IMPORTANT UPDATE 21st December 2009
Alps have announced that the MD-5500 printer will no longer be sold after the 31st May 2010.
Alps will continue to offer a 12 month warranty on all printers sold up to the end of sale date.
Alps will also continue to offer a repair service for the MD-5500 for five years after the end of sale date (i.e. up to 31st May 2015), and will still supply inks and other consumables for five years after the MD-5500 end of sale date (i.e. until the 31st May 2015)
UPDATE ENDS
There has been a lot of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) spread about the status of MicroDry printers, and the consumables required
to run them. Most of the FUD has centred around erroneous information that Alps has ceased operation of the MicroDry production line,
and that ink cartridges and printers will no longer be available.
This is simply not true
One of the Alps Supplies partners is resident in Japan, and speaks Japanese fluently. Here is the status of the MicroDry product
line as explained to him by the Alps Electric printer marketing department:
- While Alps has ceased manufacture of most of the MicroDry printer models, The MD-5500 printer is still being manufactured, and
there are no plans to cease production of this printer. The rumours that the printer is merely being assembled from parts already
in inventory are just that, rumours.
- Ink cartridges are still being manufactured for the MD-5500, although Alps has ceased production of inks not compatible with
the MD-5500. There are also no plans to cease production of the inks which are currently available.
- The MD-5500 is primarily for the Japanese domestic market. Japanese law requires manufacturers to support products with spare
parts and consumables for five years after a product has gone out of production (OOP). As the MD-5500 is still in production, ink
cartridges and spare parts for these machines will still be available for many years to come.
Consequently, our customers can shop with confidence.
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