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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
Okay, this topic may seem to be a little outdated but so is my boss. I
just started with a company that prints some internal reports to a line printer. My boss wants to compare the cost of line printing to laser printing. The office staff is tired of the noise the line printer makes. I've suggested moving the printer but we have a very small office and space is limited. I've suggested getting a cover for the printer but no I have to do a cost analysis of Laser vs. Line printing. So here is where I'm at. Ribbons are rated at how many characters you can print per ribbon and laser toner is rated on pages per cartridge. Is there a formula to convert characters per ribbon to pages per ribbon? How do you factor in the numerous paper jams the line print has? Personally I don't care either way. I don't sit by the printer so it does not bother me. |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
In article ,
TJ wrote: If all characters possible(no spaces) are printed on a page, the standard conversion for a line printer is 4800 Characters per page.(80 characters per line, 60 lines per page) In real life, however, you rarely fill the entire page with characters, so that's a poor comparison, at best. TJ & CS- Suppose there are 1600 characters on a typical page. This is arbitrary, so pick another number if you prefer. If you look at what is being printed, it may be possible to actually count characters. Does the time required to print a report pose a burden on employees? A dot matrix printer might take a minute to print a page, while the laser printer might do it in ten seconds. How often does the paper jam, and how long does it typically take to unjam it? It should be easy to quantify the cost of man hours required. Pick some numbers and do the comparison. There might be an obvious winner. Also consider measuring the sound level near the printer when it is at its noisiest. The level can be compared to OSHA limits to determine if there is a health risk involved. If a decision is made to go with a laser printer, I suggest you get one of the better ones, not the cheapest. Toner is a bit more expensive but gives more pages per cartridge, resulting in a lower cost per page. A printer with a paper tray that holds a full ream of paper doesn't have to be refilled as often. Since you got me started, I'll make one more suggestion: stop printing the reports. Connect everyone up to a network, and E-Mail the reports. If the new laser printer is also on the network, anyone that needs a hard copy can print it. Fred |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
wrote:
Okay, this topic may seem to be a little outdated but so is my boss. I just started with a company that prints some internal reports to a line printer. My boss wants to compare the cost of line printing to laser printing. The office staff is tired of the noise the line printer makes. I've suggested moving the printer but we have a very small office and space is limited. I've suggested getting a cover for the printer but no I have to do a cost analysis of Laser vs. Line printing. So here is where I'm at. Ribbons are rated at how many characters you can print per ribbon and laser toner is rated on pages per cartridge. Is there a formula to convert characters per ribbon to pages per ribbon? The old standard was 2k characters per page as an average. At least that's what I recall. How do you factor in the numerous paper jams the line print has? Lasers can jam also, but it's rare if you use a quality printer and decent paper. Personally I don't care either way. I don't sit by the printer so it does not bother me. Sounds like the paper jams aren't a happy moment for you, though. Situations where an impact printer wins over a laser: * Multi-part forms (often easily replaced by having a laser print multiple copies of the form) Factors where lasers win over impact printers: * Print speed (an ordinary laser is faster than a fast impact printer) * Print quality (ever have an invoice where an "8" is misread as a "3"?) * Reliability (less mechanical, less prone to downtime) * Supplies cost (ordinary copier paper, toner versus ribbons) * Noise (people on the phone in an office) Here's my document on used office lasers: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/usedlasers.pdf -- Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
Warren Block wrote:
wrote: Okay, this topic may seem to be a little outdated but so is my boss. I just started with a company that prints some internal reports to a line printer. My boss wants to compare the cost of line printing to laser printing. The office staff is tired of the noise the line printer makes. I've suggested moving the printer but we have a very small office and space is limited. I've suggested getting a cover for the printer but no I have to do a cost analysis of Laser vs. Line printing. So here is where I'm at. Ribbons are rated at how many characters you can print per ribbon and laser toner is rated on pages per cartridge. Is there a formula to convert characters per ribbon to pages per ribbon? The old standard was 2k characters per page as an average. At least that's what I recall. How do you factor in the numerous paper