture of silicone and Isopropyl Alcohol. Each of the aforementioned products have a destructive effect on belts and other rubber components, as repetitive use causes “brittleness” and leads to the decomposition of said rubber based parts found in devices which utilize Ink-Jet technology. When alcohol products were used, the Cartridge printed very well for 15-20 checks; after this, it was back to faint to no legible endorsements. The silicone based products fared worse; I used them to clean 15 ink-jets, and within several minutes the cartridges were completely “empty”.
It became very clear from day one that Ink endorsement issues were the chief scanner complaint. According to Manufacturers Specifications, the standard cartridge used in most (if not all) scanner systems has a reported Yield of 7.2 Million characters. If the Endorsement Line is 24 or 32 characters (the standard), using 28 characters as “the average”, it is easily extrapolated that an Ink-Jet cartridge should endorse 257,143 items. A “scanned item count” equal to 5% of aforementioned yield (a total endorsed item count of 12,858) is more congruous with “Real World” results and, the “end of the useful life of the ink-jet cartridge”, having been realized, initiates cartridge replacement, thereby perpetuating the costly and non-productive downward cycle.
This glaring and repetitive “Issue” initiated my quest to “solve the ink-jet problem”, which I realized was a problem that hit close to home: My cost for ink to print black and white documents was a large “chunk” of my fixed operating expense; this really seemed strange, as I didn't feel as though I'd printed “thousands”, let alone “hundreds” of pages. I began to ask questions; family, friends, and Colleagues: The consensus was unanimous: The Fluid Composition had a multitude of applications, including, but not limited to, the cleaning of Ink-Jet Print Nozzles, and the resulting increase of Ink Yield, both black and color, as well as Postage meter “ink pads” and/or other descriptive names which portray ink-jet technology as presented herein.
It was necessary for me to find “Non-Biased Industry Reports” to validate the “shocking” information that I had stumbled upon. Said reports are referenced above, and I would like to quote a poignant point from each of the articles, to drive home the fact that “THE INK-JET ISSUE” has been “revealed”, and Negatively impacts both Individuals and Corporations who rely on Ink-Jet printing technology:
“PC World Test Center results show models from Canon, Epson, and Kodak reported ink cartridges as being empty when in some cases the tanks had 40% of their black ink remaining.”
(Jeff Bertolucci, PC World). Nov. 2, 2008
“A study by Epson carried out in 2007 found that up to 60% of ink in a cartridge goes to waste.”
From the BBC Article referenced: (Zoe Kleinman and Mark Ward); Sep. 1, 2009.
(The tests were conducted by the TUV Rheinland Research Group on behalf of Epson. I have included the above quote to point out that the “PROBLEM” has been addressed repeatedly, and for years).
For at least 3 years, the General Public has been notified of the negative implications associated with the “WASTE” of un-used Ink-Jet Ink that is often discarded as soon as the “device” sends a message indicating “low ink; change now”. It has been long enough, and there is now “In Commerce” a user friendly Fluid Composition, in the “best delivery system” as of this Non-Provisional Patent Application, which provides a proven remedy that both Cleans ink-jet cartridge print nozzles and print heads, as well as extends the “useful life” of said cartridges by enabling “free flowing ink” which increases the “Print per Cartridge” Yield by up to as much as 40% or more.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds