Find out why Professional Refilling Plants are more reliable than Refill Shops & Kiosks.
5 Critical Factors to Consider
Refill Shops & Kiosks Vs Professional Refilling Plants
INSPECTION
Critical Factor #1: Do they test each empty cartridge for visual AND electrical defects prior to refilling?
Kiosks: NO , Reman plants YES
Why this is important: Each cartridge must be free from electrical and visual defects or it may not work in your printer.
CLEANING
Critical Factor #2: Do they use a variety of cleaning systems (Steaming, centrifuge, flushing with reverse osmosis system, etc.) to ensure every last bit of ink is removed from the cartridge prior to refilling?
Kiosks: NO , Reman plants YES
Why this is important: Cartridges that are not properly cleaned often have a shorter shelf life and result in higher failure rates.
INKS
Critical Factor #3: Do they use inks that are specially formulated for each type of cartridge?
Kiosks: NO , Reman plants YES
Why this is important: If the same type of ink is used to refill all types of cartridges, the print quality is going to be inconsistent. You run a higher risk of having colors that don’t match, and the cartridge may not last as long as it should.
FILLING
Critical Factor #4: Do they have filling machines specifically designed for each type of cartridge – to ensure consistent and accurate filling?
Kiosks: NO , Reman plants YES
Why this is important: It’s important that cartridges are filled with a precise amount of ink each and every time. If a cartridge has too much ink – it’s more susceptible to leaking. If there isn’t enough ink – the cartridge won’t produce an acceptable page yield. If there is air in the ink, the cartridge won’t print properly.
TESTING
Critical Factor #5: Once your cartridge is filled, do they print a test page to verify the quality?
Kiosks: NO , Reman plants YES
Why this is important: This is the only way to verify that the colors match, and to make sure there is no smearing or streaking.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Steps to follow when laser print quality is poor
Laser Printer Maintenence.
Trouble shoooting check list
It is as Easy as 1-2-3
1) Trouble shooting check list
Verify cartridge source/manufacturer
Visually inspect the cartridge for external damage
Verify the toner seal is completly removed.
Reset the cartridge and check the alignment in the printer
Insert problem cartridge in another printer
Does problem follow the cartridge?
Replace the problem cartridge in the same printer
Does the problem persist?
Some print quality problems can occur when a cartridge is changed or a paper jam is cleared. Print at least 5 pages to see if problem diminishes.
2) Media Trouble Shooting
Some media can be too coarse for the toner to stick on to the page causing an uneven print.
Other media can be too glosy, not allowing the toner to grab onto the paper leaving a partial image.
Fuser lamp may be burned out or fail to heat to prescribed temperature.
3) Printer maintenance
Remove buildup of toner and paper dust inside printer on and along the paper path. Failing to vacuum or wipe with a damp cloth can result in buildup.
Squeaking noises can be caused by worn parts, toner buildup or paper dust in the printer. This does not indicate a damaged cartridge.
Worn fuser rollers can cause poor print, ghosting and textural deficts. Page count can be found on 'Configuration Printout', 'Suplies Status Printout'or 'Self Test' to determne whether the fuser life has expired.
Some examples of fuser life expectancy in pages are:
EX:200,000 pages; HP 4000: 200,000 pages, WX: 250,000 pages, HP 4250: 250,00 pages.
Trouble shoooting check list
It is as Easy as 1-2-3
1) Trouble shooting check list
Verify cartridge source/manufacturer
Visually inspect the cartridge for external damage
Verify the toner seal is completly removed.
Reset the cartridge and check the alignment in the printer
Insert problem cartridge in another printer
Does problem follow the cartridge?
Replace the problem cartridge in the same printer
Does the problem persist?
Some print quality problems can occur when a cartridge is changed or a paper jam is cleared. Print at least 5 pages to see if problem diminishes.
2) Media Trouble Shooting
Some media can be too coarse for the toner to stick on to the page causing an uneven print.
