Why the Sharp MX Series colour MFP is the perfect replacement for a black and white copier/printer
The introduction of colour copier/printers that have similar mono running costs as black and white machines, combined with growing use of colour in businesses of all sizes, is driving demand for faster more productive colour devices.
Traditionally businesses have installed mono copiers for black and white print jobs and colour machines for four-colour output. However, because the mono running costs on Sharp’s new generation of colour machines are the same as on mono-only devices, it now makes economic and logistical sense to install a single machine for both colour and black and white output.
But only if there is no loss of productivity colour machines introduced as mono-replacements must offer the same black and white print speeds as machines they are replacing, with the same functionality and finishing options.
Increasingly customers are also demanding that the colour print speed should be the same as the black and white one:
• so that there are no bottlenecks when printing in colour and
• so that the devices can handle growing colour print volumes, as users begin to appreciate the benefits of producing colour output in-house.
Sharp’s new colour Multifunctional Products, the MX2300N and MX2700N, have been introduced to meet this demand. With print speeds of 23 and 27 pages per minute for both mono and colour output, sophisticated finishing capabilities, a large paper capacity, tandem printing capability and extensive management and security feature the new machines offer colour without compromise.
There are not many business documents that couldn’t be improved with the addition of colour: sales proposal have more impact if printed in colour; reports are easier to read and more memorable; marketing material more persuasive; logos more recognisable and invoices more likely to be acted upon.
Yet businesses remain ambivalent about the viability of colour machines in the workplace. For some, this is due to unhappy experiences with slow and expensive inkjet machines, or dissatisfaction with the finishing capabilities or productivity of colour laser printers. Others are concerned about the cost implications of introducing colour or the complexity of controlling colour usage and managing a diverse copier and printer fleet.
The Sharp MX Series is designed to ally these fears, by providing businesses and workgroups with all the tools needed to produce and distribute colour and black and white documents simply and cost-effectively.
Instead of having to buy, maintain and find room for a number of single function machines the MX Series provides full bleed A3, duplex colour and mono printing (PCL5c/PCL6, optional PS3), coping and scanning, with the option of Super G3 fax in one compact footprint.
Unlike some “colour capable” machines, the XM Series is based on a single-pass engine that delivers black and white pages at the same speed as colour ones (23 or 27 pages per minute) The combination of a short paper path and 600 MHz Power PC processor achieves a first page out time of 6.3 seconds for black and white and 8.9 seconds for colour pages.
Print quality is suitable for all business documents, such as presentations, reports, invoices and marketing material, with resolutions of 600 x 600 dpi (copying) and 1200 x 600 dpi (printing) with 256 gradations per CMYK colour (4 bit). Finishing options include a very compact, space-saving hole-punch/stapler and a saddle stitch finisher for booklet-making.
Because the MX Series is designed to perform a variety of functions in mono and colour the devices incorporate a number of productivity features to maximise throughput and minimise the amount of time users need to spend at the machines.
These include the ability to perform a number of tasks at once (e.g. printing and scanning); scan once print many; electronic sorting, which allows users to create up to 999 collated copies of multi-page documents without the aid of a sorter; proof copying and printing to make sure settings are right before starting a large print run; automatic paper size selection, even when scanning a bath of different sized documents; and automatic colour detection.
The MX Series also offers the flexibility of direct printing from email, from an FTP server (files can be retrieved and printed via the machine’s LCD pane), from web pages and from a USB memory drive. This allows users to print documents without a print driver and without having to launch the relevant application on a PC.
Organisations with more than one MX-2300/MX-2700N can half the time needed to complete a copy or print job by taking advantage of a tandem print capability to split a print job between two machines, effectively doubling the rated output speed.
The network scanner function on MFPs is widely used to facilitate the electronic distribution of paper-based information and as a means of converting hard copy documents into electronic formats.
The MX Series’ scan-to-email facility allows users to send scanned documents to an email address. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) support means that users can access email addresses stored on corporate servers, eliminating the need to enter addresses at the machine itself.
Scans saved as TIFF, PDFs or jpeg can be saved on the user’s desktop, on an FTP server, on a file server, on the MFPs hard disc or on an USB memory device. This enables office workers to use the TWAIN scanner to enter hard copy data into electronic workflows. Alternatively, documents can be stored on the user’s desktop using SHARPDESK document management software, which lets users manage document in more than 200 file formats, add annotations, create a document made up of different file types, convert documents into editable text and search for files using keywords. Scans can also be stored on the on the MFP’s hard disk in public, private of temporary folders. The ability to retrieve and print files at the MFP itself makes this capability particularly useful for frequently used documents such as expense sheets or holiday forms.
Although it can cost 10 times more to outsource print than to produce colour material in-house, many businesses remain fearful of a steep rise in print costs. To allay these fears Sharp offers a number of controls that can be implemented at a departmental or individual level. These include ID/password access: print/copy quotas for up to 200 billing accounts; and the ability to deny individuals/departments access to certain functions.
As one of the first manufacturers to recognise the need for additional security tin the office environment, it is not surprising that Sharp has built sophisticated security features into the MX Series. These include the ID and password access and the creations of encrypted PDFs. Further protection is provided by an optional data security kit, which automatically encrypts data stored on the hard disk and securely deletes unwanted data from the memory and hard disk after a print job has been completed.
Another area of growing interest to corporate buyers is sustainability. Sharp has addressed this in a number of ways, most obviously though a manual energy save key, which can significantly reduce poser consumption if pressed by the user once his or her job has been completed (it takes 30 seconds to get back up to ‘ready’ status). Event without this feature, the M Series is very power-efficient, consuming less than 1W in night-time standby for fax reception.
In line with Sharp’s corporate responsibility strategy, the MX Series has been designed to be environmentally friendly in terms of manufacturing components and operation. Sharp has introduced a new patented toner system, which is not only manufactured more efficiently and environmentally, but requires less one toner consumption to deliver a high quality image. This results in a resource saving that substantially reduces the size of the toner cartridge and the amount of packaging use.
The MFPs themselves have been developed according to Sharp’s “common platform” concept, which stipulates that wherever possible common mechanical parts, boards, consumable, software and controllers should be used. This simplifies stock management and logistics, meaning that less power is needed to sustain Sharp’s activities.
By combining the productivity features of a mono copier with print quality of a colour machine, the MX Series provides workgroups with all the tools they need to create high quality colour or black and white documents in-house.