A More Sustainable &
Greener Inkjet Printer
The most pressing concern for design in 2022 is creating greener products that are better for the environment. This printer uses a material which has seen many recent developments - Bamboo - instead of plastic housing. This, in combination with refillable ink tanks and serviceable parts, lead to a printer which is 83% more efficient than a traditional inkjet printer. The powerful software “Sustainable Minds” was used to determine the effects on the environment and climate change, including greenhouse gasses, solid waste, soil depletion and more.
Comparative Analysis and Product Lifecycle
According to InfoTrends, a consulting firm that tracks this market, an average home inkjet printer costs about $100 and has a life expectancy of four years. The most common cause of printer failure was worn out print spray nozzles / burned printer head assembly (which typically last about 4 years). Another cause was built-in error messages programmed to display after a certain number of prints, that require a special code to be reset, most people replace their printer at this point.
This was taken into consideration when determining the effect on the environment. Analysis of the sustainable printer and a traditional inkjet printer were conducted using the Sustainable Minds software, a very powerful tool for analyzing the carbon footprint of materials and manufacturing. Detailed conclusions are displayed in graph form after entering the Bill of Materials.
Design Process and Development
The process of designing this printer started as usual with a problem and a solution. The problem being that printers are a very wasteful product that are almost considered disposable. Once the decision to develop a printer with a bamboo housing was made, the next step was to determine who would be using the product, and to research how inkjet printers are constructed and how they work. . The actual design part took place with sketches first, then visualizing the appearance and internal components in CAD. Most of the components of a standard inject printer are included, such as step motors and paper rollers. The big innovation in this printer is separating the print head from the ink cartridge in order to remove the disposable cartridge completely. The refillable printer has since taken off and been developed by Epson.
