What's All The Hype With Solid Ink?

What is the deal with SOLID INK?

The first solid ink printer was created by Tektronix in 1991 and printed at 1 page per minute.  The printers were a big hit in the graphic community because of the bright and high graphic output.  In 2000, Xerox bought this technology and continued to develop it with the primary research and development occurring in at the Wilsonville, Oregon location.  In 2009, Xerox released the first multifunctional product utilizing the Solid Ink Technology named the ColorQube 9200 series. There were some very unique and beneficial elements to this new product that made it a huge success to Xerox and its subsidiaries.

1.) Environmental Benefits: Because these devices use solid ink instead of the normal toner that laser devices use, all the parts that go into a toner device don't exist. Therefore, the waste from toner, waste toner, drums, fuser units and the packaging associated with these items is reduced by 90%.  Not only this, but the space necessary to store these items, the trucks used to ship these items all gets reduced! 

2.) Cost Benefits: These devices also utilize a 3-tier pricing strategy. What is that? Normal laser devices have two meters, a color meter and a black & white meter.  There is no gray area.  On the ColorQube systems with solid ink, there is a 3-tier system that doesn't look at whether the system is color or black & white but actually how much color is being used. For documents that have a color logo in the corner and usually count as full color on laser devices, now can fall into the 1st tier with the rest of your black & white documents.  With a percentage of fill between 3% and 7% in color, ColorQube systems will count that page in the 2nd tier and finally the remaining fill falls in the full color click rate. Since the introduction of the ColorQube series, we have seen a huge amount of documents fall into the 2nd tier, roughly 70%, which dramatically reduces the overall expense of printing color.

3.) Technological Benefits: Xerox introduced these devices with the same multifunctional capabilities as a normal laser device.  You are able to scan to various platforms, print both PS and PCL from Windows or Mac as well as fax and copy.  They also included the important security features that come standard on Xerox devices including data encryption, automatic disk overwrite and an optional removal hard drive.  The system was built for the heavy flow of an office workflow and over the last few years has stood the test of time.  Xerox recently introduced the ColorQube 8700 & 8900 to the product lineup that included this very same technology and advantages but fits a smaller environment both in footprint and volume.

For more information on the ColorQube series and Solid Ink technology, let us know, The Northwest Group - CTX, QBSI, Pinnell!