Does this look like a gallon to you?

[mk162]

ink companies don't buy pigment by volume, they buy it by weight, so it would make sense to sell it that way.  Tony is right, it's an easier measurement than 9 lbs.

9lbs doesn't tell you crap frankly, but a gallon does.

Also, eggs aren't sold by the dozen either, they are sold by weight.  Not all eggs are equal size, so they group them together as close as they can by weight.

[Prosperi-Tees]

So we are to weigh each gallon that comes in but will manus let you know what weight that's supposed to be?

[tonypep]

That would be awesome but unlikely. It's like when we used to buy white in 200 gallon totes. They would weigh the tote before and after filling and you were charged by weight not volume. Unless you're standing there at the ink facility you are forced to trust them.

[Croft]

I'm not sure if you have weights and measure standards down there , but if you are scaling anything in Canada the scales have to be checked every year or 2 by a government certification, spot checks are standard?  . I worked at a liquid soap factory and scales were checked certified regularly.
 If it is labeled a liquid measure of "gallon" or "litre" it has to be that volume not weight.

[Frog]

But what about the "ice cream" factor?

Ever leave a half gallon (or even a newer 1.5 quart) container of ice cream out til it melts? With most commercial offerings., you'd be lucky to have half of the container still full.

Some inks, seem to me to also be "fluffier". Weight is more honest with ice cream and ink, though I'll agree, a bucket labeled as a gallon, should be a gallon, or at least should have been when packed.

[Screened Gear]

Send it back to them. See if they dont return it because so much ink is missing.

 We as consumers can make this stop. Demand that you get the rest of the ink or send it back. Buy from another company that fills their buckets. Filling by weight is not an excuse . All companies fill by weight that does not mean they can short you.

[Colin]

To expand a little on what I had posted:

Prelude: When an ink is manufactured and when it is a brand new ink, they go through the process of determining it's density as part of it's QC process.

When an ink is new, ink companies will fill a gallon in between those two "fill lines" that you see on every gallon bucket.  They will then weigh that ink to determine what it's "weight per gallon" is.  This will go down as the standard from then on.  They allow a small margin for error when filling each gallon.

Now, if the next time that ink is made it's density is less... then the ink will fill up more of the container and look like it's really full.

Conversely, if the ink is even denser than the "control"  it will end up looking like it filled less of the container... making it look like you got gyped.

Trust me, the ink companies would love to sell us ink by weight, not by gallon....

Yes, there are some times when ink volumes are messed up... more often than not those are shipping mistakes (a partial gallon used to send samples that got mixed in on accident type of problems), not mistakes on the part of the guy packing the ink. 

You will see "off volume gallons" most often with a distributor that is re-labeling or skimming the top of a gallon to send out extra samples.

[inkman996]

If density is changing so much from the control then wouldn't the ink properties and coverage change also?

[Screened Gear]

If density is changing so much from the control then wouldn't the ink properties and coverage change also?

I was thinking the same thing. Something like shimmer I can see a settling problem when taking a batch from a large container to smaller ones. I am sure that is the problem with this bucket.

[Colin]

If density is changing so much from the control then wouldn't the ink properties and coverage change also?

The short answer is: yes.

The long answer is: yes, but, you should not notice the differences unless you are printing through very high mesh counts laying down a very very thin deposit.

It's most notable on the heavier inks.  Platinums, shimmers, high pigment white inks, etc...  At it's greatest discrepancy it would be about 1 pint at most.

[ebscreen]

Everywhere but the US sells ink by the kilo...

[RICK STEFANICK]

It does not matter what the "standard" is, you got ripped off.......A gallon should be a gallon.....Put in a protest to your credit card company..

thats why credit card rates get so high. trigger happy users that pull that crap. its not like he didnt get the product or it was bad.

[mk162]

and beside, first contact the vendor.

[royster13]

I thought he already contacted the vendor and got some "lame" excuse....

[Prosperi-Tees]

I will update this topic when I hear back from the vendor.