Epson WorkForce Enterprise - one and a half years later. Compilation of cases and interesting facts

The last time I first told Epson Printer Level 80 “ Epson WorkForce Enterprise ” blog that prints color documents at speeds up to 100 pages per minute and comes with ink supplies up to 100,000 prints during a device discussion in comments and personal messages often met a completely natural question: “And for whom is such a device created at all?” .

The question is fair because, in fact, it is a very expensive A3-format machine, which, due to its design features and capabilities (color inkjet technology with a fixed print head and monstrous endurance), is in appearance a ready-made competitor to replicable (typographic) color machines.

But this is still not the main and only thing for which this MFP was developed!

Now, after more than a year and a half since the previous publication, it makes sense to cut the results and look at a couple of examples of which customers have chosen WorkForce Enterprise as the main workhorse and why.

And to make it even more interesting, I’ll share the facts about the possibilities of the device, which we didn’t even suspect when it was announced. I promise that no “copy-paste” of official press releases will be: I will tell in my own words, concisely and in the case. I ask all interested under cat.

Epson WorkForce Enterprise School Typography

... and, of course, the first success story on the list turned out to be exactly the one in which Enterprise acted as a typographic machine . That's what I need.

By the end of the school year, there is an urgent need to print a large amount of documents in a short period of time. According to the school administration, “ordinary” (desktop) printers cannot cope with such print volumes, and they are not designed for such a load. In addition, you need to print photos, letters, documents - and all on different types of papers of different densities ... Apparatus for this we need very "omnivorous" and universal.

It is logical that a similar amount of printing also affects the cost of ownership of a fleet of printing equipment. Not for the better.

As a result, the management decided to create their own full-service printing press with a printer and staff to ensure the school’s independence from third-party contractors and allow them to prepare the necessary materials as soon as possible.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Ischuk, director of school №103, shares his impressions: “When comparing characteristics with similar solutions based on laser printing technology, Epson WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590D4TWF remained out of competition. Only three months have passed since the school opened, and so far the new device has not been fully loaded. But now we can say that modern inkjet printing pleasantly surprises - one universal device replaced a whole fleet of various printing devices, providing us with a lot of new opportunities, so we are completely satisfied with the chosen solution . ”

It is wonderful. But further - more interesting.

Alko Polyus Chooses Epson WorkForce Enterprise MFP

Alko-Polyus specializes in the distribution of beer.

And here I can finally give an example of an organization that prints just an incredible amount of documents , since any trading and shipping operation must be confirmed as such. You need to print shipping documents and invoices, commercial invoices, specifications, technical documentation, packing lists, quality certificates, letters of guarantee, etc. At the same time, many consist of hundreds of pages, without any exaggeration!

Until 2018, the St. Petersburg distribution center of the Alko-Polyus company used a fleet of laser printers. A total of about 10 devices.

I think you can imagine the disadvantages of such a large number of lasers: the high cost of the print (including all consumables, and not just the refilling of the toner) and a significant amount of maintenance. Periodically require replacement of defective components (stoves, drums, etc.) and difficult to repair. In addition, the technology of laser printing implies a strong heating of the toner to “bake” it on the surface of the paper and, if it is used continuously, distributes a noticeable odor. A colleague who was on the spot to assess the possibility of integrating our multifunction printer into the company's network noted that the printers printed on-site almost without stopping, and he had not yet encountered such a strong smell of “chemistry” and ozone in the same room. In this case, as far as I know, the ventilation system worked properly.

And ozone is toxic , despite for some reason well-established delusions in its magical "healing" properties. In particular, ozonizers are indeed well suited for the disinfection of premises. Yes. When there is no one in them, and no one comes in to regularly collect printed documents from a permanently highly-grounded room.

So, in November 2017, the company planned to expand the fleet of devices with a couple more devices due to the growing sales volumes. But realizing that infinitely "extensively" to increase print performance will not work, we decided to consider analogues.

And here Epson with its new WorkForce Enterprise arrived.

As a result of analyzing the capabilities of the devices, we acquired two Epson WorkForce Enterprise multifunction devices and compared it with competing devices in real-life conditions.

According to the results of the project, now 15 workplaces of operators responsible for the shipment of Alko-Polyus products are provided by our vehicles.

