Multi Tray Laser Printers

[Darren B]

OK trying to track down some laser printers and wondered if anyone had any preffered models.

I need mono laser printers with 3 seperate paper trays, they need to be network ready and support PCL

i am drawing a blank on this front hope some one can help

D

[printerbase]

Hi,

I might be able to recommend some machines but a couple of questions:
Do you need duplex (double sided printing) ?
Roughly what sort of weekly volume are you printing per machine ?
What are you printing on ? Is it standard 80gsm paper or something else ?

Peter

[Darren B]

Hi

OK duplex is not required, but if its there then its fine
80 to 100 grms standard letter headed paper
volume is more or less 10000 pages per week this will vary as not all pages will be triplicate

they must be PCL i can not use windows only printers, these printers are for my unix networks and i will need to specify the trays by ascii codes

looking for 2 of these at the moment

thanks

[printerbase]

Can I just double check, you will be printing around 10,000 pages a week on each machine ?

At around half a million pages a year that's a lot of printing.

Peter

[leehack]

You'll be wanting a PagePack agreement of some sort with that volume Taddy. If you French aren't killing innocent animals to eat, you are taking down rain forests instead.

[jont]

volume is more or less 10000 pages per week

At that volume it would be cheaper and quicker to out-source the printing.

[jont]

What are you actually printing Darren?

[Darren B]

LOL

Sorry not made myself clear 10000 max, it varies depending on seasons, actually qty is probably max of 8k but i would like some room to move, and in reality thye are unlikely to be working flat out all the time, but the focus is on the ppm as opposed to the total volume. Its not easy to quote as there are different amounts of copies depending on the notes being printed. there is likely to be three copies, hence the need for extra paper trays, three trays, with different coloured headed paper.

Let me explain

we currently use carbon paper, three copies, these are used for delivery notes, invoices e.t.c but it is still quicker to get a laser to print three copies than a fast dot matrix and also the quality go's as the ribbons fade. and as said some of these pages are not required.

so i am changing / moving away from this method, currently i have samples going through on various printers. I would prefer one printer so the copies are collated, but we could use more than one printer, it is not a problem for me to set up new printers on the unix box and add these to the network, but it risks the paperwork becoming seperated.


i hope this helps

and Lee stop hiding on the forum - as for rainforests im try to reduce the paperwork by only printing the copies we need

[Darren B]

At that volume it would be cheaper and quicker to out-source the printing.

this is everyday paper work, not flyers and mailshot stuff nothing is ever so simple

[jont]

We dabbled with this for a while and went back to the carbon 3 sheet pages through a dot-matrix. The quality is not as peachy but we discovered nobody really cares so long as it is legible. (stock up on ribbons) The hassle of collating and printing the right number of pages was a real nuisance ... we soon tired and went back to carbon paper as the office staff we more important than a beautifully printed delivery note.

[Darren B]

Ahhhh

interesting to hear someone elses comments, your right about the look but one problem we always face is. not often but enough, faxing quotations and PO they never come out when the ribbon is worn.

out of interest jont what dot matrix are you using, we have oki ml395 and the ribbons are about £18 a go, they are good but a costly printer when they go wrong, which to be far is not very often

D

[jont]

I bought 3 x EPSON LQ-300+II from DABS about 3 months back and are great... very few jams and the quality has been consistent throughout.

For the fax quotes can you not route to the laser &/or a software fax from your software? Most programs should allow different routing depending on what is being printed (either manually or user selected)

[jont]

they are good but a costly printer

After years of dot-matrix we decided to buy cheap and replace often - the difference in quality / features needed to print on to 3 part stationary is negligible.

[Darren B]

FAX actually something i need to tackle, need to look at installing some on the server, cant see it being a major problem but lets just say my unix skills are a little limited, and configuring the com port for the modem and the software on the server to fax properly from it could stretch my knowledge.

but hey i'm up for the challenge, sure there is plenty on the interweb thingy time to look me thinks

D

[printerbase]

If you can stick with dot matrix then in terms of running costs it's going to save you a fortune.

For the laser route and that sort of volume you going to have to look at something like the Kyocera FS-9130DN or a Xerox Phaser 5550 on a pagepack (cost per print) contract but either machine in the config you need is going to be around £1,800 to £2,000 + VAT.

For a PagePack contract on the Xerox it's going to cost you around £0.005 + VAT per page.

Peter