As a writer on small printers, I find myself a little dizzy reporting on an industrial scale printer. I’m usually impressed with over 30ppm but with the InfoPrint 4100, you are looking at speeds a little beyond our understanding when were thinking in terms of pages per minute, here were talking High speed at up to 330 linear ft/100.6 m per minute which translates too faster than anything you have even thought about as a small printer user. To make it a little more understandable, let’s call it capable of printing 1,440 letter size pages in just one minute. I’m convulsing at the very thought of such speeds.
Industrial Standard
The InfoPrint 4100 is a laser printer developed by IBM to accommodate heavy printing needs. This A3 laser printer does not only perform heavy tasks, but it is also made for publishing purposes.
It is designed to fulfill printing needs of publishing, book printing, direct mail, etc. Frankly it’s a little large for your sitting room. It can print as large as 19.5″ paper width, up to 19″ print width. With a 10-page report, you’ll be done in less than a second.
Assuming that the printer is properly maintained, the performance of these printers should not deteriorate. Inkjet printers have the tendency to clog up their nozzles whenever they are not used for some time. This is because inkjet printers use liquid ink. Laser printers on the other hand already use dry ink to begin with so there is no possibility of clogging.
Another reason why these printers are built for heavy tasks is their capability to accommodate different types of media. The InfoPrint 4100 is capable of accommodating various paper sizes from 4” x 6” to A3 sizes. It is even capable of running rolls of paper at 19 inches width.
On top of the speed and various paper selections, this printer can hold paper stacks up to 16 inches high. That is only for the input. In terms of output, it can hold a paper stack up to 14 inches high. If your printing needs exceed this amount, the InfoPrint 4100 has pre-and-post printing interfaces that allow you to add more capacity for either the input or output stacks.
Another feature, which makes this printer convenient to take heavy tasks, is that you can change the toner in the middle of a printing job. This minimizes the down time experienced by the printer so you can maximize your output with this printer. Most printers require you to even turn off your printer whenever you change your toner cartridge.
However, for a printer designed to produce thousands of pages for publication purposes, having the ability to change the toner without stopping the printer is a very important asset.
Aside from the InfoPrint 4100, IBM has other printers as well that are built to take on heavy tasks like the InfoPrint 5000. The only difference between them is that the InfoPrint 5000 operates on inkjet technology.
When you buy a printer, it is important to know that it can take on your heavy printing requirements. If you buy an A3 laser printer, you would expect it to take on heavy tasks. Luckily, you are not wrong to expect such performance from these machines. However granted that as we are here to tell you about more practical sized printers more for small businesses then this is totally out of that league. But interesting to know what a huge expensive industrial scale printer will give you but back to reality after our visit into another dimension.
For Business
Whatever printer I speak of now, it will feel fairly insignificant having to follow the InfoPrint 4100. However, most of us are not publishing corporations or media groups so back to printers more likely to fit our smaller needs.
We will stay on the larger side with the HP DesignJet 130 Large Format Printer. So you’re not a publishing corporation yet but you’re on the way. Well this model could help you on your way with its ability to print with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,200 dpi and a 64 MB memory.
It can print a range of sizes from postcards to poster sizes. However, you will need to outlay anything up to retail value of $1,360, but shop around as they can be found on other sites such as Amazon from $1,114.
Another large format printer with many size options is the HP Photosmart 8750 Large-Format Professional Photo Printer which is designed for the professional, fine art, portrait and amateur photographer. With HP Vivera Inks and the HP 9-ink system, it provides rich color, and accurate skin tones with immaculate detail. The price is a little more modest at around $750 on Amazon.
Small Business
As most small businesses, especially home run small businesses don’t require anything larger than A3 or American ledger size, then again there are plenty of good affordable choices. Even a wide format all-in-one to meet all your home office needs can be affordable as with the HP OfficeJet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One which can be found for around $180 or the plain printer version of the same model should that be your requirement, the HP OfficeJet 7000 Wide Format Printer for around $130.
Choices for Businesses
As demonstrated here, there are printers for all stages of business. The InfoPrint 4100 is the ultimate but there are high quality machines made for larger and small businesses and I have only given you a peek. Study online and if you are becoming particularly busy, then pay close attention to monthly duty cycles. This is an indication of how much demand a printer is built for.
More importantly, consider exactly what you need from a printer, and then go and find it. Better that way than letting it find you and seducing you with pleasing looks and hastening you into a poor decision. Know your needs, and go and find the right solution, and the suggested models here in this article are useful starting points.
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About James Wikkee