The black ink cartridge for my inkjet printer
recently ran out. Being one of unusual curiosity I
decided
to take it apart. The cartidge was a Genuine Epson T013 black ink cartridge. From the side and top it looks like this:
(side) (top)
################# #################
################# ###A###I#########
################# #############VV##
################# #################
### ############
#S#
At the bottom, marked by a S, there is a plastic wrap
covered outlet for ink. Inside of the printer there is a
small nozzel that pierces this plastic covering
to let the
ink out. At the top there is a plastic label that covers
most of the top, though not the area marked VV. This
plastic label is quite clearly marked with
"DO NOT REMOVE"
At first it looks as though there is circuitry under this
label, but after I took the label off I found it's
actually a long thin passage for air. The
passage connects the hole marked by A to a
depression, marked by VV. My guess is that when the ink is
used up this passage allows air to seep in to replace the
lost ink. The passages are at the same time thin and long
enough that dust isn't going to find it's way in, nor will
ink find it's way out. The VV section is also covered by a
removable plastic strip when you buy the ink cartridge, it
says to remove before use.
After I took the label off I
ran water into the holes at the top for about 10 minutes
untill the water coming out the bottom ran clear. I then
cracked the top off with a knife. Inside
there's this neat
little ink-impregnated sponge, presumably black to
start
with but mine was yellowish-brown with
white spots at the
top, probably parts that ink never got onto. You could see
which of the two holes at the top was used for adding ink,
below one it was white, below the other it was yellow-brown.
What's interesting though was the ink didn't take
up the whole cartridge, there was a lot of dead air
farthest from the outlet nozzel, in total about %20
empty space!
At the bottom of the container, leading to the outlet
nozzel, there is a filter of sorts. When I filled the
cartridge up with water it slowly dripped out through the
filter. This probably is to prevent contaminents from
getting into the printer. Otherwise maybe to regulate
the flow of ink.
One oddity I noticed what that the plastic that formed
the whole thing didn't seem to be totally uniform. There
were streaks of slightly lighter-colored plastic through
the whole cartridge. Perhaps their plastic mixing machine
wasn't working that day?
In the end I recycled the sponge and used it in my
pottery class. I can't wait untill the color cartridge
runs out... 3 more sponges for pottery!