Canon Selphy Printer Cartridge Transplant

Canon Selphy Printer Cartridge Transplant

I recently fixed a canon Selphy 740 printer, (see here). As the repair was successful I then needed some more cartridges for it. It doesn't use ink, it uses a dye sublimation process (I think) that takes a multicoloured film and transfers the coloured material to the paper in a sequence of passes. The cartridges are pretty expensive, so I bought some non-original versions as they were a bit cheaper. All was well and I printed some photos with the replica cartridges. Then I tried another cartridge I had bought and it didn't work. I tried the first one again and it was fine. After a few prints I worked out that two of the three cartridges I had bought didn't print reliably. Oh dear.

I contacted the supplier but didn't really want to go through the hassle of returning the cartridges. The Canon cartridges were very reliable so I wondered if the replicas were mechanically slightly different. Could I take the film from the replica and put it into an empty Canon case?

The cartridge case clips together so it is simple to unclip it and get access to the film:

I then swapped the film over and clipped the Canon cartridge together again:

The Canon part had a metal rod holding the film down, the replica had a plastic rod. I don't think this could be the cause of the problem I saw, I think it's more likely that the ratchet mechanism that is used wasn't unlatching.

Does the transplant work? Yes it does:

It takes a while to swap the film, but you get the cost savings and you can print. You do need a few canon cartidges first, though, and I only have two.