jams the line print has? Lasers can jam also, but it's rare if you use a quality printer and decent paper. Personally I don't care either way. I don't sit by the printer so it does not bother me. Sounds like the paper jams aren't a happy moment for you, though. Situations where an impact printer wins over a laser: * Multi-part forms (often easily replaced by having a laser print multiple copies of the form) Factors where lasers win over impact printers: * Print speed (an ordinary laser is faster than a fast impact printer) * Print quality (ever have an invoice where an "8" is misread as a "3"?) * Reliability (less mechanical, less prone to downtime) * Supplies cost (ordinary copier paper, toner versus ribbons) * Noise (people on the phone in an office) Here's my document on used office lasers: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/usedlasers.pdf Where do you get those "typical rollers"? In case I should ever need one. Had to replace the toner for a HP Laserjet 5 MP, toners seem to be a science of its own too. H. |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
Heiko Recktenwald wrote:
Warren Block wrote: Here's my document on used office lasers: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/usedlasers.pdf Where do you get those "typical rollers"? In case I should ever need one. I've used printerworks.com. There are lots of places for HP parts, including direct from HP. -- Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
Alan wrote:
On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:36:35 -0700 (PDT), wrote: Both will require regular maintenance, both will jam. Actually, the cost of a service contract is likely to be the largest cost of either. If you're handling that inhouse, good luck; in that case ask the guy who does most of the work to give some estimates. In general, service contracts are expensive paper. All they provide is a promise that someone might show up and might be able to fix a problem. More often, someone will show up eventually and announce that they have to order parts, and you'll just have to wait. In most cases, you're better off buying a spare printer. Cost will be the same or less than a service contract. Much less if you have several printers since only one spare is needed. If the active printer breaks, you can swap in the spare and be printing again with very little downtime. The broken printer can be repaired or replaced at your convenience, depending on what's most practical. In practice, I've found true line printers (300 LPM or more) to be prone to mechanical failure, low-speed dot-matrix impact printers (300 CPS) to be reliable, and lasers to be reliable but far faster. -- Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA |
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
Thanks for everyones input. I'll pass this along to my manager.
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#10
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Line printing (DOT Matrix) vs Laser printing: Which is cheaper
On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:29:38 -0500, Warren Block
wrote: Alan wrote: On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:36:35 -0700 (PDT), wrote: Both will require regular maintenance, both will jam. Actually, the cost of a service contract is likely to be the largest cost of either. If you're handling that inhouse, good luck; in that case ask the guy who does most of the work to give some estimates. In general, service contracts are expensive paper. All they provide is a promise that someone might show up and might be able to fix a problem. More often, someone will show up eventually and announce that they have to order parts, and you'll just have to wait. I thought the idea was that they would do preventative maintenance, and check them over every few months. Also they should have common parts to hand. Getting a printer repaired on an ad hoc basis can be pretty costly. In most cases, you're better off buying a spare printer. Cost will be the same or less than a service contract. Much less if you have several printers since only one spare is needed. If the active printer breaks, you can swap in the spare and be printing again with very little downtime. The broken printer can be repaired or replaced at your convenience, depending on what's most practical. I suppose with printers getting cheaper ands service getting more expensive, it might be cheaper just to run them until they die and replace them. I don't like the philosophy of that though. In practice, I've found true line printers (300 LPM or more) to be prone to mechanical failure, low-speed dot-matrix impact printers (300 CPS) to be reliable, and lasers to be reliable but far faster. Back in the 70s, we had a lab with a half dozen line printers, They ran hot all day long, and broke down every day. In the 90s, our office had a cheapish dot matrix for printing invoices. It jammed occasionally when paper went off the sprockets, but otherwise worked without problem for years. With lasers the problems always seem to be paper pickup. Either grabbing too many pages or none at all. The printing itself is pretty much down to the cartridge, which can easily be replaced. ** Posted from http://www.teranews.com ** |
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