A monumental amount of counterfeit printing material is disclosed by HP along with SA ACF team and the local Police in Bangalore, Delhi and Gandhidham.

Acting with probable cause, the team executed an enforcement action on assembly operations in the Ashok Nagar area of Bangalore; Daryaganj and Bazar Sitaram suburbs of Delhi and in Gandhidham and have arrested 6 individuals in Bangalore and 4 in Gandhidham.

The police have seized more than 12,000 counterfeit products that include various Ink packages, Printer Toner packages, Ink security labels, Toner security labels, finished HP Toner Cartridges, Ink cartridges, barcode stickers etc at the raid. It also included more than 5,000 additional production items and around 79,900 toner security labels.

Our commitment to our customers is the driving force behind the vigilance of our anti-counterfeit team, as we understand how the sale of counterfeit HP products negatively impacts our customer and the HP brand. With counterfeit HP printer cartridges, customers purchase what they often assume to be a genuine HP product, but they instead receive a cartridge that provides them with inferior print quality at best and often times a cartridge that fails to perform at all. Through our anti counterfeiting efforts, HP is determined to protect our customers and our brand. said Jeff Kwasny, director of HP Brand Protection for print cartridges who is based in Palo Alto, California, USA. HP had appointed contractors, which assisted law enforcement officials with the information regarding the existence and location of these counterfeit goods. HPs global anti-counterfeit program incorporates industry-leading anti-counterfeiting practices and partners with law enforcement agencies to combat the manufacture, distribution, and sale of counterfeit HP printer cartridges.

On a global level, HP maintains an aggressive approach to anti-counterfeiting and has conducted more than 4,723 investigations in 88 countries over the last 4 years. This activity has resulted in the seizure of more than 47.23 million units worth of counterfeit products and components (Investigations and actions have occurred in every continent except Antarctica. In APJ, over the last 4 years, HP conducted 2,641 investigations in multiple countries resulting in 2,111 enforcement actions (raids and seizures by authorities) seizing over 15 million units of counterfeit products and components.

As part of its global anti-counterfeiting program, HP takes a proactive global approach to alerting and educating consumers on how to identify counterfeit printing supplies. HP also incorporates state-of-the-art technology in their products and cartridge packaging to help consumers identify fraudulent supplies. All HP cartridge packaging in the Asia Pacific region displays a security seal with color shifting technology that helps consumers easily identify original HP printer cartridges. Customers can learn more about how they can use this security seal as well as other best practices to avoid purchasing counterfeit cartridges on HP’s website.

For a complete line of HP MICR click here.

The MICR Toner you use to print checks, what makes it so special?

Everyday banks impose a clearing time on checks and have you ever wondered why it takes some time to get checks processed? It takes time to process checks because checks need to go through a machine that banks call a reader-sorter. Exactly what its name implies, a reader-sorter machine sorts out checks based on the information printed on the bottom of the check itself, which includes information like your account number, the check number and the routing number. All of the information is formatted using a special font and has to be in a correct order and position on the check. However, the reader-sorter would only work if the correct ink is used in printing out the check. The correct ink is called an MICR. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. You would assume that the word Ink assumes it is liquid, but most office laser printers use MICR Toner.

What is a MICR Toner?

What is a MICR toner? The MICR toner is a special kind of toner that was specifically made to make the automation of check processing possible. There is a precise formula used for creating MICR toners, and the standard for producing them is mandated and regulated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Basically, what makes the MICR toner a unique type of toner is that it contains iron oxide. The letters on MICR stand for “magnetic ink character recognition” and it is the iron oxide content that gives the MICR toner its magnetic properties. The magnetic properties of this toner are what allow the reader-sorter to be able to read and process a check. A correctly formulated MICR toner is supposed to emit the right signal to the reader-sorter to make the reading possible.

Precision Printing with MICR Toners

MICR toners need to be produced in just the right ratio in order to make using them for printing checks effective. ANSI requires MICR toners to emit the exact signal strength so the toner can be read by the reader-sorter machine.

But beyond the quality of the toner itself, the American Bankers Association (ABA) has set standards on fonts printed on checks. The fonts used on MICR lines, which is the line of personal information located on the bottom of each check, were specifically designed to make them machine-readable. In Israel, South America and the Mediterranean countries, the standard font is called the CMC-7. In the United States and the rest of the world, the MICR font used is the E-13B.

Precision is extremely necessary to make check printing with MICR toners work. The ABA imposes a strict fixed width for each MICR font character, which is 1/8th of an inch. Also, these characters have to be printed on the exact spot on the check where they are supposed to be. If these two conditions are not followed, then the reader-sorter machine would not be able to read and process the check. When the check is processed manually there is a bank fee that is accrued.

Another beautiful thing with MICR toners is that they provide a degree of security when it comes to printing checks. Checks need to be printed using a MICR Toner Cartridge; one cannot use any ordinary ink or toner. Some banks catch fraudulent checks, those printed with ordinary inks or toner.

Other Uses of the MICR Toner

Since precision and security are benchmarks of the MICR toner, many other industries have adopted the use of this special toner for their own printing needs. Airlines use MICR toners for printing their tickets. The same goes for events and concerts – their tickets are made with MICR toner as well. Most documents that require security and precision have come to rely on MICR toners to provide them these.

What is the best brand of MICR Toner?

For many years there have been several brands of MICR Toner used. Recently one company has risen above the rest with over 85% of all printers being used today is HP. HP has been expanding and upgrading it’s printers at a tremendous rate. HP MICR is by far the most widely used MICR Toner in the world.

To see our complete line of MICR Toner click here.