Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!fmr From: fmr@cwi.nl (Frank Rahmani) Newsgroups: comp.periphs Subject: Re: Heavier Duty Postscript Printer Survey Results Message-ID: <449@sering.cwi.nl> Date: 19 Mar 88 19:30:27 GMT References: <1292@titan.camcon.uucp> Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 136 > > Since we are running at about 9000 pages/month (and increasing) I > started to look for alternatives. > So did we (at about the same amount to print) and as you are discussing three PostScript printers we've (had) in very heavy use I can't restrain from some comments. First: > We currently have a SUN laserwriter which is an Apple laserwriter > with a different badge on the front. This is rated at 300 dots/inch, > 8 pages/minute, 3000-5000 pages per month with a life of 300000 > pages. It requires a new toner cartridge about every 4000 pages, has > a 100 sheet input paper tray and a 20 sheet output paper tray. Cost > is about 4500 pounds, about 2p/page. Yes , and for that it's even cheaper than a copier, but you wan't want to wait for multiple copies as it is SLOW. Also we normally leave our printers on continuously (for people logging in from home), but the small paper- tray is a real handicap. Luckily our laserprinters are connected via a serial line to a multiplexor. So the jobs remain queued and after refilling the papertray at 6 in the morning it happily churned away till noon. NEVER, NEVER had any problems with these. Now that we have bigger printers they are reconnected to Mac's (where they belong) and still doing good work.With a little love and care they give us 7000 pages with one cartridge (5000 with refilled cartridges).If you want quality output in small amounts, this is the way to go. > > The Agfa P400PS is actually an LED array printer with the following specs: > 408 dpi A4 pages That's the highest resolution of the three, just a pity it DOESN'T show, as a matter of fact the quality of the output is MUCH worse than the other two. > Adobe Atlas Postscript board > 20 MB Hard disk, 6 MB RAM > 18 changing pages a minute True for plain text only > 2000 sheet input bin > 200 sheet input tray. > 500 sheet output bin. > Optional 20 bin output collator. > 5000000 page drum life With 140000 prints done (in about three months) we just got the third drum. > Rated up to 100000 pages/month > One toner bottle lasts about 5000 pages > Serviced every 50000 pages This is enforced by the machine itself. Can be overriden for another 1000 or so pages. > RS232, AppleTalk & Centronics interfaces. > Standard four fonts built into the ROMS, 35 other fonts on the hard > disk. Others can be added whenever you want. > The Atlas board spools incoming jobs onto the hard disk. So if a page > jams then you don't have to print it again as it just reads the > damaged page back off the disk and prints it again. And believe me, you NEED this feature. Our machine jams about thirty times a day, sometimes even after every second page.(No real jams, due to some bad timing in the transport the machine just stops. Re- moving a sheet which looks very burned(!) and pressing 'C' on the control panel gets things going again.If things get too wild we call the serviceman, which forgets our appointment and usually shows up one week later (we have 8 working hours followup on our contract!!) and after some angry phone calls from our part (Hi, Agfa Netherland, recognize your style?). If you want smooth operation in your print- shop stay away from this one (we just needed the font_downloading_ to_builtin_harddisk feature and look how we got burned). One other remark on this one: in contrary to the other two printers on this one the toner is not burned into the paper, it's just sitting on top of it (yes, you can actually FEEL the letters and lines). To the naked eye the print looks much blacker, but as the toner is also kind of fatty (very reflective) you never get nice photocopies from it. Compared to the next machine, the input and output bins of the Agfa are very unpractical and of very low quality. > Can take, paper, OHP slides, thin card and paper offset sheets in the > 200 sheet input tray. > 19,500 pounds including installation. > Maintenance cost 1194/year + 1p/page includes supplies of toner > and all parts and labour. > Separate Toner supplies are 22.50/bottle. > Cost per page at 15000 pages/month inc maintenance 1.66p > Contact Leigh Davis, Office Systems, Agfa-Gaevert Ltd 01-560-2131 > > The Dataproducts LZR-2665 specs are: Now you start talking sense! > 300 dpi A4 or A3 pages Even if you don't use A3 (as we don't), it means that in plain text two pages are printed AT ONCE which makes it VERY fast(enscript e.g.). > Postscript Interface > Up to 26 pages a minute > Optional 1500 sheet input bin Very practical and easy to fill (has an electric elevator like the big copiers). In contrary to the Agfa this one can be refilled anytime during printing as it is a separate machine. The Agfa jams if you try to refill it during printing (except when the tray is totally empty) > 500 A4 and 250 (A4/A3) sheet input trays > 250 sheet output tray > Optional 10 bin output collator > 3000000 drum life > Rated up to 60000 pages/month > Serviced every 40000 pages The service interval seems to be planned very good, as we got slight transportation trouble after every other 40000 mark (our mistake, we use normal 80grs copier paper which is VERY dusty). Besides that NEVER had any trouble. Serviceman always takes the whole machine apart to look after possible trouble_to_become. Thanks for the good service, Datamation Netherland! > One toner bottle lasts about 6000 pages > RS232, AppleTalk & Centronics interfaces > Standard fonts > Can take OHP slides, cassettes 60-80gsm, manual 60-130gsm > 14,950 pounds > 8 Hour Maintenance cost 880 pounds/year 1.1 p/page > includes parts and labour. Other options available. > Toner needed at about 15.60 pounds/bottle > Cost per page at 15000/month inc maintenance 1.84p > Contact Glen Griffiths, Sintrom Ltd (0734) 311088 > > At a lower level of performance there is the Texas Instruments 2115 Seems that TI doesn't do any business any more in Europe. The last time I saw them around was with those handhelds (TI 56). > | Adrian Cockcroft anc@camcon.uucp ..!seismo!mcvax!ukc!camcon!anc > -[T]- Cambridge Consultants Ltd, Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4DW, > | England, UK (0223) 358855 One last word about output quality. The Agfa (at least our Agfa) can't print fuul page bitmap pics, there are big white patches all over the page. Also it can't print a grayscale, there is NO distinction between the values of the scale. Both, the Apple LW+ and the Dataproducts produce this kind of output very nicely. All the above is my personal opinion from working as an operator 12 hours daily with this machines. fmr@cwi.nl -- It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck?