Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!mordor!sri-spam!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!opus.UUCP!jrw From: jrw@opus.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers Subject: Re: Laser printing for the masses... Message-ID: <8607222014.AA09605@uw-beaver.arpa> Date: Tue, 22-Jul-86 16:14:36 EDT Article-I.D.: uw-beave.8607222014.AA09605 Posted: Tue Jul 22 16:14:36 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jul-86 06:32:13 EDT References: <8607211559.AA18943@ee.purdue.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ Lines: 77 Approved: laser-lovers@washington.arpa > The Electrical Engineering Department here at Purdue is considering the > possibility of installing a laser printer to handle line printing and high > quality output in one of our student terminal rooms. > > First the easy question: > > Hardware: What would you buy? We are a BSD UNIX site with a mix of > VAXes, Gould PN9080's, ISI and SUN equipment acting as our compute base. > > - 20 pages/min. or better output rate (actual pages coming out the > marking engine) > - 30,000 or more (I suspect more like 40,000) pages printed per month > - Cost in the $50K range > - low supply cost, low cost or self maintainance > - terminal room "survivability" We are testing a QMS PS-2400 laser printer and it works GREAT. It is based upon the Xerox 3700 engine and it does: - 24 pages per minute - 3 selectable paper trays: 1 1500 sheet bin 2 250 sheet trays We use the bin for the jobs and put colored paper in the 1st tray for the header sheets. I am toying with the idea of putting viewgraph sheets or labels in the second tray. - easily can handle 30,000+ pages/month. We run this many thru our 2700s. I won't mention what we do to our Imagens... - costs in the mid $30K range - maintenance should run about $500.00/month for a service contract. GET IT! Not that the printer breaks a lot, but the developer does need changing with the high volume, and cleaning it monthly makes for nicer output. - the "toner" (black powder) is relatively inexpensive, but the developer is somewhat expensive, but it lasts a lot longer. I would imagine it is cheaper than the 4000 pager imagen cartridges though. - this guy/gal/thing will survive the terminal room. > - is there a postscript engine that fits these specs? - it runs PostScript > - any thoughts on the following devices: The Imagen 24/300 is a nice printer. I have one also, but like the above a bit better because of the PostScript features. > Now the tough question: > > Policy: without question, HUGE additional demands will be placed on > our computing facilities if each and every student had access to this printer > for high quality (troff) output. Line printer listings, however must be > printed on this printer as it will replace one or more aging line printers. > > - who should get access? > - how do you control access? > - how do you recover supply costs? > - have you tried a plan such as I am suggesting? What were your > results? > - have you experienced any abuses of your facility (ie. printing > posters, letters for outside organizations, etc)? If you need a line printer, I would buy a nice big one, like the 1200 lpm LP27 DEC sells. This works out to about 20 pages per minute. I know, I know, laser output looks so much better, but for code listings, I think it is fine. If you have to turn it in after it has been debugged, THEN laser it. We have all manners of posters/etc coming out. Good luck stopping it. Enjoy! -- Jim Webb "Out of phase--get help" ihnp4!houxm!hropus!jrw