The customer praises the print quality, high processing speed of PDF files, reduced operating costs compared to laser printers. According to them, the savings achieved with the use of inkjet printing technology amounted to approximately 50% due to lower printing costs and device maintenance costs due to low requirements for paper quality, a small number of spare parts and ease of replacement, as well as low energy consumption .

Of course, inkjet printing technology does not involve heating, and the ink does not emit any odor when printing. This also contributed to the decision to replace the lazernik on the jet Enterprise.

Experience of European companies: Epson WorkForce Enterprise in the copy center

Finally, the story from the copy center Unicorn copy & print .

Every day, about 400 customers come to the Unicorn Copy Center in the city of Freiburg with print orders in formats up to A0.

The main thing for which such copy centers are valued is universality. So that you can have documents, photos, and no bands, and “quickly, cheaply, efficiently” ...

Recently, the company decided to purchase a new printing device. After consulting Eich ColorCrafter , an Epson WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590 inkjet multifunction printer was chosen.

And here I will again return to universality :

Employees of nearby business centers often seek digitization and printing of materials up to A3. In addition, a popular service among students is the printing of PDF documents, and, often, directly from smartphones via WLAN or Bluetooth. Epson WorkForce Enterprise is connected to multiple computers so that customers can edit files before printing, if necessary. At the same time, the MFP easily prints on a variety of media types, including textured and glossy paper, thin carbon paper (below) and media with a density of up to 400 g / m2.

All this, coupled with a print speed of up to 100 pages per minute, reduces the waiting time to a minimum. Since the acquisition, over 100,000 documents have been processed and printed.

And we learned

You can really get acquainted with such a complex device and evaluate its functionality only by integrating it into the business process at any enterprise and personally working day after day. Fortunately for us, Publish.ru made an excellent review of the MFP , from which we learned that:

• WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590 is suitable for printing on self-copying paper. From the review: “Not every TsPM can print on such material (for testing, we used cheap Chinese“ self-cleaning ”with a density of 50 g / m2). The main problems that arise in this case are sheet jams when passing through the printing path or the “stove”.
  
• Epson guarantees image stability for 100 years if stored in an archive. That's not news. But the fact that many government agencies allow printing only in typographic, but not digital, way is interesting. As digital implied - you guessed it - laser printing. Our printers, however, print with ink , so they undergo the final “formal” test for acceptability of use in state offices, in principle.
  
• About printing on envelopes: “When printing on envelopes, the absence of a fuser in an inkjet device also has a positive effect: since in this device envelopes are compressed with cylinders or ribbons, they can be deformed [...] in places of glued seams the surface has somewhat different properties during printing (thickness and electric charge), which makes it difficult to print some scenes, especially dies. On inkjet devices, of course, such problems do not arise. "
  

It would be unfair not to mention the deficiencies found:

• “If dies and gradients turn out to be of sufficient quality, then with photographic images there are still certain problems, especially on glossy paper: there is not enough detail in highlights, and memorable colors are not reproduced accurately enough. And fix it in the usual way - through the color management tools in the RIP - will not work. These drawbacks can be partially reduced with the help of print adjustments in the driver, but if you need to get a “beautiful picture”, it’s better to use matte paper. ”
  

We ourselves, as will be possible, be sure to check this statement. During the recording of the promo video:

... I honestly did not notice the lack of details on the print, but, of course, I didn’t have the same print from a 6-color photo printer for comparison, so I’ll not say it, but I will agree with the manager to make a comparison and share the results.

Summarize

Let the sample be small, I hope these examples will help you learn a little more about the purpose of the WorkForce Enterprise series of devices and highlight the main and most important features that make companies choose these MFPs versus classic laser when it comes to office printing.

At the same time, it is not necessary for such an MFP to print all 100 and even 200 thousand pages per month. The main thing is that it will effortlessly be able to replace the whole fleet of devices “simpler”, which will affect not only the total cost of ownership, but also future maintenance costs, when instead of, say 5-10 laser printers, two such powerful machines can provide all the documentation printing . And at the same time at any time - in color.

PS I do not need color office printing!

We get such feedback all the time when it comes to Epson Enterprise.

Who knows, it is quite possible that monochrome modifications of devices will appear in the future? .. One thing is for sure: our readers and Habré subscribers will find out about this one of the first.

Thank you for attention.