An image from the patent application
The OEM has applied for the patent, which refers to the “method for manufacturing a refilled cartridge”.
The application, EP 2 689 932 A2, has quite a high degree of potential relevance to the remanufacturing industry, because it discusses the refilling of “printing material after use of a cartridge”, meaning that Epson is intending for this to be a method of refilling a used cartridge.
The document discusses the different compositional stages of the construction of the cartridge, and in its text elaborates on the method of refilling the cartridge, including a “chamber of variable capacity adapted to be filled with printing material”, and a “flexible film” operating as a “detection section that optically detects the printing material inside the chamber”.
The key part of the method described relates to the “refilling [of] the printing material into the chamber so that a designated volume of air exists inside the chamber after refilling of the printing material is completed”. Whilst an examination of the patent is still progressing, this could have implications for the refilling and remanufacturing industry in terms of what Epson aims to patent.