Copiers / printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zed Rafi
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Zed Rafi

Hello,

We (people here at the office) are looking for a brand new
professional-grade copier, that would be able to be used as a scanner and
printer as well.
We've had our eye on the Canon ImageRunner 2200, and the Sharp AR-M350...
these two copiers can be directly plugged to a networking router, which
means we can configure the printer, and use the scanner from ANY computer on
the network.
Does anyone own one of these bad boys? Pros and cons for each of them ? How
is Sharp vs. Canon in the copier market?
What about Xerox? I'm sure this company's got some very decent equipment as
well, we just haven't looked into it.

I know this question is kind of off-topic since this forum is for printers,
but this is the usenet group i found to be the best suited for answering
such a question.... Can anyone recommend to me a good website / forum /
other source on which i could get answers and info on professional-grade
copiers? Google hasn't revealed any useful source to help us figure out
which copier is best suited for our needs (excluding the companies'
respective websites, of course).

thanks
 
FWIW, I recommend separate units. It's not so much a quality issue, you're
probably scanning documents, not fine artwork or detailed graphic creations,
as it is usability. In an all-in-one, if one piece is down the entire unit
is down. For an office, all-in-one units are not that rugged or versatile.
At least that's my opinion. For a small home / office, these all-in-one's
are OK, but if you've got more than three users, I'd be concerned with
durability. You're also not going to get the printer throughput that a stand
alone printer can offer.

I've never done it (never needed it), but with USB connectivity, the newer
scanners should be easily sharable. You'd need one PC to control the
scanner, but that does not need to be a powerhouse. Printer sharing is easy
with most major operating systems. If you don't want to dedicate a
computer's LPT port to the connection, you can get an external Print Server,
such as HP Jet Direct, or have it part of the printer. One end goes to a
standard data jack an the other to the printer via regular printer cable.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I get what you are saying in that all-in-one are shit, but we're not looking
for an all-in-one. We've got an all-in-one here also (we got it essentially
for the color scanner), but ALSO have a stand-alone copier, which is
20-years old, and is about to die on us.

Consequently, we've been shopping around for a new stand-alone copier, but
noticed that the copier technology has changed a lot in the past 20-years.
It's all digital now, which means the copier digitally scans the document on
the glass and then copies it, which allows for example much better grayscale
(256 bits) rendition of copies of color documents.

anyway, since it's all digital, most copiers now have an optional
"networking module", which allows the copier to be connected to acomputer
network, and also used as a printer and a scanner. The advantage is, since
copier feeders are generally quite sophisticated, and can take a stacks of
up to 300 sheets, we could scan fat stacks of pages at once. Also, we could
print documents as fast as 40 ppm.
 
xDsrtRat said:
FWIW, I recommend separate units. It's not so much a quality issue, you're
probably scanning documents, not fine artwork or detailed graphic creations,
as it is usability. In an all-in-one, if one piece is down the entire unit
is down. For an office, all-in-one units are not that rugged or versatile.
At least that's my opinion. For a small home / office, these all-in-one's
are OK, but if you've got more than three users, I'd be concerned with
durability. You're also not going to get the printer throughput that a stand
alone printer can offer.
Click to expand...

I was with you right up until that last sentence.

What about, for example, a Xerox Workcentre 35 isn't as fast in
printing--throughput--as a standalone printer?

That last sentence shows us that you really don't know what you're
talking about, that you're just talking to hear yourself talk.
 
Elmo P. Shagnasty said:
I was with you right up until that last sentence.

What about, for example, a Xerox Workcentre 35 isn't as fast in
printing--throughput--as a standalone printer?

That last sentence shows us that you really don't know what you're
talking about, that you're just talking to hear yourself talk.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm not familiar with every line there is. My expeience is limited
mostly to mid range (~4800 DPI flat bed) scanners and workgroup (5 - 25
users) suitable laser printers, and mid range color printers (Epson 1520 /
2200). I admit I'm not familiar with the Xerox line. I'm glad to add to my
knowledge. Can you point me to info on the unit you mention? Maybe I could
add it to my personal knowledge base.
 
xDsrtRat said:
Sorry, I'm not familiar with every line there is. My expeience is limited
mostly to mid range (~4800 DPI flat bed) scanners and workgroup (5 - 25
users) suitable laser printers, and mid range color printers (Epson 1520 /
2200). I admit I'm not familiar with the Xerox line.
Click to expand...

It's not just the Xerox line. That was just an example. It's the
entire industry.