Other media can be too glosy, not allowing the toner to grab onto the paper leaving a partial image.
Fuser lamp may be burned out or fail to heat to prescribed temperature.
3) Printer maintenance
Remove buildup of toner and paper dust inside printer on and along the paper path. Failing to vacuum or wipe with a damp cloth can result in buildup.
Squeaking noises can be caused by worn parts, toner buildup or paper dust in the printer. This does not indicate a damaged cartridge.
Worn fuser rollers can cause poor print, ghosting and textural deficts. Page count can be found on 'Configuration Printout', 'Suplies Status Printout'or 'Self Test' to determne whether the fuser life has expired.
Some examples of fuser life expectancy in pages are:
EX:200,000 pages; HP 4000: 200,000 pages, WX: 250,000 pages, HP 4250: 250,00 pages.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
HP OfficeJet K5400 not printing boarders
One of my customers called to complain about a recently purchased HP OfficeJet K5400 which I had recommended for her. The ink cost per page was the best deal we could find, however, she had a problem printing one of her docs.
The doc has a rectangular boarder around the perimeter but the printer was cutting off the line running across the bottom of the page. This ruined the artful effect of the boarder. The solution is easy enough. She converted the word (.doc) document to .pdf document and the boarder printed perfectly.
She said the problem is mentioned on HP’s web site with no solution and the HP help desk did not have a clue.
If you have Adobe writer on your work station you can ‘save as’ to make the conversion, otherwise there are a number of sources on the internet with free software and/or free trials for the conversion
The doc has a rectangular boarder around the perimeter but the printer was cutting off the line running across the bottom of the page. This ruined the artful effect of the boarder. The solution is easy enough. She converted the word (.doc) document to .pdf document and the boarder printed perfectly.
She said the problem is mentioned on HP’s web site with no solution and the HP help desk did not have a clue.
If you have Adobe writer on your work station you can ‘save as’ to make the conversion, otherwise there are a number of sources on the internet with free software and/or free trials for the conversion
Monday, May 19, 2008
Exploring the real cost of color printing
The recent introduction of a wide variety of color laser printers into the market has confused the decision of what printer to purchase for color printing. Previously color printing was sent to a commercial printer or done in house on a slow ink jet printer. Although all of my graphic design customers prefer the quality and have stayed with their ink printers, many of the commercial and industrial accounts have purchased color laser jet printers.
When purchasing a color laser printer, printer price should not be the only factor to consider. Printer speed and print quality will eliminate many candidates but other factors should be taken into consideration.
One of my customers purchased a $300 color laser printer. After a short time he received a ‘toner low’ message and purchased a yellow toner cartridge for $79. He installed the toner and before printing a single page got another error message telling him to purchase a $179 drum. He threw the printer away!!
The quick and dirty comparison is to check out the cost of toner on a per page basis. To do this, simply, go on line to one of the office stores and check out the price of toner for that printer. Divide the price by the page yield. Be aware that the page yield is based on 5% coverage and the average color coverage is 20%. Many times the printer comes with ‘starter’ low capacity cartridges which can be replaced with hi capacity cartridges at a much better price per page yield.
Since most printing is black the cost of the black cartridge yields a lower cost per page. Only the high end, expensive, color laser printers achieve a monochrome cost per page approaching the cost of the heavy duty workgroup laser printers.
A more accurate measure of the total cost of ownership takes into account the cost of all the consumables such as toner, drums, waste bottle, transfer belt, fuser, ink and print heads. Lyra Research performed this analysis on a dozen color laser and ink printers priced at under $500. They assumed a printer life of 5 years, monthly page volume of 450 pages and 50% black and 50% color printing.
