Page "Inkjet printing" Paragraph 25

The disposable head philosophy uses a print head which is supplied as a part of a replaceable ink cartridge.

Every time a cartridge is exhausted, the entire cartridge and print head are replaced with a new one.

This adds to the cost of consumables and makes it more difficult to manufacture a high-precision head at a reasonable cost, but also means that a damaged or clogged print head is only a minor problem: the user can simply buy a new cartridge.

Hewlett-Packard has traditionally favoured the disposable print head, as did Canon in its early models.

This type of construction can also be seen as an effort by printer manufacturers to stem third party ink cartridge assembly replacements, as these would-be suppliers don't have the ability to manufacture specialized print heads.