[NHCOLL-L:1256] RE: Re-inked printer ribbons

Wed Oct 3 11:52:41 EDT 2001

RE: Nikolaj Scharff's comment on inkjet printers;

I have been using a HP printer setup (currently a 600 series printer)  for a
number of years to produce labels for fluid preserved material. A few years
ago I looked at the refill inks available for deskjets (as the branded inks
were so poor for long term archival use) and came upon a pigmented black
refill ink. Some lab based testing (see The BIology Curator (1996) 7: p5 -
7) showed this ink to produce durable labels on Resistall paper suitable for
use in fluid collections. Since this time the supplier of this ink has
discontinued the product and inkjet technology has moved on very
significantly. However pigmented and lightfast ink suystems do appear to be
available. www.tssphoto.com/sp/dg/archival_inks.html gives a range of inks
for Epson printers that appear to be available commercially in the USA,
whilst www.wilhelm-research.com lists a results of archival testing of
various paper ink combinations. In summary if you can locate a good black
pigmented ink, then you should be able to produce high quality fluid stable
labels  from your desktop inkjet paper, but remember the technology used in
this field is not standing still.

Hope this brief note is of some use,

Jules

-----Original Message-----
From: Scharff, Nikolaj [mailto:NScharff at ZMUC.KU.DK]
Sent: 02 October 2001 19:13
To: 'amsnyder at UNM.EDU'; NHCOLL-L Natural History Collections List
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1250] RE: Re-inked printer ribbons

Dear all

Interesting discussion. We have been using the re-inked ribons from
Automated Office Products for 8 years now and is happy with the setup. The
printer we use is an EPSON LQ2550 and we print on Byron Weston Rresistal
Paper. The print is OK and can be scaled to almost any size. Most recently
we have used/tested the ink used in the HP InkJet series 800 and 900 (I
don't have the exact order number for the cartridge right here, but I can
find it if anybody else is interested). We heard about the use of these
printers at the Bishop Museum and have been using them for two years now. A
number of test labels have been sitting in alcohol in direct sun in my
window for the last two years now and there is no fading. You can also take
the labels out of the alcohol and rub them with your finger etc. and the
letters stay on. This system is rather similar to using the old fashion
rothing pens, since you only use ink and paper and the ink is fixed to he
paper through absorption to the paper fibers. Thus, the ink penetrate the
paper and is fixed in the fibers.

I would be VERY reluctant to use the setup suggested by Alexandre below, if
the thermal transfer is done on any kind of plastic material. We have to
date no good experience with plastic submerged in alcohol and the material
has only been in use for some 50 years. All plastic products used in my
museum has failed to last more than perhaps 30-40 years in alcohol. The
material get stiff and breaks. On the other hand, we have jars with material
in my museum that has been kept in alcohol with handwritten (ink) labels on
paper that has lasted almost 300 years (my museum was founded in 1648 -
http://www.zmuc.dk).  

Best regards

Nikolaj.

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Nikolaj Scharff
Curator of Arachnids
Zoological Museum
University of Copenhagen
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen
DENMARK

Tel. +45 35-32-11-07  Fax: +45 35-32-10-10  Email: nscharff at zmuc.ku.dk
Homepage: http://www.zmuc.dk/entoweb/staff/nscharff.htm

If you are living in the European Union or one of the EU-associated
countries 
and you are interested in visiting COBICE, the Copenhagen Biosystematics 
Center, you might want to look at http://www.zmuc.dk/commonweb/COBICE.htm 
for information on our programme for visiting scientists.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Alexandra M. Snyder [mailto:amsnyder at UNM.EDU]
Sent: 2. oktober 2001 19:01
To: NHCOLL-L Natural History Collections List
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1249] Re-inked printer ribbons

Colin and others,

I do not have any good news for you on a cheaper source for re-inked 
ribbons but perhaps some insight on what happened.

Charles Chapman, formerly of Automated Office Products and the developer of 
the ethanol resistant, non-bleed ink, has his own business.  It is called 
Access Computer Printer Products, Inc.  You now must order these ribbons 
from this company, located at 9700-AA M.L. King Jr. Hwy, Lanham MD 20706 
Tel. 301.731.4407  Fax 301.731.4046  email acpp at erols.com    Because 
Chapman is the developer of the ethanol resistant, non-bleed ink I doubt 
you will be able to have your ribbons re-inked with it elsewhere. 
According to someone I spoke with at Access, the ink is "expensive" and 
that is why the cost has doubled.  Frankly, they may want to get out of the 
business of re-inking ribbons because they are not making enough money on 
it.

Although the dot matrix-Resistal-ethanol resistant ink combo has served my 
purposes well for over 12 years, I am always looking for other (viable) 
label production ideas.  Recently, Andy Bentley of the University of Kansas 
fish collection introduced me to the Prodigy Max, a thermal transfer 
printer available through Alpha Systems in Virginia.  It is very costly to 
set up but the Kansas wet collections are happy with the product.   Another 
idea for "permanent" wet label production is the set up the fish collection 
in Tulane uses (or has used).  They use the HP E-size plotter  (Draft 
masterMX Plus) with rapidograph nibs (00 to 1) and Koh-i-Noor 3080-F India 
ink.  The paper is a Curtis Parchment Parchkin.  (Some of you may remember 
manually producing labels by using rapidographs and this Koh-i-Noor ink or 
Higgins Eternal.)   The collection manager, Nelson Rios, may have further 
comments when he sees this message.

Anyway, your question reminds us that in this modern world we no longer can 
trust that a product will endure or remain cost effective.  As a collection 
manager I am spending more time than ever looking for dependable products 
that are "archivally correct" and cost effective;  then testing and 
monitoring these products, then starting all over again when these products 
disappear...

Lex Snyder

================================
Alexandra M. Snyder, Collection Manager
Division of Fishes
Museum of Southwestern Biology
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131 USA
PH 505.277.6005  FAX 505.277.0304
amsnyder at unm.edu