The tale of how the Epson planet 30 million "Factories" provided

This year, another anniversary of the appearance of the Epson Printing Factory series in Russia was marked by another global event, which the head office of the company informed us just last week: 30 million devices of this line have already been sold worldwide!

We have already talked about these printers and MFPs in Habré and Geektimes more than once, so in this post I’ll very briefly remind you of how it all began, how it developed, and what range of devices from the refillable printers and MFPs line Epson offers today.

How did it begin

The pioneer in the line of non-cartridge devices of the company was the already well-known six-color photo printer Epson L800 , which, until it was discontinued and replaced with a newer version of the Epson L805 with Wi-Fi, beat sales records throughout its entire stay on the shelf. The current "successor" in the face of the Epson L805 is also not lagging behind, taking the baton of the previous "popular" refillable photo printer.

The emergence of a fundamentally new Epson L800 marked the “tube” period, when everything was new, the development of this line was only gaining momentum, the factories and engineers offices were just unimaginable “moving” and over and over again there were new proposals on how to optimize the cycle production, to minimize the percentage of marriage, how to ensure the durability of the ink supply system, in general, "behind the scenes", it was very fun, I tell you as a direct observer. During the first two years, innovations in the direction took place rather under the hood than in the assortment, so the Epson L800 for a long time kept the proud title of the only refillable photo printer in the entire company catalog.

How did it develop

You can independently observe changes in this line of devices by going to the Print Factory directory on our website and going to its last page . The whole story at a glance - from the bottom up, from archive devices to actual ones.

At the end of 2011, the first four-color MFP of this type appeared in the catalog - Epson L200 . To say that he created a sensation - to say nothing. For the first time, buyers have had the opportunity to buy a color, refilled "combine" with a guarantee from a major manufacturer , and not a "handicraft" alteration of the cartridge Epson.

Well, and then went-go: the release of the most affordable four-color printer model called Epson L110 , as well as the release of the MFP with Wi-Fi in the form of Epson L355 . The latter became the progenitor of the “office” sub-line apparatuses in the form of Epson L550 , which was designed for much greater monthly print load and had a set of features that the old L200 never dreamed of: fax, LCD display and full control panel, printing from a mobile phone or tablet, automatic document feeder ...

The appearance of Epson L550 has defined a new vector of development of the line. A radical improvement in mechanics and firmware was no longer required, and it was possible to start stuffing devices with useful features.

At the end of 2012, it became even more interesting. Due to the fact that not every business requires color printing and it is more important to ensure the durability of archival documents than to print multi-colored graphs, it was decided to release a new type of device - a monochrome “Printing Factory” with pigment inks instead of water-soluble. The first model in the lineup was the Epson M200 .

Having on board ( and in the box with the device ) a double supply of black ink compared to the other "Factories", the Epson M200 required refilling even less often , and was also designed for a much larger monthly print load. This sub-line was intended to be a substitute for laser monochromnics, at the expense of much lower printing costs, to ridiculously low energy consumption (as a proof below, a video about how “Factory” can be used in a car ) and guaranteed archival storage of documents due to pigment ink, which also provides their "indelible" water.

The difference in the cost of ownership of such a monochrome "Factory" and "lazernikom" you can independently assess using our calculator .

The beginning of 2014 was marked by the appearance of the first 6-color A3 + photo printer in the form of an Epson L1800 . It was followed by a four-color Epson L1300 for those who didn’t need photo printing, which made it possible to save a lot by choosing a model with fewer colors (i.e., 4).

In terms of its popularity, the Epson L1800 has become a worthy "big brother" of the Epson L800 and is only dismantled from the shelves.

At this stage, we also remembered that we have a blog on Habré and finally deigned to tell habravchanam about this line of devices.

In 2015, more noticeable “transformations” of the appearance of the devices began, the first of which was Epson L655 , a model of a more “licked” design intended for business.

At the same time, the principle of refueling did not actually change all the time: here is the ink tank, here is the container nose. Spout placed over the hole and refuel. It seems to be easy, but the risk of getting dirty was present.

Until a certain point ...

Tl; dr

As the saying goes, a picture is better than a thousand words. Therefore, I propose to watch a short multimedia video presentation, which we organized in honor of the 5th anniversary of the “Press Factory” in October 2016:

(Offtopic: how do you like this presentation format? For us, this was the first experience, and besides the journalists who were present at the event, they didn’t interrogate anyone else by posting videos on the web. I’ll welcome any opinions on this format.)

At the time of the anniversary, 15 million devices were sold in the world. Those. We were able to reach the current figure of 30 million in just two years ! Somehow I didn’t even expect to find such a jump in sales until I started preparing this post ...

What came to

I did not just complete the story above with a dressing at the “Factory of the Print”. The fact is that in December 2017, the device was completely transformed . What I wrote about the whole post in February .

• the design of refueled tanks has changed - they have become frontal and are part of a monolithic body;
• the devices themselves have become more compact in length and width;
• black in all models became pigmented, and monochrome prints - resistant to water;
• dramatically changed the filling system. Now it became impossible to get dirty, and the “experience” is completely different - akin to that when replacing the cartridge. One, two and done.
• for the first time in printers and MFPs, a device with the newest PrecisionCore print head appeared, which previously only Epson business devices could boast of.

In general, if not a revolution, but certainly a serious evolution. This is exactly the kind to which Epson Printing Factory should have come over the years - compact, smart, universal printers-scanners-copiers with a huge supply of ink out of the box and a convenient refill.

Please read about them , I promise, it will be interesting.

Now what?

The printing factory is Epson's pride for a variety of reasons. Among them, of course, the very fact that Epson was the first company to mass-produce a branded refillable printer in principle, as well as the fact that the production of such devices quickly enough managed to increase to the volumes, which at first could only dream of. For this reason, the main innovations in the non- business line of devices are implemented primarily in this series.

Well, about all the future news about the Epson Printing Factory, you, dear habravchane, you can always learn firsthand in our blog. To not miss anything, you can subscribe to new posts, and I will do everything possible to make them interesting to read.

Thank you for attention.