Printer CPP Black $ CPP Color $ Printer $
HP Officejet Pro K550 0.015 0.08 200
Brother HL 2700CN 0.015 0.09 500
The results from Lyra Research on total cost over the 5 year period were revealing. The HP business inkjets were the least expensive with a total cost of $1500. Brother HL 2700, Ricoh Aficio G500, Dell 3100 and Samsung CLP 600 all stayed under $2000. Dell 3100 and Konica Minolta Magicolor 2400 were under $2500 while the Xerox Phaser 6120 and Lexmark C510 approached $3000. The highest total cost of ownership went to the Samsung CLP 300 at an astounding $3340!
total cost of ownership for these low priced printers varies considerably. The Samsung CLP is the least expensive printer but has the highest total cost of ownership. As a result of this type of comparison many of my customers have decided to purchase inkjet printers over the laser printers.
Further savings of approximately 30% can be realized with the use of aftermarket cartridges. Lyra Research and Recharger Magazine took a survey of small and medium business users of aftermarket cartridges. A large majority of these users rated the aftermarket cartridges the same or better than the OEM (original equipment manufacture, ie HP et al) in five different metrics. Print quality was the highest rated metric with 55% saying the print quality was as good as the OEM, 16% saying it was better and 22% saying it was much better. Aftermarket cartridge life was the lowest rated metric of the five with 82% of the respondents saying it was the same, better or much better than the OEM’ life.
When purchasing a color laser printer, printer price should not be the only factor to consider. Printer speed and print quality will eliminate many candidates but other factors should be taken into consideration.
One of my customers purchased a $300 color laser printer. After a short time he received a ‘toner low’ message and purchased a yellow toner cartridge for $79. He installed the toner and before printing a single page got another error message telling him to purchase a $179 drum. He threw the printer away!!
The quick and dirty comparison is to check out the cost of toner on a per page basis. To do this, simply, go on line to one of the office stores and check out the price of toner for that printer. Divide the price by the page yield. Be aware that the page yield is based on 5% coverage and the average color coverage is 20%. Many times the printer comes with ‘starter’ low capacity cartridges which can be replaced with hi capacity cartridges at a much better price per page yield.
Since most printing is black the cost of the black cartridge yields a lower cost per page. Only the high end, expensive, color laser printers achieve a monochrome cost per page approaching the cost of the heavy duty workgroup laser printers.
A more accurate measure of the total cost of ownership takes into account the cost of all the consumables such as toner, drums, waste bottle, transfer belt, fuser, ink and print heads. Lyra Research performed this analysis on a dozen color laser and ink printers priced at under $500. They assumed a printer life of 5 years, monthly page volume of 450 pages and 50% black and 50% color printing.
Printer CPP Black $ CPP Color $ Printer $
HP Officejet Pro K550 0.015 0.08 200
Brother HL 2700CN 0.015 0.09 500
The results from Lyra Research on total cost over the 5 year period were revealing. The HP business inkjets were the least expensive with a total cost of $1500. Brother HL 2700, Ricoh Aficio G500, Dell 3100 and Samsung CLP 600 all stayed under $2000. Dell 3100 and Konica Minolta Magicolor 2400 were under $2500 while the Xerox Phaser 6120 and Lexmark C510 approached $3000. The highest total cost of ownership went to the Samsung CLP 300 at an astounding $3340!
total cost of ownership for these low priced printers varies considerably. The Samsung CLP is the least expensive printer but has the highest total cost of ownership. As a result of this type of comparison many of my customers have decided to purchase inkjet printers over the laser printers.
Further savings of approximately 30% can be realized with the use of aftermarket cartridges. Lyra Research and Recharger Magazine took a survey of small and medium business users of aftermarket cartridges. A large majority of these users rated the aftermarket cartridges the same or better than the OEM (original equipment manufacture, ie HP et al) in five different metrics. Print quality was the highest rated metric with 55% saying the print quality was as good as the OEM, 16% saying it was better and 22% saying it was much better. Aftermarket cartridge life was the lowest rated metric of the five with 82% of the respondents saying it was the same, better or much better than the OEM’ life.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Don’t waste your money on a Fax machine that uses Film.
Don’t waste your money on a Fax machine that uses Film.