The entire industry is making commercial-grade 30-90ppm print engines
and putting them to a wide variety of uses in a wide range of products,
from standalone printers to digital copiers complete with scan to
file/email, network fax, and other features. Canon, Sharp, Kyocera,
Konica-Minolta, Ricoh, you name it.

Head to the web site for any office product manufacturer.
 
Zed Rafi said:
Hello,

We (people here at the office) are looking for a brand new
professional-grade copier, that would be able to be used as a scanner and
printer as well.
We've had our eye on the Canon ImageRunner 2200, and the Sharp AR-M350...
these two copiers can be directly plugged to a networking router, which
means we can configure the printer, and use the scanner from ANY computer on
the network.
Does anyone own one of these bad boys? Pros and cons for each of them ? How
is Sharp vs. Canon in the copier market?
What about Xerox? I'm sure this company's got some very decent equipment as
well, we just haven't looked into it.

I know this question is kind of off-topic since this forum is for printers,
but this is the usenet group i found to be the best suited for answering
such a question.... Can anyone recommend to me a good website / forum /
other source on which i could get answers and info on professional-grade
copiers? Google hasn't revealed any useful source to help us figure out
which copier is best suited for our needs (excluding the companies'
respective websites, of course).
Click to expand...
Have you looked at Kyocera as well, they have some pretty sturdy looking
machines that would do the job.
 
Zed Rafi said:
Hello,

We (people here at the office) are looking for a brand new
professional-grade copier, that would be able to be used as a scanner and
printer as well.
We've had our eye on the Canon ImageRunner 2200, and the Sharp AR-M350...
these two copiers can be directly plugged to a networking router, which
means we can configure the printer, and use the scanner from ANY computer on
the network.
Does anyone own one of these bad boys? Pros and cons for each of them ? How
is Sharp vs. Canon in the copier market?
What about Xerox? I'm sure this company's got some very decent equipment as
well, we just haven't looked into it.

I know this question is kind of off-topic since this forum is for printers,
but this is the usenet group i found to be the best suited for answering
such a question.... Can anyone recommend to me a good website / forum /
other source on which i could get answers and info on professional-grade
copiers? Google hasn't revealed any useful source to help us figure out
which copier is best suited for our needs (excluding the companies'
respective websites, of course).

thanks
Click to expand...

I'm getting a quote right now on a Canon 3200 (22 ppm). The feature my
users found intriguing was called "Universal Send". This allows users to
walk up to the copier and scan a document and the copier sends it to a
folder on the network. I'm supposed to get a full demo this week or the
first of next week. I'll let you know what happens.

Mark
 
Zed Rafi" ([email protected]) said:
Thanks for the reply.

I get what you are saying in that all-in-one are shit, but we're not looking
for an all-in-one. We've got an all-in-one here also (we got it essentially
for the color scanner), but ALSO have a stand-alone copier, which is
20-years old, and is about to die on us.

Consequently, we've been shopping around for a new stand-alone copier, but
noticed that the copier technology has changed a lot in the past 20-years.
It's all digital now, which means the copier digitally scans the document on
the glass and then copies it, which allows for example much better grayscale
(256 bits) rendition of copies of color documents.

anyway, since it's all digital, most copiers now have an optional
"networking module", which allows the copier to be connected to acomputer
network, and also used as a printer and a scanner. The advantage is, since
copier feeders are generally quite sophisticated, and can take a stacks of
up to 300 sheets, we could scan fat stacks of pages at once. Also, we could
print documents as fast as 40 ppm.
Click to expand...

For a less intensive use, what do you think of the HP 3380 with an inkjet
on the side for color? Apparently the 3380 scans color (which most laser
all-in-ones don't) and has a monthly duty cycle ligher than we'll need.

Brendan
--
 
For what it's worth, I have some experience with the Minolta range of
copier/printers - the more expensive commercial models which are
typically leased from office equipment dealers. Many of the commercial
"industrial strength - so to speak" copiers are now actually
scanner/laser printers. Our Minolta was a fax/scanner/network printer.
When used as a copier, the unit would scan the document very quickly,
and then print. At first, the print (or copy) speed didn't seem as fast
as our previous dedicated copy machine, but it was not the case. The
PPM rate was the same. The auto-duplexer worked much better than the
one on the prvevious dedicated copier. And, the fax machine with auto
document feeder was far superior to our old Canon commercial fax
machine. All in all, a really fine piece of equipment.

Don
 
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