Laser printers and consumables: optional memo and life extension

In general, there are quite a few people on Habré who are well versed in printers and consumables for them. But more, probably, those who perceive the printer as a device familiar to everyone (almost like an iron), which “works and it’s okay”.
And if for home use such an approach is still acceptable, then the lack of attention to a printer for an office can turn into significant costs (and the wrong choice of printer may even turn into a black hole for finance). And for a home user, too, it would be nice to save a couple of thousand rubles, right?
Upon mature reflection, we decided to publish a small article reminder for users of printers (the article was “sharpened” for working with laser printers, a couple of mentions about inkjets, and that's all).
The article has a few tips on choosing a printer, on choosing cartridges (so far we are only talking about laser scanners) plus tips on the proper operation of printers and consumables for them.
We also decided to develop an application - a nice reminder for working with a printer for the “accountant Varvara Germanovna” and other employees. You can print the memo and hang it near your printing device.

Choose the right printer? Challenge accepted

1. Decide on an approximate print volume: up to 50 pages per month or 50,000 pages per day.
In the first case, the simplest inkjet printer will suit you (do not forget about the danger of ink drying) or the services of printing centers (which is more economically feasible with such a volume). In general, you can put in 2,000 rubles. jet and not worry more about this.
The inkjet is also justified for the constant load of high-quality (photo printing) printing. But here it is worth looking at the situation - do you need a “headache” with an inkjet and a CISS (continuous ink supply system), or is it easier for you to constantly work with a photo studio / print studio?
If the need for printing exceeds 100 pages per month, then we recommend buying a modern basic laser for 4,000 rubles.
With a home printer is understandable, but how to estimate the print volume in the office? We recommend taking the average amount of paper ordered to the office as a basis. Then, it is necessary to determine the number of printers per company: either it will be one large productive unit in the corridor, or several basic printers per cabinets. But we must not forget that putting one large printer on the office, the savings on additional printers turn into, albeit small, but daily, costs for the working time of employees.
Determine the type of printer (s) can be based on the classification of printing equipment for the recommended load: personal, small, medium and large.
Personal printers have a working resource of up to 5,000 pages per month and are intended for home use or in the office with small print volumes. Most inkjet printers / MFPs (multifunction devices) and simple models of laser and LED printers / MFPs fall into this category.
Small appliances are multifunction printers and printers that can print from 5,000 to 10,000 pages per month. This is the most common class of devices, it is used in small offices or in separate offices.
Middle-class printers print from 20,000 to 50,000 pages per month. Such devices can be put one by one on a large office, the feed trays allow you to make a significant supply of paper for intensive printing.
Large office equipment can print over 50,000 pages per month without loss of efficiency. Such devices in their performance are close to mini-printing houses and can be used to print a small circulation of brochures.
If the speed of printing documents is important in the work of your office, you need to understand that the higher the class of the printer, the faster it prints.
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2. Plan your budget for printing as a whole.
All logical reasons for choosing a printer are divided by budget. But financial investments after the purchase of a printer are far from being completed, and, more often, they are just beginning.
To insure against unplanned expenses, you need to consider the cost of printing, taking into account such concepts as:
The price of a copy - includes the cost of consumables: cartridges and paper. In calculations, the paper is often not taken into account, since its price is stable; however, its cost averages 25 kopecks per sheet.
The cost of use includes, in addition to the price of the copy, also the cost of equipment, preventive maintenance of printers, repair work and the cost of spare parts.
Full cost of copy : this is the cost of use / number of copies for the entire planned period of use of the equipment. The average lifetime is from 3 to 5 years depending on the load (in the documentation for the printer, the manufacturer indicates this period).

3. Decide on print color: black or color.
The real need for printing color images ranges in numbers to 5% of the total print. And for the sake of these 5%, a color printer is often purchased by an order of magnitude higher than the cost of a monochrome printer.
It is better to print color photos from the corporate party in any photo studio, and more qualitatively and “for cheap”. This is how to buy a convertible in St. Petersburg. It seems to be cute and cool, but you can ride with open tops for 2-3 days a month and not every year :) And if you, besides corporate photos, have nothing more to print in color, we recommend getting a monochrome printer anyway.

4. Pay attention to the type of cartridge system in the printer:
- “all in one” (for laser printers, cartridge - monolithic);
- "composite cartridge" (for laser printers, the cartridge may consist of 2 or 3 parts).
If you are planning to purchase one printer, then you can cope with the composite laser cartridge, and with the configuration of the system of ink jet printers (if you buy the same inkjet).
But if you manage several printers that are used by several dozens of users, then composite cartridge systems will significantly complicate the maintenance process. Much less troublesome is the all-in-one system.

5. How many users will print documents on this machine.
Yes, the more employees, the faster the printers die.
It is more economically advantageous to put 1 device on an open space office, but in practice it is difficult to implement: documents are confused, duplicate reprints occur. There are systems of individual printing on the cards, but they are expensive (unique software + additional equipment) and their implementation should have a serious justification.

6. With large print volumes, you need to think about how the process of servicing the printing technology will be organized.
This is not always obvious, but the printing technique, like any other, needs prevention. Someone prefers to conduct it on their own, someone uses the services of outsourcers.
If the company has 100 printers (some of which are in remote branches), you need to decide who will be servicing the printers: full-time employees or an external company.
But rarely anyone can afford a full-time specialist in printing. For example, a 5-day training course on using printers from Hewlett-Packard costs about $ 750 in Moscow (for b / w and color - different courses). And if the specialist leaves ...
On the organization of printing systems in medium and large offices, we can write a separate article if such interest arises.

