Xerox does big companies a solid, solid-ink MFP that is
The green case for multifunction printers is pretty simple: cram several electricity-sucking devices into one. But the whole ink/laser cartridge replacement thing sort of brings the party down. Plus, the cost of color has remained prohibitively expensive for many businesses.
I have the feeling that things are about to change.
Xerox has just shipped a high-end color cartridge-free solid-ink contender that apparently handles up to 55,000 pages before the ink needs to be replaced. Xerox says that its ability to more closely control how much ink is used on the page, depending on the specific graphics or pieces that need color treatment, is a big part of its ability to cut back on supplies waste. So, score some points for cutting back on the waste caused by replacement supplies.
The company has also paid attention to the other part of managing a printer's green profile: Power consumption. As part of its initial PR, the office equipment giant is also citing a Rochester Institute of Technology test showing that its new ColorQube 9200 Series uses approximately 9 percent "lifecycle energy" (which is a REAL interesting distinction that doesn't really say anything about its idle state, does it) and produces 10 percent fewer greenhouse gases than a comparably sized piece of laser equipment. Here are the full details on the printer's environmental stats.
The ColorQube 9200 Series is priced starting at $23,500. Each model has four print heads that can "jet" more than 150 million drops of ink per second at speeds of 38 pages per minute to 85 pages per minute. There are something like 361 patents on the new technology.