$1,500
Printhead repair and rebuild
Diagnosis from a nozzle test print, nozzle recovery, ink system service, and a full rebuild — clean, damaged sectors replaced, refilled with new original HP ink.
HP FI-1000 · industrial thermal inkjet
Ink, printhead repair and bulk ink systems for industrial HP inkjet
A page-wide head that loses a sector prints the fault on every copy, and OEM cartridges cost several hundred dollars a litre. We fix both: printhead diagnosis and rebuild, ink by the litre, and an alternative bulk supply so the press stops buying cartridges.
Direct technical contact: info@inkbags.com
At a glance
- Print width
- 297 mm
- Resolution
- 1200 × 1200 dpi
- Max speed
- 27 m/min
- Sectors per head
- 14
- Ink
- $200 / litre
- Printhead rebuild
- $1,500
- Bulk ink system
- $6,000
- Machines covered
- 8
What we do, and what it costs
Three services, three prices, no "contact us for pricing".
$200 pigment · $180 dye
Ink by the litre
Formulated for the HP FI-1000 print engine and supplied ready to run, in pigment or in dye (water-soluble).
$6,000
Bulk ink supply modification
An alternative ink supply with its own controller, so the press runs on bulk ink instead of OEM cartridges. The calculator shows when it pays for itself.
What this means If the machine is down, start with the nozzle test print. If it runs but the consumables hurt, start with the cost calculator — it uses your own artwork and your own cartridge prices. Spare or used 3UB06A–09A cartridges? We buy them back.
Machines we work on
The FI-1000 is an OEM engine sold under many badges — the name on the front rarely tells you what is inside.
HP
HP FI-1000
The 297 mm HP Fixed Imager 1000 printhead itself — the part that fails in every FI-1000 based machine, whatever badge is on the front.
Boxmaking Machinery GmbH
BM300
Single-pass packaging press built directly around the HP FI-1000, printing bags, boxes, mailers and envelopes at up to 27 m/min.
Printware / iJetColor
iJetColor Pro 1175P
High-speed envelope and direct-mail press built on the HP FI-1000, launched by Printware in 2020.
Printware / iJetColor
iJetColor Pro PXG
Packaging-oriented member of the iJetColor Pro series using the HP FI-1000 fixed imager, launched at PackExpo 2021.
HSA USA
SPD-1175
Single-pass digital printing system built on the HP FI-1000 for inline coding, marking and packaging print.
TICAB Print
TPS
TICAB industrial printing system in the HP FI-1000 class, used for packaging and industrial substrate printing.
Trimatt
ColourStar AQ
Australian-built short-run packaging press family — the ColourStar AQ V and AQ LT run the HP FI-1000 engine, printing boxes, kraft bags and cotton totes at up to 27 m/min.
SMARTJET
FLEX 297
Italian-built all-in-one overprinter for die-cut boxes, paper bags and untreated wood packaging — 297 mm at 1200 dpi and up to 27 m/min, on HP page-wide thermal inkjet.
Machine not listed? Send us the model — we identify the print engine for you.
Is the printhead recoverable?
The pattern on the nozzle test print separates a cleanable head from a dead one.
| What you see | What it usually means | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| A solid white band down the web, in the same place on every copy | A whole die segment has stopped firing | Sometimes recoverable — recovers if the cause is dried ink or blockage, not if the segment is electrically dead |
| Fine missing lines that partly return after a purge | Nozzles blocked by dried ink after idle time | Recoverable |
| Nozzles recover, then drop out again within a short run | Restriction upstream of the head — filter, line or supply pressure | Recoverable — replacing the head would not have fixed it |
| One colour channel weak or missing | Blocked feed or partially blocked die area on that channel | Recoverable |
| Density falling off across the width after long production | Nozzle plate contamination, worn wiper or failing capping | Recoverable — the capping and wiping station has to be serviced too |
| Head errors or refusal to come ready after running dry | Air drawn into the head during an ink starvation event | Recoverable — controlled purging and re-priming |
| Scratches or visible damage on the nozzle plate | Physical contact damage | Replacement head |
What this means Six of these seven faults recover. Only physical damage to the nozzle plate ends in a replacement head — so photograph the nozzle test before running more recovery cycles, because aggressive purging on a dried head is what turns the first case into the last.
