Ink date code

[Colin]

How does one decipher the manufacture date code on Roland ink cartridges?

 

[Bill43mx]

You won't get any date info from that. I don't know what the JAN is but it apparently isn't January....I went through a pile of old carts and they ALL say JAN.

 

[Colin]

Actually, I think this is the label which indicates the manufacture date. Anyone know how to properly read them?

 

[Colin]

^^^ I think we posted at the same time - see my second post above.

 

[Colin]

Does nobody know the answer to this?

 

[Salmoneye]

Is ink sensitive to age like vinyl?

 

[Colin]

I was told by Roland that they have a 2 year shelf life.

 

[Gino]

They [Roland] might only stand behind them for two years, but about a year ago, I found an old set CMYK of 220's, from when we first bought the machine, back in 2006. At first we were afraid to use them, but being the penny-pincher I am, we used them as needed and they worked fine after almost 6 years of sitting in a drawer. We shook them up real good, then let them settle for a few days before putting them in.

 

[Colin]

^^^ Good to know.

 

[Gino]

Kinda a disclaimer to what I posted.

Although it worked for us and we didn't notice any problems, I wouldn't advise keeping any ink that long and counting on it keeping it properties in tact.


We generally have two 440's of all colors on the shelf at all times. Ya never know when something goofy is gonna happen and you need to get that cartridge in immediately and if it's a big enough order, you could go through that 440 in a day or so. It's happened on several occasions to us.
We also keep two liter containers of our ink in spare for our flatbed at all times. Sometimes when you order last minute, certain colors have been back-ordered. All total, that's about $2,500 worth of ink, setting on the shelf waiting to be used.

Just be careful of running too low.

 

[Colin]

Ok, so after talking with a Roland rep, here's how to read your EcoSol Max cartridges for manufacture date.

(For some odd reason they don't put a "1" in front of the year, and all the other numbers to the right of the day are internal to Roland and meaningless to us end users).

So this cartridge was made on July 5th 2012.

 

[woolly]

thanks for that

some of my spare carts have a letter where you say the month should be ??

any ideas

 

[J Hill Designs]

maybe they use a 16-month calendar, and its in hexadecimal? :ROFLMAO:

 

[Colin]

thanks for that

some of my spare carts have a letter where you say the month should be ??

any ideas

They also sent me this in a Word doc: