The chip shortage has caused a major crisis that is affecting many sectors. For example, to the automotive industry, and of course, to electronics and computers. In many cases it is obvious that having fewer chips than necessary adversely affects the manufacture of various devices and equipment. It even makes it necessary to manufacture products that normally carry chips to perform specific tasks without them, thus reducing their capabilities and functions.
But at other times, the integration of chips in components and devices is not so obvious, and it is surprising that the low availability of chips can affect them. This is the case of ink and toner cartridges for printers. Specifically, those of Canon printers, which are being affected by this shortage.
The chip that is inserted into the ink cartridges adds certain functions to it. Among them, the authentication aimed at verifying if the ink that the cartridges with chips inside integrated by their manufacturer carry are authentic. That is, they are from the same brand of printer in which they will be used. They are also used to know how much ink is left in them, and it serves as an indicator for users to know when there is little left and they have to change it.
But its shortage has left Canon with a dilemma: either make fewer ink cartridges, or remove them from them. And according to a statement published on the Canon Europe website, it has opted for the latter. At least for some printer models: 19 imageRUNNER and ImageRUNNER Advance series ranges, made for business. Thus, for «To ensure that our customers don’t miss a print, Canon has innovated around chip shortages to ensure that we can supply toner cartridges. Canon has started making chipless toner cartridges. Although there will be some small and unavoidable changes in our customer experience, you will be able to continue printing as normal.«.
Canon assures, yes, that this will only be a temporary solution until chip production returns to normal. However, for users can bypass error messages that may appear when they try to use these cartridges without chips, Canon has published on its website a manual that shows how to bypass these messages for now and get the printer to stop checking if these cartridges are original or not, and that those who use them can print with them.
