Matthews Marking obsoleted the Evolution HP thermal inkjet line — Matthews no longer supplies new printers, driver boards or parts for it, and its HP OEM license is gone. But your printers didn’t stop working, and they still need ink, cartridges, and the occasional part.
You’re not stuck. TIJ Print Solutions keeps Evolution printers coding every shift — with the inks, parts, and programming to run today, and a supported path forward when you’re ready to move. No rip-and-replace, no scramble.
Also sold as the Digital Design Evolution or Matthews DDI Evolution — DDI is Digital Design, Inc., which built the line before Matthews. Same printers, same cartridges, same aftermarket.
Talk to us about your Evolution lineRun our ink on your own line, on your own product. Tell us your printer and what you’re coding onto, and the cartridge is on us.
Shipping is worked out with you when we talk.
Everything the OEM stopped selling, from one supplier who actually services this hardware:
Our EV HP ink line drops straight into the cartridge formats your Evolution printer already uses:
Available in black, white, yellow, red, blue, and green, so you can match date/lot codes to the substrate and the read requirement. Not sure which ink your line needs? Send us your printer model and substrate and we’ll match it.
Browse our EV HP inksFind the Evolution / OEM part number you order today and read across for the TPS ink that replaces it.
Swipe the table sideways for the ink and cartridge-series columns.
| TPS SKU | Evolution / OEM part # it replaces | Ink | HP 45 / 45si series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porous — water-based | |||
| 11-WBI | 4500BK | Black, Standard (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| 22-WBI | 4510BK | Black, Semi-Porous (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| 15-WYI | 4500YW | Yellow (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| 15-WRI | 4500RD | Red (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| 15-WBI | 4500BL | Blue (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| 15-WGI | 4500GR | Green (Water-Based) | HP 45 / 45A |
| Non-porous — solvent | |||
| 44-SBI | 4700BK | Black Solvent (Non-Porous) | HP 45A |
| 33-SBI | 4711BK | Black Solvent (Non-Porous) | HP 45si |
| 66-SBI | 4722BK | Black Premium Solvent (Non-Porous) | HP 45si |
| 60-SWI | 4720WH | White Solvent (Non-Porous) | HP 45si |
| 60-SYI | 4711YW | Yellow Solvent (Non-Porous) | HP 45si |
Don’t see your part number? Send it to us with your printer model and we’ll match it to the right ink.
We can also supply these Evolution codes on request:
Not stocked as catalog items — tell us your printer and what you’re coding onto and we’ll confirm the right ink.
A faint, patchy or intermittent code is usually an electrical-contact problem, not a dead printhead. The standard answer to any printhead fault is a whole new printhead. TPS sells the parts to repair one instead — so you work the fault down the chain rather than replacing the entire assembly.
Contact or electrical fault — Work it in order: pogo pins first, then the carriage pogo board, then the carriage driver board.
Rebuilding it yourself — We send you the parts — the same three above. Suits a plant with a maintenance tech, or anyone who would rather not ship a printhead out.
Or we rebuild it for you — The printhead comes to TPS. Suits a site with no in-house capability, or a fault past board level.
Beyond recovery — A replacement printhead module. We can source or rebuild EV printhead modules.
Steps 1 and 2 are the same parts — the only difference is who does the work.
Pogo Pin Set for EV Printhead Modules
HW-PIN-001
Pogo Board for EV
HW-POGO-EV01
Printhead Carriage Driver Board for EV
HW-DRV-EV01
TPS can source and rebuild EV printhead modules. There are two ways to run it, and the right one depends on what you have on site:
We send you the parts
You rebuild your own printhead, using the same pins, pogo board and driver board sold above.
We rebuild it for you
The printhead comes to us — for a site with no in-house capability, or a fault beyond board level.
Evolution hardware varies by printer and by printhead technology, so we confirm the exact part with you before anything ships. Tell us which printer you run, which printhead is in it, and what the fault looks like. Every situation is different, so we set expectations with you case by case. If we don’t have what you need, we’ll say so.
A lot of “print-quality” trouble on Evolution printers traces back to one thing: the cartridge. TPS is one of the very few ink suppliers that programs cartridges as an aftermarket for the Matthews DDI Evolution line — on custom-built equipment that optimizes each cartridge for use in Evolution printers, and every cartridge is QC’d for electronic-contact stability before it ships. That’s how we supply custom-programmed cartridges for hardware the OEM has walked away from.
There’s no pressure to replace anything today. But when you decide to move off obsolete hardware, the Anser X1 is the modern, supported path — a 7" touchscreen TIJ controller that runs the full Anser printhead lineup (1/2" and 1") and the Odyssey ink line, up to 600 dpi. We’ll help you plan the switch when it makes sense for your line — and keep your Evolution running until then.
Note: the Anser controllers use Anser printheads and Odyssey inks — they don’t run Evolution equipment or EV inks. Two separate systems; we support both.
Explore the Anser X1Yes. Matthews obsoleted the Evolution HP TIJ line — it no longer supplies new printers, driver boards or parts for it — and dropped its HP OEM license. The printers still in the field keep running; they just need an aftermarket supplier. That’s us.
DDI is Digital Design, Inc. — the company that built the Evolution line before Matthews. “Matthews DDI Evolution,” “Digital Design Evolution,” and “Matthews Evolution” all refer to the same installed base, so if you own any of them, the same TPS inks, parts, and cartridge programming apply.
Yes. Our EV HP inks come in the HP 45 / 45A and HP 45si cartridge formats your Evolution uses — water-based inks for porous substrates and solvent inks for non-porous — in black plus white, yellow, red, blue, and green.
Water-based inks for porous substrates and solvent inks for non-porous, in HP 45 / 45A and HP 45si cartridge formats. Send us your substrate and we’ll match the ink.
Yes — driver board sets and pogo pins / contact pins to keep the hardware running. Tell us your model and symptom.
When you’re ready to move, the Anser X1 is the modern, supported thermal inkjet controller. You don’t have to switch to keep coding today — we supply Evolution inks, parts, and programming now.
Yes — programmed in-house on custom-built equipment that optimizes them for Evolution printers, and QC’d for electronic-contact stability before they ship. We’re one of the very few ink suppliers doing this for the Evolution aftermarket.
Send us your printer model, substrate, and what you’re running low on, and we’ll get you the ink, parts, or programming to keep coding.