What ink actually costs per litre
Cartridges hide the price per litre. Divide, and the comparison becomes obvious.
| OEM black cartridge | ≈505 ml · 3UB09A |
|---|---|
| OEM colour cartridges | ≈237 C / 233 M / 225 Y ml · 3UB06A / 07A / 08A |
| Your cost per litre | cartridge price ÷ 0.505 (black) or ÷ ≈0.23 (colour) |
| InkBags pigment | $200 per litre |
| InkBags dye (water-soluble) | $180 per litre |
What this means A $150 cyan cartridge (≈237 ml) is about $630 a litre. Whether that matters depends on how much ink your job puts on the sheet — which is exactly what the calculator measures, from your own PDF, in your own browser.
How a job runs
Send a nozzle test print
Photograph or scan the nozzle test and describe what the machine was doing when the fault appeared. Do not keep running recovery cycles first — repeated aggressive purging on a head that has already dried out can turn a recoverable fault into a replacement.
Get a diagnosis
We identify the failure pattern — sector, row or random dropout — and tell you whether recovery is realistic, before anything is dismantled.
Approve scope and price
You get the work scope and the price up front, including whether the ink delivery system needs service as well. No open-ended billing.
Service, or replace
We recover the head where it can be recovered and supply a replacement where it cannot. Either way the machine goes back into production.
What we will tell you that a supplier usually will not
When a head is not worth repairing, we say so instead of taking the job. When the fault came from the ink delivery system rather than the head, we say that too — otherwise the rebuilt head fails the same way in a few weeks and you pay twice.
And when the bulk ink modification would not pay for itself at your volume, the calculator shows it. A payback figure that only works with optimistic assumptions is not a selling point.
Questions we get first
What does InkBags do?
Three things for industrial HP thermal inkjet machines. We supply ink by the litre — $200 pigment, $180 dye. We repair and rebuild printheads — $1,500 for a full rebuild. And we fit an alternative bulk ink supply so a press stops running on OEM cartridges — $6,000.
Which machines do you work on?
Machines built on the HP FI-1000 Fixed Imager — Boxmaking Machinery BM300, Printware iJetColor Pro, HSA SPD-1175, TICAB TPS, Trimatt ColourStar and other OEM-badged presses. The FI-1000 is an OEM engine, so the badge on the front rarely tells you what is inside; send us the model and we identify the printhead.
Can a failed HP FI-1000 printhead be repaired?
Often, yes. Blocked nozzles, dried ink, contaminated ink paths and air-lock after ink starvation recover in a large share of cases. Electrical or physical damage to a die segment does not. We tell you which one you have from the nozzle test print, before quoting.
How much cheaper is your ink than OEM cartridges?
That depends on what you pay per cartridge and on how much ink the job puts on the sheet, so we built a calculator rather than publishing a headline percentage. Enter your cartridge prices, upload the job, and it works out cost per copy both ways.
How do I get a price?
Ink, parts and the bulk ink modification have prices on the shop pages. Printhead repair is quoted from a nozzle test print, because the failure mode decides the work. Either way you get the number before anything is dismantled or shipped.
- Sources
- 297 mm print width, up to 1200 × 1200 dpi, up to 457 mm/s, CMYK pigment — HP Fixed Imager 1000 specification sheet.
- Cartridge fills ≈505 ml black, 237 / 233 / 225 ml cyan / magenta / yellow — HP OEM Fixed Imager 1000 datasheet 4AA7-3509ENW.
- 14 sectors per head and all listed prices — InkBags (2026-09-03).
Send the nozzle test, or measure the job
Two ways in: a photograph of the nozzle test print if the machine is down, or your own PDF in the calculator if it runs but the ink cost does not add up.