Melville, NY - SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory, the premier consulting, test and analysis organization for the digital imaging industry, has completed an independent comparative study involving side-by-side testing of toner cartridges for Xerox Corporation Phaser 6360 color laser printers – third-party compatibles from Cartridge World, Media Sciences, and Rhinotek as well as Xerox OEM cartridges.
 
Xerox commissioned SpencerLab to perform an independent yield and reliability test of a range of third-party compatible and OEM Xerox toner cartridges. SpencerLab incorporated methodology from the ISO/IEC 19798 and 24712 color yield standards – calling for the testing of at least three sets of cartridges on each of three printers. SpencerLab dedicated new printers to each cartridge manufacturer. In addition to collecting yield data, SpencerLab engineers carefully monitored reliability issues, documenting quality defects as well as paper jams, other component replacements, and other reliability issues.
 
Although no cartridges were dead-on-arrival, every one of the tested third-party brands experienced toner leakage causing print quality defects and contaminating fusers, transfer rollers, and imaging units – and making quite a mess. Toner damaged drive train gear teeth, led to paper feed issues, and even rendered some printers unusable. Such similar product quality issues among three different vendors is unprecedented in SpencerLab's experience. Since vendor corrective action is anticipated, it would not be appropriate to extrapolate these results.
 
''Although the Xerox 6360 OEM toner cartridges were quite reliable, our experience with the third-party cartridges was unexpected and astonishingly negative. We truly hope to have the opportunity to repeat this test in the future,'' expressed Cathy Fiasconaro, director of SpencerLab.
 
Having performed third-party cartridge yield and associated studies for nearly a decade, similar findings were anticipated – perhaps higher yield, a few print quality issues, and some reliability issues – all varying by vendor. However, this experience was unique – it was not possible to complete the ISO-based yield methodology on any of the third-party cartridge sets before reliability issues became overriding.
 
The Xerox 6360 Color Laser Printer OEM toner cartridges were indeed more reliable than any of the tested third-party compatible cartridges, and did not exhibit any significant print quality defects. Cartridges from all third-party compatible suppliers experienced significant reliability issues and associated print quality defects, including ghosting, streaking, banding, text distortion, excess toner, excessive dark colors and low black density. The complete test report is freely available at www.spencerlab.com.