7. We advise also to assume the density of filling the printed sheet.
What for? There is an interesting statistics about which few people know.
All specifications manufacturers of printers issued on the basis of the standard rate - 5% filling of the printed sheet. If the% of sheet filling increases, the rate of consumption of cartridges also increases.
Example of a 5% fill sheet
Example of 15% completion of a printed sheet

For example, one of the top models - the HP CB436A cartridge is designed for 2,000 sheets. It turns out that at 5% filling it will print 2,000 sheets, and at 15% filling 3 times less, i.e. 666 pages ...
Not a new, but popular C7115A cartridge is designed for 2500 sheets at 5% coverage, and at 15% filling it will print 3 times less, i.e. about 834 pages.

8. To decide on additional options of the printing device.
In addition to the basic configuration, the printer can have many more configurations that directly affect the cost of the device. Let us dwell on the main ones:
Copying, scanning, telephone, fax - these tasks are already solved by the MFP, and not a simple printer.
Duplex (duplexer), which allows you not to manually turn over the documents to be printed on both sides.
Printing on special paper (cardboard, labels, photographic paper) - the printer will print in high quality and the printer will not break if you have this option in its configuration.
Printing from a mobile device - more and more often modern models of printers are equipped with the option of printing via a local wireless network, but in practice it is not often used.
Printing from USB, memory cards , etc.
Additional paper trays (there may be several) - allow you to fill the printer with paper sometimes for months in advance.
Finishers - automatic punchers, staplers, stitchers, etc. Such devices are equipped with "heavy" A3 format devices. Their acquisition directly depends on the tasks assigned to the printer.
Sorters (mailboxes) - sorts the printed documents when sharing.
Hard disk - speeds up printing on previously created templates, such as letterhead, where only text changes.
The presence of the touch screen of the printer - makes it easier to manage printing processes.
Battery operation - for force majeure situations and for mobile printing.

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Choose the right cartridge? Let's try

When choosing any product / service, we, first of all, evaluate them by 2 main criteria: price and quality; it is difficult to find a compromise between them:
1) Original cartridges : the quality of prints is reference, but it’s really expensive
2) remanufactured cartridges : print quality is close to original cartridges, they are 30–40% cheaper than original cartridges, but savings are felt only in the long term;
3) compatible cartridges : 2–3 times cheaper than original ones, but their quality is unstable and the resource is lower than that of the original ones (since the print is “denser”, the toner consumption is higher);
4) refilled cartridges : “cheap and cheerful” in the literal sense: the most economical solution, but the resource and print quality of the cartridge are unpredictable.

Choosing which cartridges to use (again, it’s only about laser cartridges), it is important to prioritize and decide on these printing options:
- quality of the printed document (“not at all important” - compatible and refilled cartridges; “important” - recovered and original; “color reproduction is very important” - original);
- the cost of the printed document ("not at all important" - original cartridges; "fast saving is important" - refilled and compatible; "very important, we optimize costs" - recovered);
- environmental friendliness (trend, and in some companies already a necessary requirement); speaking figuratively, buying and discarding the original or compatible cartridge, you “bury a plastic bag into the ground after the 1st use”; refilling the cartridge, you “bury a plastic bag into the ground after the 2nd use”; using recovery - you "use a paper bag."

But a memo on the operation of printers and consumables for them

DOWNLOAD MEMORY

THE PRINTER WILL WORK FULFILLABLY IF:
• install the cartridges correctly in the printer ; Do not try to install the cartridge without reading the instructions: you can damage not only the cartridge, but also the printer itself;
• print black-and-white documents on monochrome printers and NOT print black-and-white documents on color printers ; as when printing b / w of the document, the parts of all 4-color cartridges are worn out as with color printing;
• remove jammed paper correctly; If the paper is stuck in the printer , you can not just drag it, pulling up (especially, remove it with scissors, rulers, etc.); the correct way to remove jammed paper from the printer depends on the model of the machine and is described in the user manual; the best thing is to contact a specialist responsible for servicing the device;
• monitor the humidity and temperature of the air in the room ; Toner is a very complex substance and the manufacturer specifies all printing characteristics of the printer, referring to ideal conditions (certain humidity and air temperature); the simplest humidifier can save you several tens of thousands of rubles to repair the device; according to statistics, the number of breakdowns of printers and cartridges increases with the onset of the heating season;
• carry out regular preventive maintenance of the printer (service); it is always cheaper than one-time repairs after the fact (disease prevention is always cheaper than treatment);
• correctly place the printer in the room ; It is not recommended to place the printer near the window or on the window sill (dust, humidity and temperature instability adversely affect the details of the printer); in addition, the printer should stand on a flat surface slightly larger than its area (because if one leg of the printer moves away from the surface, the load on its individual parts will change);
• Place clean paper in the printer correctly . ideally, clean paper, taken out of the pack, should be scrolled before placing it in the printer (to avoid sheets that are “stuck together” from static electricity);
• take into account the thickness and type of paper for printing ; Printing on thick, glossy, sticky paper on printers not designed for these types of paper is dangerous for the printer;
• do not use drafts for printing ; it is assumed that it is economical to print on draft copies, however, this is not quite the case: the old draft toner can crumble and bake on the printer's thermal block; saving on paper will amount to a couple of hundred rubles, and the cost of repairing a printer’s stove will be several thousand rubles;
• respond correctly to force majeure ; when liquid or small objects get into the printer, the device must be pulled out of the socket, “shout loudly“ Help! ”” (call a specialist);
• make sure that paper clips, strokes, glue, tape, etc. do not fall inside the printer ; according to statistics, the clip is the main enemy of the printer; this also applies to the rule: use the printer for its intended purpose; do not store foreign objects in the trays of the printer (cookies, cosmetics and stashes until salary).