A customer called for a price on Fax film for his Brother 1270e fax. He was buying 8 rolls a week at a cost of $28.00 per roll or $224.00 per week.
The PC-201 film he is using yields a coverage of 450 pages per roll or 3600 pages per week.
Using a compatible film at 300 pages per roll and $14.00 per roll would bring his weekly expense to $168.00, a $56.00 savings.
Further savings are available if he were to keep the frames and replace the rolls only. Rolls at $23.04 per 2 pack would reduce his weekly expenditure to $138.20 per week, an $86.00 savings.
His best option, however, would be to purchase a laser fax machine. For example the Canon L170 is on sale at Staples for $135 after rebate. Included with the fax machine is an S35, 3500 page cartridge (a $126.00 value at Staples). Using these fax machines with 3500 page cartridges would reduce his consumable expense to $126.00 per week or a $98.00 per week savings.
Further savings on the Canon fax would be to use a compatible cartridge at $95 for a savings of $129 per week savings!!
A customer called for a price on Fax film for his Brother 1270e fax. He was buying 8 rolls a week at a cost of $28.00 per roll or $224.00 per week.
The PC-201 film he is using yields a coverage of 450 pages per roll or 3600 pages per week.
Using a compatible film at 300 pages per roll and $14.00 per roll would bring his weekly expense to $168.00, a $56.00 savings.
Further savings are available if he were to keep the frames and replace the rolls only. Rolls at $23.04 per 2 pack would reduce his weekly expenditure to $138.20 per week, an $86.00 savings.
His best option, however, would be to purchase a laser fax machine. For example the Canon L170 is on sale at Staples for $135 after rebate. Included with the fax machine is an S35, 3500 page cartridge (a $126.00 value at Staples). Using these fax machines with 3500 page cartridges would reduce his consumable expense to $126.00 per week or a $98.00 per week savings.
Further savings on the Canon fax would be to use a compatible cartridge at $95 for a savings of $129 per week savings!!
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4250n NEW in the BOX
Now Selling new for $1249.00 on HP’s web site
$849.00 Delivered and set up Direct to a PC or onto a network
200,000 pages per month service duty
This is not a ‘throw away’ printer
HP LaserJet 4250 printers set yet another benchmark, affording you the latest in network printing technology backed by unparalleled quality, reliability and compatibility. HP LaserJet 4250 series printers bring significant technology improvements to workgroup laser printing. The HP LaserJet 4250 printer is a solid foundation for your printing needs. This family of printers provides faster performance with new 45-page-per-minute engine and 460-MHz RISC processor outperform other laser printers Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, IEEE 1284-B compliant parallel port, 2 open EIO slots, HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet Embedded Print Server that deliver faster throughput and greater flexibility. HP FastRes 1200 (printer default mode) prints 1200-dpi quality at the same speed as 600-dpi and with standard 80MB memory.
Features
Type Workgroup; Paper input: 100-sheet multipurpose tray, 500-sheet input tray
Max Resolution 1200 x 1200 dpi (B&W)
Platform CompatibilityMicrosoft Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP,Vista, HP-UX, Solaris, SunOS, IBM, OS/2 Warp, Macintosh OS 7.5, and MS-DOS
Firist page outLess than 8 sec
IMAGING SOLUTIONS
123 ACADEMY DRIVE
LONGMEADOW, MA 01106
413/567-9777 fax 413/565-5452
email info@printforever.comwww.printforever.com
$849.00 Delivered and set up Direct to a PC or onto a network
200,000 pages per month service duty
This is not a ‘throw away’ printer
HP LaserJet 4250 printers set yet another benchmark, affording you the latest in network printing technology backed by unparalleled quality, reliability and compatibility. HP LaserJet 4250 series printers bring significant technology improvements to workgroup laser printing. The HP LaserJet 4250 printer is a solid foundation for your printing needs. This family of printers provides faster performance with new 45-page-per-minute engine and 460-MHz RISC processor outperform other laser printers Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, IEEE 1284-B compliant parallel port, 2 open EIO slots, HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet Embedded Print Server that deliver faster throughput and greater flexibility. HP FastRes 1200 (printer default mode) prints 1200-dpi quality at the same speed as 600-dpi and with standard 80MB memory.
