Canon statement on global chip shortage

Barry Collins takes aim at chips in printers in his Viewpoints column this month ( see p22), and mentions Canon by name. We felt it was only fair to give Canon the right to reply. It declined to comment on the active lawsuit that Barry mentions for legal reasons, but had this response about the chips in its toner cartridges:

“Whilst the global shortage of semiconductor components continues to affect many industries, it’s our priority to prevent any disruption to our customers. As with all manufacturers, we continually monitor our supply chain to anticipate and prepare f for any potential disruption and we are taking steps to deal with the situation, such as adjusting product designs.

“One example of this is in toner bottles for our MFP range as we are currently facing a shortage of the chip that is fitted inside the bottle to monitor its remaining ink levels. There is no shortage of toner itself – just of a chip that lies inside the bottle. As such, we’re now shipping toner bottles for some of our MFP range without this chip to ensure we’re still providing a continuous supply of consumables to our EMEA customers.

“We have issued some temporary guidance on how to install and manage these new bottles and will soon release a firmware update which will allow our chipless toners to be configured automatically, avoiding the need for manual intervention by our customers.

“We would like to clarify that the interim terim solution that Canon has implemented mplemented has limited impact. It only applies to the toner bottles for certain multifunctional printers in our imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER ADVANCE series, which are used exclusively by our corporate and business customers. There is s no change to our inkjet cartridges, therefore there is no impact mpact for consumers.”