Following its recent revelations about its manufacturing processes and product evaluation procedures, Ninestar has now been revealing how automation has improved the quality of its cartridges.
The company explains that, by “leveraging its long legacy of innovation”, Ninestar “is currently in the process of fundamentally changing the way it produces its G&G branded colour toner cartridges.”
To accomplish this, the manufacturer has been investing heavily in various technologies to “enhance” the production of its cartridges, with the goal of “grabbing some of the colour toner cartridge market by producing G&G products that consistently match the performance of OEM consumables.”
The company began by conducting a rigorous review of its production procedures. This led to the development and implementation of a new 12-step industrial engineering program in 2012, called IE12, which “established stringent guidelines standardising G&G colour cartridge assembly lines” and incorporated post-production testing.
By putting IE12 into practice, Ninestar says it “dramatically improved” the quality of its branded cartridges; however, the manufacturer has since determined that it can do even better, making the decision to “fully automate its colour toner production”
To accomplish this, the company invested $15 million (€12.9 million) and now operates some 28 ink cartridge production lines, with plans to automate every stage of its toner cartridge production.
Ninestar revealed that its first fully automated toner cartridge assembly line was set up to produce new-build compatible HP 435 monochrome cartridges and “was an unmitigated success.”
By fully automating the production line, the company doubled its yield with no diminution in quality.
Now, Ninestar says it plans to invest a further $45 million (€38.9 million) “to get five fully automated toner cartridge lines up and running in the near future”, though it realises that not every cartridge can be manufactured in such a way.
Ninestar concludes by saying it is “excited to provide its customers with the products they need to reap the rewards colour printing offers.”