Features
Type Workgroup; Paper input: 100-sheet multipurpose tray, 500-sheet input tray
Max Resolution 1200 x 1200 dpi (B&W)
Platform CompatibilityMicrosoft Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP,Vista, HP-UX, Solaris, SunOS, IBM, OS/2 Warp, Macintosh OS 7.5, and MS-DOS
Firist page outLess than 8 sec
IMAGING SOLUTIONS
123 ACADEMY DRIVE
LONGMEADOW, MA 01106
413/567-9777 fax 413/565-5452
email info@printforever.comwww.printforever.com
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4350n 55 PPM Printer
90 Day Warranty: 8400 pages printed and still using the cartridge that came with the printer
$875.00 Delivered within the Longmeadow, MA service area and set up Direct to a PC or onto a network
With one new20,000 page Cartridge
250,000 pages per month service duty
This is not a ‘throw away’ printer
HP LaserJet 4350 printers set yet another benchmark, affording you the latest in network printing technology backed by unparalleled quality, reliability and compatibility. HP LaserJet 4350 series printers bring significant technology improvements to workgroup laser printing. The HP LaserJet 4350 printer is a solid foundation for your printing needs. This family of printers provides faster performance with new 55-page-per-minute engine and 460-MHz RISC processor outperform other laser printers Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, IEEE 1284-B compliant parallel port, 2 open EIO slots, HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet Embedded Print Server that deliver faster throughput and greater flexibility. HP FastRes 1200 (printer default mode) prints 1200-dpi quality at the same speed as 600-dpi and with standard 80MB memory.
Now Selling new for $1649.00 on HP’s web site.
Features
Type
Workgroup; Paper input: 100-sheet multipurpose tray, 500-sheet input tray
Max Resolution 1200 x 1200 dpi (B&W)
Platform Compatibility
Microsoft Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP,Vista, HP-UX, Solaris, SunOS, IBM, OS/2 Warp, Macintosh OS 7.5, and MS-DOS
Firist page out Less than 8 sec
IMAGING SOLUTIONS
123 ACADEMY DRIVE
LONGMEADOW, MA 01106
413/567-9777 fax 413/565-5452
email info@printforever.com
www.printforever.com
$875.00 Delivered within the Longmeadow, MA service area and set up Direct to a PC or onto a network
With one new20,000 page Cartridge
250,000 pages per month service duty
This is not a ‘throw away’ printer
HP LaserJet 4350 printers set yet another benchmark, affording you the latest in network printing technology backed by unparalleled quality, reliability and compatibility. HP LaserJet 4350 series printers bring significant technology improvements to workgroup laser printing. The HP LaserJet 4350 printer is a solid foundation for your printing needs. This family of printers provides faster performance with new 55-page-per-minute engine and 460-MHz RISC processor outperform other laser printers Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, IEEE 1284-B compliant parallel port, 2 open EIO slots, HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet Embedded Print Server that deliver faster throughput and greater flexibility. HP FastRes 1200 (printer default mode) prints 1200-dpi quality at the same speed as 600-dpi and with standard 80MB memory.
Now Selling new for $1649.00 on HP’s web site.
Features
Type
Workgroup; Paper input: 100-sheet multipurpose tray, 500-sheet input tray
Max Resolution 1200 x 1200 dpi (B&W)
Platform Compatibility
Microsoft Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP,Vista, HP-UX, Solaris, SunOS, IBM, OS/2 Warp, Macintosh OS 7.5, and MS-DOS
Firist page out Less than 8 sec
IMAGING SOLUTIONS
123 ACADEMY DRIVE
LONGMEADOW, MA 01106
413/567-9777 fax 413/565-5452
email info@printforever.com
www.printforever.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)