TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Issue #0612/1 - Two very interesting ranges of MFP from Lexmark demonstrate what the company can achieve without exorbitant running costs.

Following on from the article in the previous issue of TCPglobal "Total Cost of Printing up to 53% increase in two years", Lexmark has also released two new ranges of mono laser MFPs with print speeds between 35ppm and 55ppm. One range is based on an A4 engine providing 50 pages per minute while the other range is based on an A3 engine rated at three different speeds – 35, 45 and 55 A4 pages per minute.

X644e/X646dte

Copier manufacturers, by and large, have not caught the vision for fast A4 MFPs. Even Kyocera Mita, with its printer heritage, majors on A3 format for its MFPs, even at the low end of the workgroup category, and Xerox builds either highly expensive heavy-duty A3 machines at the high-speed end or slow (sub-30ppm), inexpensive A4 machines for workgroup use.

This leaves Lexmark virtually on its own, with just Hewlett-Packard for company, in the fast A4 MFP category.

Never one for simplicity, despite its claims and web site structure, ‘uncomplicate’, Lexmark’s nomenclature for these machines is very confusing for the user. The X644e and X646dte are essentially the same device based on the same 50ppm engine but with additional paper tray and automatic duplex printing in the X646dte. Most manufacturers would have just added the defining letters for the upper model to the base numbering system rather than change the number as well. However, Lexmark’s model naming has been confusing for many years now, so what’s the difference?

These new devices are four-function machines, including a fax capability. They come fitted with 50-page single-pass duplex ADF as standard. This means that both sides of a sheet can be scanned for fax, copy or to file without taking time to flip the page between scans. Unfortunately the scan speed is only 34 sides per minute in simplex mode and 44 sides per minute in duplex mode, so the scanner would be unable to keep up with the print engine when attempting to copy a multi-page document with just one copy per page. Copy speed would therefore be restricted by the scan module.

By contrast, the Hewlett-Packard 4345mfp, which also has a duplex scanning ADF, is rated for 45 sides per minute scan speed. Thus, at 2spm faster than the 43ppm print speed, the 4345mfp will perform as well with scan originals as with digital originals.

Note that, on all models, the duplex printing module is an optional extra.

Standard paper input capacity is 600 sheets (@75gsm not 80gsm), 500 sheets in the standard paper tray and 100 sheets in the multipurpose tray. A maximum capacity of 3,100 sheets can be achieved from four sources by adding an additional 500-sheet feed and a 2,000-sheet high capacity feed, meaning that the device has excellent flexibility in high-volume, general purpose environments.

This device is certainly aimed at heavy duty environments. With a duty cycle of up to 255,000 pages per month, the X64x series should be able to handle almost any office workload.

As mentioned, the dte model adds duplex and an additional 500-sheet paper input as standard, bringing basic input capacity to 1,100 sheets.

But, one drawback of the X64x series is that there are no finishing options available for either model. This is in contrast to the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4345mfp that has options to add a 700-sheet 3-bin mailbox or a 500-sheet stacker/stapler, compensating for the lower total input capacity of 2,100 sheets.

Lexmark is actually one of leaders in high capacity toner cartridges with units for these machines providing 32,000 pages (@5% coverage). Few manufacturers are producing cartridges for mono A4 machines with a yield over 30,000-page. Kyocera Mita leads the field in this respect with cartridges at 40,000 pages on some of its devices.

This allows the company to compete fairly aggressively with Hewlett-Packard on basic toner only Cost Per Page. After a 1.4% increase in the price of the toner since launch, the nominal CPP of the X64x MFPs is 0.84 pence – just a little lower than the CPP of the model it replaces (X634e) but still 13.5% adrift of the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4345mfp.

	Print Speed	Purchase Price	Nominal CPP	Long-term CPP
Lexmark X644e	50	£1,559	0.84 pence	1.20 pence
Lexmark X634e (predecessor to X644e)	43	£1,779	0.89 pence	1.28 pence
Hewlett-Packard 4345mfp	43	£1,800	0.74 pence	1.15 pence

Note that for this level of machine, the overall CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 15,000 pages per month using maximum capacity supplies and takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are manufacturer’s recommended prices.

Cost of Printing - Fast A4 mono MFPs

By the time we take into account Lexmark’s aggressive hardware purchase price (X644e), starter cartridge on the Lexmark and printing 15,000 pages per month over three years, the difference drops to 4.3% - but still in Hewlett-Packard’s favour. For owners of the previous model from Lexmark there is a premium of more than 11% to pay over the 4345mfp over the three-year period.

Lexmark is, of course, relying on the fact that customers can make use of the cartridge Return Programme to reduce their print costs and this is used as a means of helping to lock them into buying Lexmark. Use of the Return Programme cartridges reduces the nominal CPP to 0.72 pence, which is just a fraction lower than Hewlett-Packard’s CPP, meaning that the overall Cost of Printing on the X644e can actually be 7% lower than on the 4345mfp. Users also benefit from the 7ppm higher print speed.

X850e/X852e/X854e

At the departmental end of the MFP range are the new X850e, X852e and X854e machines. These machines range in speed from 35ppm, through 45ppm to 55ppm. Because of the different speeds, the nomenclature of this range is justifiable.

Again featuring the large touch-screen control panel, these devices are A3 format for departmental use and feature duplex scanning and printing as standard. In this case, in simplex mode, the scanner is capable of keeping up with the maximum 55ppm print speed of the top speed X854e.

Where the capabilities of these A3 machines differ significantly from the A4 X64x series is in the paper handling. All X85x machines boast 3,100-page standard input capacity, capable of being increased to 5,100 sheets with the addition of a further 2,000-page input unit – making a total of six input sources.

At the output end, a 3,500-sheet finisher unit offers stacking, stapling and hole-punching capabilities.

Lexmark has adopted the split consumables concept for this range of machines as it has for recent low-end mono laser printers. The toner cartridge provides 30,000 pages-worth of use at 5% page coverage. Strangely, the machine ships with a drum rated at 60,000 pages but the aftermarket unit is rated for only 48,000 pages.

This is a great inconvenience and also an added cost for owners of the machine. Initially, the machine will run for the life of the toner that is shipped with it (30,000 pages) and then for a further 30,000 pages on an aftermarket toner. At that point the second toner needs changing and the drum would also be changed at the same time. However, it is then that the problems start.

Because the toner cartridges are rated for 30,000 pages and the aftermarket drums for 48,000 pages, there is no synergy between the two – so separate interventions are required for each unit rather than being able to change both together. Theoretically, both units would be changed together only once every 240,000 pages, or five changes of the drum and eight changes of toner.

Interestingly, the duty cycle of the X850e is just 150,000 pages per month. This is rather lower than the 255,000 pages per month of the A4 machines. In the middle, the X852e has a duty cycle of 200,000 pages per month and the X854e 300,000 pages per month.

As this range of machines is targeted largely at the contract end of the business, quick comparisons of running costs are more difficult to make, particularly as the competition includes models from every copier and printer/copier manufacturer in the market, including Hewlett-Packard.

~End~

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 12:03 am and is filed under Supplies, Hardware, New Products, Pricing, Financials, Comparisons, Total Cost of Printing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.