Quality
Q-Connect cartridges offer outstanding quality and reliability and stand out from other alternative cartridges in the market.
So what makes our cartridges different? Q-Connect cartridges are manufactured in top class engineering facilities with revolutionary processes used throughout the production cycle. Every production phase, from the breakdown of the original cartridge through to packaging, is overseen by experienced quality assurance auditors who test and analyse performance against established benchmarks. All Q-Connect cartridges are tested off the production line, meaning we can guarantee 100% post testing of every single cartridge before it leaves the facility. You won’t be disappointed!
Q-Connect are constantly reviewing emerging technologies and applying them to meet stringent standards, because we want to exceed our customer’s standards too.
Warranty
Q-Connect ink and toner cartridges carry a fully comprehensive 2 year warranty. In the unlikely event of a product malfunction, Q-Connect will offer an immediate refund or replacement. In addition, should a machine be damaged due to the use of a Q-Connect cartridge, independent engineers are on hand to assess the printer and provide engineers reports to determine if printer replacement is required.
Product Quality
Q-Connect guarantee that the print quality of its cartridges will match that of the OEM equivalent. This is possible due to the state of the art laboratories that they’re produced in, and the adherence to strict industry criteria such as ISO 9001:2008 and STMC certifications.
Product Performance
Q-Connect want you to be as impressed with your last print as you are with your first, that’s why original cartridges are used, that have only been used once, to ensure the components inside are of top quality and able to sustain lifetime performance.
No risk to printer warranty
Using a Q-Connect cartridge WILL NOT void the warranty on your printer. It is illegal for a printer manufacturer to stipulate what brand of cartridge to use. If an OEM manufacturer tries to tell you otherwise, they are misleading you. A manufacturer cannot void a printer warranty because a user exercised their right to choose their preferred brand of printer cartridge.
Page coverage
Media type
Under printing (the use of colour toner to help produce a darker black print)
Environmental conditions
Font face type
Excessive calibrations – some printers self calibrate every time they are switched on
Printer age & condition
Composite black (the use of 3 colours to make black)
Draft mode or Eco-mode printing
Page Yield
Q-Connect use two industry standard ISO test protocols, to determine the page yield of its cartridges. In previous years, the computer printer industry struggled with wildly diverse claims of page yield. OEMs would use different size fonts, paper sizes, density settings and media making it impossible for end users to qualify or compare yields. Cost per page comparisons were unreliable. Since then, two new industry standards have been introduced, ISO 19752 for mono laser cartridges, and ISO 19798 for colour.
By adhering to these industry standards, Q-Connect are able to set a benchmark, guaranteeing that all its cartridges will meet or exceed the page yield of the original product.
The number of pages you can print from a cartridge is highly dependent upon what you are printing. The page yield that Q-Connect publish is the ISO standard of 5% coverage of an A4 page. In reality, documents rarely have exactly 5% coverage and therefore in real life, cartridge yield can differ for each customer depending on their printing requirements. For instance, a full colour background results in page coverage of almost 100%. A 6k page cartridge would be empty after 300 prints. A blank version of the same file with no background would produce a page coverage of approximately 10%, seeing cartridge life increase to 3k pages, ten times more.
EMEA has seen a significant increase in the importation of new build/new compatible cartridges. These cartridges are often clones of the original or marketed as remanufactured products, thereby often likely to infringe on OEM patents.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property (IP) allows people to own the work that they create. There are four main types of IP rights which can be used to protect a persons innovations or creations – patents, copyright, trademark and designs.
Patents protect the features and processes that make things work.
It is based on this IP law that we are now seeing OEMs becoming much more aggressive in protecting their intellectual property and pursuing those companies blatantly infringing their patent claims.
So where does Q-Connect stand on IP?
- Q-Connect respect OEM patents and rights ensuring all products are IP-cleared
- Q-Connect products are guaranteed to meet or exceed OEM performance
- All resellers are fully indemnified against product IP litigation
A. OEM Cartridge
New cartridge which is produced by the original printer manufacturer (OEM) and sold under the same name.
C. New Build/New Compatible Cartridge
Newly manufactured cartridge that is NOT produced by the OEM, but by a third party, and sold under a third-party trademark.
B. Remanufactured Cartridge
Used OEM cartridge that has been recycled. Parts are cleaned and/or replaced with the toner refilled. The cartridge is therefore ready for another use
D. Counterfit Cartridge
Newly produced cartridge that is NOT produced by the OEM, but by a third party, and sold under the OEM brand name.
Compliance and Certifications
In today’s modern world, we use products everyday to enhance our lives and make day to day living easier. We take it for granted that these products are safe to use, yet many of them have to potential to pose a threat either to our health or the environment. For these reasons, product certifications are essential, to ensure that products have passed performance and quality assurance tests, and meet certain criteria’s and safety conformities.