Remanufactured toner cartridges save money and environment:

An article from MITnews explains it brief and clear. Please read the article on how remanufactured toner cartridges can save you and your company money and help environment a bit too.

Xerox Remanufacturing in numbers

Although a little bit dated, this document here explains Xerox's green efforts through remanfacturing, reuse and recycle. Good information on how much Xerox diverted from landfills and how much Xerox achieved to reuse products and components. This document also involves a brief overview of the brilliant tools they use for diagnosing returned products' condition.

Read or download it here

Conair creates 350 jobs thorugh remanufacturing

Please read here how Conair will create 350 jobs through remanufacturing in Glendale.

UK leads the world in developing a remanufacturing standard

A new standard is under development: new British Standard BS8887-220: Design for manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end-of-life processing - Part 220: Remanufacture.

What does it do? (From Center for remanufacturing and Reuse)

his standard that defines the processes by which used product is turned, through a series of manufacturing of steps, into a like new product. The document is available for public comment and can be accessed through the BSI website (link on left - may require registration).

Remanufacturing is a proven way to extend the life of a product, whilst guarantying levels of performance and lifetime expected of a new product. This benefits the customer by providing lower cost high quality product; the remanufacturer who can produce these products at a fraction of the cost of producing new products; and the environment through to reduced resource use.

There is currently no way of determining the quality of a remanufactured product meaning purchasers cannot guarantee that it will perform as good as new. Through development of this standard, we hope to address this issue, give confidence to buyers and improve the profile of this sector.

The standard is open for public comment meaning you can directly influence its contents. If you are not happy with some of the wording or wish to see changes, now is the time to do it. It is important that we get this standard right, future remanufacturing standards will be built on it and there generally isn’t an opportunity to change it for the next three years!

Meeting the UK climate change challenge: the contribution of resource efficiency

This is the UK’s first research into how resource efficiency can help the UK meet its climate change targets. It shows that making better use of our natural resources could contribute as much as 10% of the target reduction in UK domestic GHG emissions.

In terms of consumer emissions (including imports), resource efficiency could reduce these by 8% by 2050.

Consumption behaviours dominate what can be done on the production side. The report identifies Lifetime Optimisation, Servicisation and Reman & Repair as strategies whose potential exceeds that of waste reduction, recycling and lean manufacturing by a factor of four.

From Center for remanufacturing and reuse, UK

Xerox develops chemical armour to extend the lifespan of printer components

It will help remanufacturing practices too.

Here is the article from therecycler.com"

Xerox scientists have developed a new chemical armour that protects photoreceptors. A photoreceptor coated with the new "armour" can survive more than one million revolutions - nearly doubling its usable life. "The long life of the photoreceptor reduces the need for replacement cartridges" say Xerox.

New "super coating" hints at how smart materials, nanotechnology will influence future design of office and production products

Tasked with developing ways to extend the lifespan of printer components - and reduce their impact on the environment - a group of scientists at Xerox Corporation have developed a new chemical armour that protects photoreceptors, the light-sensitive elements in xerographic machines.

Protected from normal wear and tear, a photoreceptor coated with the new "armour" can survive more than one million revolutions - nearly doubling its usable life. "The long life of the photoreceptor reduces the need for replacement cartridges, enabling a 33 percent reduction in waste," said Yonn Rasmussen, Vice President of the Xerographic Component Systems Group. "Customers experience less down time, and therefore reduced interruptions to work flow, improved productivity, and fewer service calls."

The new photoreceptor works in the standard machine design with no additional hardware changes or added costs to the customer. This invention has broad applicability across Xerox's product portfolio and is being first implemented in the Xerox 4112™/4127™ light production monochrome printers.

Photoreceptors are multi-layer thin film devices that convert light into electrostatic images. They must be replaced periodically due to surface wear and scratches that can affect image quality.

"This novel long life overcoat is an example of cutting-edge chemistry at work that required both materials and process innovation," said Giuseppa DiPaola-Baranyi, laboratory manager for Materials Integration at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. "The ultimate goal is to develop photoreceptors that will last the entire life of the machine. For example, when you scratch your hand and you heal, that's a biological process. We are looking at how to mimic nature and leverage our expertise in smart materials design and nanotechnology to create molecules for next-generation photoreceptors with self-healing capabilities."

A global, multi-disciplinary team from the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, the Xerographic Component Systems Group engineering team in Webster, N.Y. and the manufacturing team in Venray, The Netherlands, advanced the project from the pilot plant stage in Canada to production in Venray in less than one year, a record time for commercializing a new technology such as this.

Remanufacturing Industries Council

Remanufacturing industry leaders in April 2001 agreed to form an alliance that would cross the lines of industry sectors to promote, protect and advance the entire remanufacturing industry. They created the Remanufacturing Industries Council (RIC), a coalition between individual companies, trade associations and interested government and academic organizations.

RIC VISION

• Remanufacturing, "the ultimate form of recycling," will become a household word, known for its contributions to the environment and the economy

• All remanufacturers will have access to state-of-the-art technologies and evaluation methods

• An industry-wide network will effectively protect and advance the interests of remanufacturers everywhere.

You can find more info here