High-end MFDs

So far you’ve read about MFDs that can easily settle on a tabletop or desktop, and are meant either for personal use or for small workgroups. But the MFD story doesn’t end there. Today, even large enterprises can benefit from MFDs. Presented here are some of the MFDs at the absolute high-end of the spectrum. These are meant for heavy-duty environments requiring having high-volumes of work.

ImageRunner C2105

Canon ImageRunner C2105

Base Model Price: Rs 1,467,000



This is a high-end multi functional device for enterprises, which combines a color laser printer and copier. It can give color prints up to 21 ppm and monochrome prints go up to 28 ppm. The MFD is powered by a PIII 700 MHz, 256 MB RAM and 10 GB hard drive. For connectivity, it has a parallel and an optional 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port. The device supports duplex printing. Its image reader (optional) can scan documents at 600x600 dpi. This MFD can take huge volumes of paper of various sizes up to 5,500 sheets from six paper sources. The device can be controlled remotely with the software kit that comes with the device.

ImageRunner C2105

Canon ImageRunner 3300

Base Model Price: Rs 454,000



This is a modular digital multifunctional imaging system, meant for corporate users, where heavy-duty black and white laser printing is required. It combines with a scanner and fax board to send and receive faxes, which make it a complete MFD. The device is housed with a Canon custom processor of 250 MHz, 128 MB RAM and 5.1 GB of hard disk for storing print and scanned data. The devices can print and copy the documents at 33 pages per minute. Canon ImageRunner 3300 can be controlled from its touch screen control panel on it’s front. Another good feature we found is its mailbox option, which allows you to store your documents remotely to its hard drive. Each mailbox is password protected so only the user it belongs to can access it and print the documents stored in it. The printer has a 10/100 base Ethernet port for LAN connectivity. It also has a Web interface, which gives it remote accessibly. The device supports duplex printing and scanning. Being a modular device, it has optional components that can be purchased as per your requirements. These include duplexer, automatic document feeder, cassettes feeding unit, envelope feeder, paper deck, saddle finisher, puncher unit, etc.

Canon ImageRunner 1600

Base model price: Rs 137,775



This Digital multifunctional device is will suited for small to medium organizations. It combines a laser printer and scanner, which serves like a copier as well. It’s based on a PowerPC 200 MHz RISC processor, and 8 MB RAM. A 10 GB hard drive is optional. For connectivity, it has Ethernet port, parallel and USB connecters. It can also be controlled and configured over the network. The MFD can print and copy documents at 16 ppm, and the scanner can scan at 600x600 dpi. The device comes with a standard cassette feeder, which can accommodate 250 sheets. Its automatic document feeder, cassettes feeding units and finisher are optional.

HP LJ 3300MFP

Price: Rs 45,248 Contact: Hewlett Packard India



This is a monochrome laser printer and copier with a color scanner. Though it is meant for business use, there are no networking capabilities by default but are optional. This MFD fits into the same category as the Sharp and Xerox MFDs (reviewed in this issue), which are also similar monochrome Laser MFDs with no networking option. The machine has a duty cycle of 10,000 pages per month, the duty cycle is 10,000 pages per month and the sheet capacity is 250 pages. The print resolution is 1200x1200 dpi and the rated print speed is 14 ppm. It has 32 MB of memory, expandable up to 96 MB and the print processor runs at 90 MHz.

HP LJ 4100 MFP

Price: Rs 175,000 Contact: Hewlett Packard India



This is a monochrome laser printer, copier and color scanner. This high volume MFD is meant for shared use in workgroups with a duty cycle of 150,000 pages per month. The print resolution is 600x600 dpi and the print speed is 24 ppm. It has 32 MB of memory, expandable up to 156 MB, and a 5 GB hard disk for spooling print files. The print processor runs at 250 MHz. the sheet capacity is 600 pages .The MFD can be connected to the LAN by the network interface built inside and can be configured through a Web browser, apart from the LCD screen on the unit. You can also buy a separate fast infrared port and receiver for printing from mobile devices. It comes with an ADF also. One interesting feature is that it has an option of direct scan to e-mail, wherein you can scan the document and directly send it by e-mail to anyone, through the MFD itself.

The different document sending formats are PDF, JPEG, BMP.

HP LJ 9000 MFP



Price: Rs 760,500 Contact: Hewlett Packard India



This is a monochrome laser printer, copier and color scanner. This big machine from HP is meant for enterprise printing needs with a duty cycle of 300,000 pages per month. The print resolution is 600x600 dpi with the print speeds being 50 ppm. Such high speeds are more than enough by any extent. Standard memory is 128 MB RAM expandable up to 384 MB and a 5 GB hard disk. The print processor runs at 300 MHz. The printer comes with an ADF and duplexer. The ADF is special in the sense that for 2 sided copying and scanning it scans both sides of the paper at one go and does not rotate the pages as in normal ADFs. The total sheet capacity is 3,100 pages and also has in-built stacker and stapler. It also features the scan to e-mail option. As for configuration, it can be configured through a Web browser or the color LCD screen, which is very big and easy to use.

