Persistence and determination at Parai Innovative Solutions
Parai Innovative Solutions is part of a group of companies that have shown constant growth in the last few years. Established in 1998, the Parai Group is considered to be among the biggest manufacturers of ink and toner cartridge recycling machines and accessories in South America. Technical know-how and determination have made the Parai Group a force to be reckoned with.
The company is known for its quality and innovative products, which have been recognised with national and international awards. The production line, coordinated by specialized engineers and technicians, conforms to the ISO 9001 Certificate of Quality.
Parai is a pioneer in the vacuum technique for Ink and Toner machines, holding nine patents in the Recycling area in both ink and toner. Parai Innovative Solutions has had an export culture for years and its machines are present in more than 60 countries around the world. Besides their machines manufactured in their industrial facilities located in Santa Rita – Paraiba, Northeast of Brazil, they also offer a wide range of accessories and supplies for recycling. The company’s industrial facilities cover over 4,000 square metres.
Parai also has a retail store in Joao Pessoa, capital city of Paraiba State, and another branch in Sao Paulo. The stores carry out activities that cover the whole spectrum – they refill, remanufacture, test cartridges to see if they can be remanufactured, buy empties, sell remanufactured cartridges, they sell computers and accessories, they are really
a complete computer and remanufacturing business.
Parai is enlarging its inventory to include more tools for the recycler, aiming to provide everything the remanufacturer needs in one place.
Quick facts about Parai
What does Parai do?
Parai creates, manufactures and sells machines and accessories for cartridge recycling for inkjet and laser printers.
How many people do you employ?
Nearly 110 people.
What kind of product is produced by the company?
Machines and accessories for the recycling of cartridges for inkjet and laser printers, ink for inkjet printer cartridges, clips to protect recycled cartridges, acrylic boxes for packing cartridges and vacuum cleaners for toner powder cartridges.
Do you sell direct to customers or through a distributor?
Parai sells to both kinds of clients.
How does Parai promote their products?
Through search engines, website, specialized magazines, direct mailing, and fairs and expositions around the world.
Which countries do you import from/export to?
The Parai Group has distributors in Germany, United States, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Tunisia and Venezuela. Through
them we reach over 60 other countries. Imports come mostly from the USA and China.
What is Parai doing differently to other companies in the same sector?
In 1999, the company created and patented in Brazil a machine for vacuum cartridge refilling for inkjet printers.
In 2004 Parai created the Toner Station machine which is a work station where remanufacturers can disassemble and reassemble toner cartridges safely and with hygiene and quality in mind.
More recently, in 2006, Parai created the IN VAC machine that refills cartridges and reservoirs in the vertical position sing the vacuum technology.Parai says that other companies in the sector are using different filling technology, for example machines with vacuum chambers that only refill inkjet.
Parai sets itself apart with equipment that not only fills but also cleans, unclogs, econtaminates and pressurizes the cartridges.Other companies use the ink injection system on the cartridges, which then need to be pressurized later. Parai’s system is a complete remanufacturing system different from some others that only refill the cartridges.
What have been the company’s major successes over the last few years?
Parai machines are present in more than 60 countries.
In 2003, the Parai Group was awarded “Best marketing instrument” in the USA for one of the machines, the INK Express – made to supply shopping malls and universities.
For two consecutive years (2007 and 2008) Parai was nominated for “Best New Product” in the Recharger’s Magazine eader’s Choice Award.
In Brazil, Parai has won many awards such as Technology Innovation 2000, awarded by the Ministry of Science and echnology – Federal Government.
In 2006 Parai was awarded the Brazilian Social Environmental prize by the Brazilian Academy of Arts.In 2002, Xerox Brazil chose Parai to develop machines to recycle black cartridges in their factory in Manaus, in the state of Amazonas.
In 2008, the company had its machines chosen by Wall Mart Brazil to recycle cartridges in their stores in Fotocenter in São Paulo-SP and in Campinas-SP.
What is new at Parai at the moment?
The company is expanding internationally at the moment. In the last year they have reached important markets such as germany, Italy and Tunisia.
Another notable development is the new in-house ink lab with the capacity to produce up to 500 litres per day manufacturing high quality black ink. Production of this started in September 2008. They have a strict quality process, and carry out many tests before selling the inks.ISO 9001 regulates the quality in their machines production and soon will apply to their inks as the certification process for this is underway. Discussing the inkjet market, Rodrigo Limongi (inkjet market analyst for the Parai Group) says: “It is incredible how prices went down for multi functional printers, with more and more people making copies and printing photos in their homes, here is a very prosperous prognosis for this market for the years to come”. Parai technicians have made important changes in the company’s equipment to improve productivity and develop more compact machines argeting the emerging markets.
Interview with Luciano Piquet
Recycler interviewed Luciano Piquet, CEO of the Parai Group, about how the group was created, their main achievements and more.
