A Redefined Ink Cartridge Inspired by Nature

Abstract

This graduation project is a research on a new sustainable cartridge solution for Tonerpearls ink. The Tonerpearls cartridge is part of the Colorwave printer, positioned in the market as a ‘green’ flagship. The challenge The report addresses three problem owners: the company; its customers and the environment. The company aims for a cartridge that performs better in terms of sustainability, profit and brand image. Customers demand a more sustainable cartridge solution and understandable information about the disposal phase. In the current disposal situation, customers get confused how to act when the cartridge reaches its end-of-life. Often it remains unclear what to do with the empty cartridge, resulting in unwanted situations, such as high stacks of empty cartridges in the office environment. Moreover, the current end-of-life of the cartridge is far from perfect. The original design contains valuable materials that become less valuable after its intended purpose. The materials end up in common waste management systems to be recycled, incinerated or even landfilled in many scenarios. Also the parts and combination of parts in the original design is not ideal. It contains plastics, metals, electronics and ink residues which are neither convenient to separate nor to recycle. In addition, reusing the cartridge is impossible and there is a lot of transport with unused volume resulting in a high environmental impact. The solution The final design is a redefined cartridge, inspired by nature. Redefined, because it has a different approach from a small material level to a large system level. Inspired by nature, because it is based on the idea of eliminating waste in the total product life cycle. This means that every aspect of the new design can be reclaimed and used for new purposes in circular systems. This is similar to principles in nature and in line with the well-known cradle-to-cradle approach, which summarizes it as a system of nutrient flow and metabolism, in which the concept of waste does not exist. This approach has as a result that the redefined cartridge has a significant environmental impact reduction of 94% in its total life cycle and a user-friendly disposal scenario that is perceived as sustainable. This leads to a better product appreciation and an improved brand image. The redefined cartridge simultaneously enables a significant costs reduction. Furthermore, the report provides insights in how Nature Inspired Design (NID) affects the design practice. (see www.natureinspireddesign.nl for more information). How it works Other than the current design, the new design allows refilling of new Tonerpearls batches and provides new opportunities for reverse logistics, reuse and recycling without value loss of materials. The plastic cartridge design is based on the same reliable mechanism for dispensing Tonerpearls. However, it differs from its volume-reducing feature, its refilling feature and its increased product life time. The main feature of the cartridge is that components are able to slide for decreasing and increasing its volume. This results in a reduction of environmental impact and lower transportation costs. After transportation to customers, the cartridge can increase its volume by 50% to provide room for filling the cartridge with the included first batch of Tonerpearls. These are also delivered separately in a new cardboard packaging design, which is very compact, cheap, environmental-friendly and creates a more convenient disposal scenario. On top, the cartridge has a sliding lid, which is a new solution for refilling the cartridge. The new cardboard ink box can be positioned on top to release the Tonerpearls. After sliding the lid, the ink box is able to release the Tonerpearls. By having cardboard ink boxes and a separate plastic refillable cartridge, the lifetime of the cartridge increases significantly. After more than 10 refills, the plastic cartridge can be cleaned, refurbished and reused as part of a reverse logistics system. The plastic cartridge gets another life over and over again. The cardboard package is able to end up in common paper recycling streams, which is a sustainable solution. Also, the new design replaces the current used chip technology with Near Field Communication (NFC), which is not completely integrated into the cartridge, but reusable and rewritable. This redefined cartridge demonstrates how Océ can become one step closer to a sustainable world.