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What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 30th 17, 02:50 AM posted to comp.periphs.printers
[email protected]
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Posts: 1
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?


Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10 times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may also factor in TCO
  #2  
Old January 30th 17, 10:30 AM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Chris Green
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Posts: 6
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

wrote:
On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?


Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can
produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable
units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently
as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device
or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps
a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10
times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be
used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may
also factor in TCO


I never really understood either figure.

Why should limiting output to, say, 1000 sides per month, be better
for the printer? If the printer is going to wear out after 20000
sheets then why not just say so? I don't believe it's going to print
more sheets if limited to 1000 sheets per month (i.e. it dies after 20
months) than if one tries to print 20000 sheets in two months.

--
Chris Green
·
  #3  
Old January 30th 17, 02:46 PM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Mark F[_2_]
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Posts: 164
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 09:30:25 +0000, Chris Green wrote:

wrote:
On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?


Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can
produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable
units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently
as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device
or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps
a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10
times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be
used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may
also factor in TCO


I never really understood either figure.

Why should limiting output to, say, 1000 sides per month, be better
for the printer?

Various possibilities:
1. pages/month is just a marketing thing so people have an idea of
how many pages/month they can print and get a reasonable
calendar lifetime for the computer and reasonable time between
replacements other than for toner or ink.

2. over heating: I don't know about printers, around 2000 I had
HP tape drives that were not rated for writing a full tape
and then reading it on the same day. HP support said didn't have
to wait a full day, but at least 8 hours. (HP also replaced the
drives each time they failed, but that was only 2 replacements
for the same unit before I went to disk backups anyhow.)

Depending on cool off times needed, 1000 pages continuously
might be a big problem; but 250 pages continuously then, say,
a two hour rest, 12 times a day might not result in a
reduced total page count for the printer.

3. This one probably doesn't apply for office printers, but might
apply for service bureaus:
In the old days, IBM or whoever, would do
preventive maintenance (PM) periodically.
(tightening up things, changing the oil in the
printer, cleaning or replacing filters, running extensive
diagnostics, etc.)


If the printer is going to wear out after 20000
sheets then why not just say so? I don't believe it's going to print
more sheets if limited to 1000 sheets per month (i.e. it dies after 20
months) than if one tries to print 20000 sheets in two months.

  #4  
Old January 30th 17, 03:31 PM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Chris Green
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Posts: 6
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

Mark F wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 09:30:25 +0000, Chris Green wrote:

wrote:
On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?

Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can
produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable
units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently
as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device
or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps
a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10
times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be
used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may
also factor in TCO


I never really understood either figure.

Why should limiting output to, say, 1000 sides per month, be better
for the printer?

Various possibilities:
1. pages/month is just a marketing thing so people have an idea of
how many pages/month they can print and get a reasonable
calendar lifetime for the computer and reasonable time between
replacements other than for toner or ink.

Yes, but it somehow implies more than this doesn't it. We don't get a
'miles per month' figure for a car or bicycle, or a number of washes
per month for a washing machine.


2. over heating: I don't know about printers, around 2000 I had
HP tape drives that were not rated for writing a full tape
and then reading it on the same day. HP support said didn't have
to wait a full day, but at least 8 hours. (HP also replaced the
drives each time they failed, but that was only 2 replacements
for the same unit before I went to disk backups anyhow.)

Depending on cool off times needed, 1000 pages continuously
might be a big problem; but 250 pages continuously then, say,
a two hour rest, 12 times a day might not result in a
reduced total page count for the printer.

But 1000/month is only 30 per day, surely heating can't be an issue.
I'd be worried if it was.

--
Chris Green
·
  #5  
Old January 31st 17, 02:47 AM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Gernot Hassenpflug[_4_]
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Posts: 44
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

Chris Green writes:

Mark F wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 09:30:25 +0000, Chris Green wrote:

wrote:
On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?

Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can
produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable
units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently
as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device
or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps
a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10
times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be
used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may
also factor in TCO

I never really understood either figure.

Why should limiting output to, say, 1000 sides per month, be better
for the printer?

Various possibilities:
1. pages/month is just a marketing thing so people have an idea of
how many pages/month they can print and get a reasonable
calendar lifetime for the computer and reasonable time between
replacements other than for toner or ink.

Yes, but it somehow implies more than this doesn't it. We don't get a
'miles per month' figure for a car or bicycle, or a number of washes
per month for a washing machine.

2. over heating: I don't know about printers, around 2000 I had
HP tape drives that were not rated for writing a full tape
and then reading it on the same day. HP support said didn't have
to wait a full day, but at least 8 hours. (HP also replaced the
drives each time they failed, but that was only 2 replacements
for the same unit before I went to disk backups anyhow.)

Depending on cool off times needed, 1000 pages continuously
might be a big problem; but 250 pages continuously then, say,
a two hour rest, 12 times a day might not result in a
reduced total page count for the printer.

But 1000/month is only 30 per day, surely heating can't be an issue.
I'd be worried if it was.


(All good info so no snippage)

Duty cycle originally has to do with the power consumed, and therefore
the heat generated, in electric and electronic components. If this
cannot be dissipated then the device will quickly fail. A duty cycle
with a given power consumption therefore is either short high peaks of
usage, or longer but lower periods of usage.
How this concerns printers is most likely exactly the same when one
looks at the components directly, and manufacturers have extrapolated
this to the user sphere of actual paper printing, although again here an
arbitrary assumption of perhaps 5% coverage is assumed. In other words,
it depends.
--
NNTP on Emacs 24.5 from Windows 7
  #6  
Old February 2nd 17, 11:53 AM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Ed Pawlowski
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Posts: 24
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:31:21 +0000, Chris Green wrote:



Depending on cool off times needed, 1000 pages continuously
might be a big problem; but 250 pages continuously then, say,
a two hour rest, 12 times a day might not result in a
reduced total page count for the printer.

But 1000/month is only 30 per day, surely heating can't be an issue.
I'd be worried if it was.


It is just a reflection of moderate use and a means of comparison.
Usually based on averages. If you have heavy printing needs you will
probably be happier with a different model. Try printing 1000 pages
non-stop and see how often you can do that.
  #7  
Old February 2nd 17, 12:15 PM posted to comp.periphs.printers
Chris Green
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6
Default What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:31:21 +0000, Chris Green wrote:



Depending on cool off times needed, 1000 pages continuously
might be a big problem; but 250 pages continuously then, say,
a two hour rest, 12 times a day might not result in a
reduced total page count for the printer.

But 1000/month is only 30 per day, surely heating can't be an issue.
I'd be worried if it was.


It is just a reflection of moderate use and a means of comparison.
Usually based on averages. If you have heavy printing needs you will
probably be happier with a different model. Try printing 1000 pages
non-stop and see how often you can do that.


But, if I'm being pedantic, I could maybe print 1000 pages on one day
per month and stay within the duty-cycle figure. It's actually a not
uncommon type of usage where a great deal of printing is done on, say,
the last day of the month and very little for the rest of the month.

--
Chris Green
·
 




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