High-End MFDs at Xerox



We saw the demo of 4 MFD models by Xerox. The price ranged from Rs 115,000 for an entry level printer/copier upto Rs 595,000 for a printer/copier/scanner and fax machine all rolled into one. Color printers/copiers ranged from Rs 11 lakh to Rs 13 lakh with full printing, scanning and copying capabilities but no fax with the color-capable models.

WorkCenterPro 423 and 428



These machines are the same except for the ppm (speed), the 423 prints 23 ppm and 428 prints 28. The standard product is a printer and copier (Rs. 3 lacs), and you can add on a scanner and a fax machine later and a finishing unit, which automatically staples the printed documents among other things. The whole thing will cost about Rs 4.5 lacs. The machine is network-enabled, has an Intel Celeron 300 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM and 10 GB hard disk with Darwin Linux OS. The faxes can be received directly in the mailbox of a specific user. The machine can hold up to 20 mailboxes. Faxes can even be e-mailed from the interface to any e-mail address on the Internet. There’s a touch-sensitive LCD with various print/copy/scan/fax options. Users can print 1000 copies at one go. In a day the machine can print up to 10,000 copies.

The cartridge costs Rs 9,000. Their AMC is for Rs 25,000 for service and repair. The machine is aimed at private companies, banks, insurance companies, research organizations and call centers.

DocuCenter 432 and 440:



These 2 models print 32 and 40 ppm respectively. These come under the DocuCenter family of products by Xerox, which can print over 30 pages per minute. The DC440 prints 40 ppm. The standard product is a printer/copier at Rs 5.95lacs with the provision to add on a scanner and a fax machine for an extra Rs 35,000 and Rs 60,000 respectively. The machine has a floppy disk to help transfer documents in case the network is down. Network capability is an optional feature of the machine. Other features include network scanning, as in the scan can be sent directly to a user’s machine on the network in TIFF format. There is also an e-mailing capability in the machine. The machine is aimed at MNCs, Insurance Agencies, large government organizations. The cartridge costs Rs 12,500, which lasts for 28,000 pages. The company offers a five-year warranty on the product.

WorkCenterPro 312/315/320



Workcenter Pro 312/315/320 are all entry level heavy duty MFDs meant to cater to small workgroups of around fifteen people with considerable printing/copying needs. WCP 312, which delivers 12 ppm is being reviewed in this series. 315/320 models have a better ppm (15 ppm and 20 ppm) respectively and some extra features like support-indicators for maintenance and A3 input and output capabilities. With claimed duty cycle of 2000 to 10000 pages per month, they are targeted towards heavy users in a networked office of 15-20 persons.

The latest offerings by Xerox are the 500 series MFDs. These come in 35, 45 and 55 ppm speeds and have an improved internal architecture as claimed by the company. These machines are also wireless Internet-enabled.

Gestetner 4502 >>>>>>>>

Price: Rs 4.75—11 lakh. Gestetner India, New Delhi. Tel: 23316623.



E-mail: v.balakrishnan@gestetner-india.com

This A3 size monochrome MFD can print, copy, scan and fax, and is meant for large workgroups. Weighing about 78 kg, the MFD has a user interface that is interactive and self-explanatory, so a beginner doesn’t have to fiddle around with buttons to get started.

The interface is in the form of a touch screen LCD panel. The MFD maintains a log file of all activities it performs.

The MFD copies at a speed of 45 ppm and has a Document Server for storage. It has a 10 GB hard drive that can store about 3,000 files of about a thousand pages each. In case of a sudden power outage, the file can be retrieved from the hard disk. The machine uses G3 faxing, and its special feature is that you can redirect the incoming faxes to a recipient’s desktop who can then forward it to the intended recipient. This cuts down on paper needs for printing each fax received and also reduces the time taken for the fax to reach the recipient. You can create a directory of up to 400 fax numbers and also group them. There’s a feature that lets you pre-program the time of the fax to be forwarded to a particular destination number.

 The time of transmission is less than three seconds. Its laser printer prints at 45 ppm, and you can define all the print parameters from its touch screen sensitive panel. You can also password-protect your confidential files, that’ll need you to provide a password before printing. You can also fire batch prints and take sample printout before printing in larger numbers. You have the facility of adjusting the margins, zoom (25—400%) and the type of print. On your pages, you can insert a user or date stamp. You also have the option of numbering the documents. Its scanner function is a delivery scanner, which means that instead of having to pull scans from your desktop, the scanner sends the scanned document to your PC. It scans at a speed of 52 ppm using the RADF option (Reversing Automatic Document Feeder). For use on a network, the scanner makes use of Scan Router software.

 This helps create a directory of users on the network. From the touch screen panel you can select the names of the recipients and send the scan directly to their PCs. Irrespective of the format of the scanned document that you send (say, .JPEG), the document will open in the format specified by the recipient (say, PDF) on his desktop. The 4502 comes with an automatic document feeder, has two trays and a duplexer and a memory of 64 MB, which can be expanded to a maximum of 128 MB. The duty cycle for the machine is 1 lakh copies a month. It can print about 50,000 pages a month and the cartridge yield is about 23,000-24,000 copies. The average life of the MFD is 30 lakh prints or 5 years, whichever is earlier. The MFD would cost you anywhere between Rs 4.75-11 lakh, depending on the level of customization that you

opt for.

PCQ Labs