Recycler: How did you get into the remanufacturing industry? What was your first serious contract and how did it go?
LP: I got into remanufacturing through a personal need, and it turned into a new and successful business for the company: recycling cartridges for inkjet printers. It all started in 1998 when I bought an HP Deskjet 500 printer in São Paulo.
When the cartridge ran out I could not find anywhere to buy a new one in João Pessoa (city where I live). The cost and inconvenience of travelling 2500 km to buy a new one in São Paulo made me look for a way to refill my own cartridges. Initially, the refilling process was very logical: inject ink inside the cartridge through a hole in its lid, but I found that this did not pressurize the cartridges properly and they ended up leaking or having printing failures.
The poor reputation of recycled cartridges comes from this kind of filling process which presents a low quality final product.
After more than a year and a half of study and research, I found out that by removing the air from inside the cartridge, through the printer head, a vacuum is created inside the cartridge allowing the ink to go in through the labyrinth and creates a pressurization that gets rid of air bubbles preventing from failures in the printing and leakage.
That is how I discovered the cartridge vacuum filling technique.
What has been your most rewarding professional achievement to date?
It was achieving a definitive patent for the machines and the vacuum filling process. At the time, the competition said that the system I had created was in the public domain and was already used in many countries. The fact is that the Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial – INPI (Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property) researched the originality of my invention and came to the conclusion that it was the only one in the world.
What is the most positive thing about the remanufacturing industry?
Providing customers with products that are as good as the originals for half the price. It is also a great achievement to be able to reduce the amount of waste on the planet, creating a better environment for current and future generations.
What changes do you expect to see in the industry over the next few years?
The remanufacturing industry should continue to be successful in providing cartridges with quality equivalent to the originals – if not even better. Nowadays there are some types of ink that have printing quality better than the original ones.
What frustrates you about the business?
The lack of credibility of remanufactured cartridges compared to originals, and the ‘copycats’ of our vacuum filling system.
What single piece of new legislation would make your life easier at work?
Allowing government agencies to purchase remanufactured cartridges.
Which other company in the industry do you admire?
Static Control for their respect with their clients and consumers. I say so because they have five lawyers just for product originality research so they do not infringe the OEM Intellectual Property Rights.
What do you do in your spare time?
I usually use my spare time to acquire more personal knowledge. I sit in front of a computer with the same emotion as I had the first time I did it. Now, with Internet we have a world of information at our fingertips and my relationship with information technology has improved quite a lot. Anything I want to know, it is easy to find in a few minutes using Internet resources.
What sports team do you support?
I support some football teams, such as: “Campinense Clube” in Paraiba (the state where I live). At a national level I support “Botafogo” from Rio de Janeiro and internationally I support the team with the highest number of Brazilian players.
What has been your most cringemaking moment?
When we sued a company that was copying our machines. After much investigation along with the “Instituto de Criminalística da Paraíba (Criminal Institute of Paraíba State)” the machines were apprehended and the company that was copying the machines prohibited from manufacturing them again. Much to our surprise, on September 7th 2006 (a
national holiday, Independence Day of Brazil), the Court of Justice president issued a Habeas Corpus for the apprehended machines, which was unprecedented anywhere in world.
What has been your most successful personal achievement?
To know that my machines have helped to give a better life to thousands of people that bought them to start their own cartridge recycling businesses - including my own family who work in the company.
Funniest moment experienced at work?
In the beginning, my machines were manufactured in my own garage. A client from Brasilia called saying he wanted to come to get to know the machines. My biggest concern was keeping the dogs (giant Deutscher Dogges) quiet during the conversation. One of my children had to keep the dog entertained for almost two hours so that we could have our meeting in peace and quiet. In the end, I closed the deal.
Best ever brain wave?
Besides the idea to apply the vacuum to the cartridges to wash, fill, pressurize, empty and decontaminate ink cartridges, the best idea was to put more ink into HP cartridges. That makes a lot of difference during the sale as we put six times more ink in a cartridge. Some HP cartridges come in with 5ml and we deliver it with 30ml. I am very proud when I see
companies in the United States, Europe and Africa buying our technology to do the same.
Professional ambition over the next two years?
Continue creating new products along with Parai. We have many ideas to put into practice that will no doubt keep us ahead developing techniques that will improve people’s lives.
Tip for surviving the economic downturn?
Creativity and managerial competence.
Parai Contact Information
Mrs Clarisse Carvalho – International Trade
Manager – email: sales@ink3000.com
Mrs Luciana Cruz – International Trade
Analyst – email: luciana@ink3000.com
Phone: +55 83 3513-3030 Website:
COMPANY PROFILE
74 Recycler Trade Magazine 194 • April 2009
Flavio Oliveira
Flavio Oliveira is the Regional Representative for Brazil for Recycler Publishing and Events. He reports on news from Brazil and represents the Recycler group there. To contact Flavio email Brazil@therecycler.com Parai staff