Printer company Epson on Thursday introduced two multi-functional inkjet printers designed for medium and large business environments.
Epson's Workforce Pro printers are outfitted with its replaceable ink pack system (Rips) technology, which aims to drastically reduce the high maintenance, wastage and costs traditionally associated with inkjet printers, especially when they are compared with their laser counterparts.
Rips technology replaces traditional ink cartridges with large, foil-packed bags of ink.
The bags are quick and simple to remove and replace, and last longer than traditional cartridges, in this way eliminating downtime and maintenance costs for businesses, said Kelvin Reynolds, GM for Epson SA. One set of Rips cartridges can print up to 75 000 pages uninterrupted.
The printers are also designed to reduce the environmental impact of printing, boasting up to 80% less energy consumption than their laser printer competitors, according to Epson.
Because the ink bags contain more ink than traditional cartridges, but are packaged with very few components, they are simpler to recycle than cartridges, and produce less e-waste per page printed.
Keeping with the times
The main challenge businesses face with printing today is that it needs to be hyper-efficient, said Reynolds. This is why reducing printer administration and maintenance time is extremely important. It also helps employees to be more productive when they can spend less time consciously "dealing" with the printer, he added.
When asked about the threats posed to printers by the drive to paperless offices, Reynolds posited that the rate at which data volume is increasing is greater than the rate at which paper use is decreasing.
With regards to use cases, Reynolds said the printers are particularly useful to hospitals: environments in which less frequent touching of the printer could reduce hygiene concerns in the workplace.
They are also useful for maximum-security environments such as prisons, in which reducing the number of external maintenance staff entering and leaving the premises is a top priority, he added.
Both printers are outfitted with WiFi connectivity, so users can print from their tablets or smartphones, and offer remote printing and access to the cloud.
The Epson Workforce Pro printers are recommended to retail in SA at R33 400 and R63 876.
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