Converter and cartridge capacities.

[Bruno Taut]

After searching the Net for information on the capacities of cartridges and converters I decided to measure them myself. These are the results.

 

Procedure: I weighted the cartridge or converter dry and empty. Filled them with water with a syringe. Weight again. The procedure was repeated three times. 1 g of water is 1 ml.

 

The values are, I reckon, a higher limit. By filling the converters attached to the pen one can hardly achieve a full filling of them.

 

The errors associated to the actual differences in density between water and ink are irrelevant.

 

Not being American myself, I use the very rational International System of units.

 

PILOT:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xcSVe9lUMp0/TYH7zsrl6hI/AAAAAAAABjM/VW1mnY91uls/s1600/Table%2BPilot%2Bconverters-WM.jpg

 

PLATINUM:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A17lJWDvmlk/TWu8S7noURI/AAAAAAAABcU/ciWLq_c4NOM/s1600/Table%2BPlatinum%2Bconverters-WM.jpg

 

SAILOR (Chalana series cartridge and converter NOT included):

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OtBiu3DFRVc/TXPAL8xMLKI/AAAAAAAABfM/ZeuUl_RB7RA/s1600/Table%2BSailor%2Bconverters2-WM.jpg

 

Click on the pics for more information and pictures on the converters and on the modification to make them fit in some Platinum and Sailor pens.

 

Prices are in yen without taxes, in JAPAN.

 

Cheers,

 

Iosepus

Edited March 17, 2011 by Iosepus

[Koyote]

True, you may not get as full when filling with the converter attached to the pen...But this will get you some ink in the pen's feed (which is not measured by your method), so they may cancel out a bit.

[jde]

Thanks for this post! Appreciate the great info and your efforts to provide it.

[nicholasyeo]

Useful information! I love the Sailor converter design and construction despite it's quantity,

and I like the Con-70 for it's large capacity. I am however expanding into piston fillers...

[shuuemura]

Thanks for the information! I'm amazed at the huge capacity of Sailor cartridges, though (1.2 ml). I always thought that they were much smaller than Pilot or Platinum cartridges.

[Black Rose]

True, you may not get as full when filling with the converter attached to the pen...But this will get you some ink in the pen's feed (which is not measured by your method), so they may cancel out a bit.

One of the times when I flushed my Pilot 78G with an OEM version of the CON-20, I did a rudimentary capacity test.

 

Filling the pen & converter with water, I extracted the water from the converter with a syringe and got about 0.5 ml from the converter.

Attaching the converter to the pen and blowing out the feed, a similar but slightly less amount came out of the feed.

 

I'm going to try this method again when I get some CON-50 converters.

[professionaldilettante]

True, you may not get as full when filling with the converter attached to the pen...But this will get you some ink in the pen's feed (which is not measured by your method), so they may cancel out a bit.

Not really, unless you manage to force out the extra air, the feed and converter will hold in total, the amount of air that the converter can displace.

[XiaoMG]

I wasn't a terribly big fan of the CON-70 until I realized it could be disassembled for cleaning when I swap inks. Makes the demonstrator version of the C74 look much nicer too.

 

For my Capless models, cartridges are the way to go.