Rugged All-in-One Mobile Printers
Multifunction printers
Computer technology is constantly improving, but one area that seems to receive little attention is printing technology. Many home businesses require not only printing capabilities, but also scanning, copying, and faxing. Often, each of these devices is set up as a separate piece of equipment, requiring not only a significant investment of money but also office space. One of the most recent creations in the field is the multifunction printer, with the ability to print, scan, and fax. With an all-in-one printer, a single piece of electronic equipment completes all these jobs and takes up far less space and costs far less money than all the devices purchased separately combined.
However, when the key to an MFP is that it performs all of these functions adequately, but none of them to the degree of a standalone device. There are several features that need to be considered when looking for an all-in-one printer that best suits individual needs.
The first feature to consider is the type of printer: multifunction printers can be inkjet, laser, or color. Inkjet printers work by forcing ink droplets of varying sizes onto a sheet of paper or similar media. A laser printer produces text and graphics on plain paper, using the same technology as digital copiers; They use a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by direct scanning of a laser beam through the printer’s photoreceptor.
The speed of a laser or inkjet printer is measured in ppm (pages per minute), the number of pages that a laser or inkjet printer can produce in one minute. Print speeds from laser or inkjet printers can vary depending on many factors, including document complexity, page coverage, and the design of the printer itself. Generally, as the speed increases, the quality of the output decreases. A typical inkjet printer can print at speeds ranging from 1 to 28 pages per minute for black text and 1 to 20 pages per minute for color, photos, or graphics. The speed of a mid-range monochrome laser printer can range from 6 to 25 pages per minute for crisp black text and 2 to 20 pages per minute for black and white graphics. The print speed of a typical color laser printer will vary between 6 and 20 pages per minute for black text and between 1 and 12 pages per minute for color graphics. Image quality is another feature to look at and depends on the number of dots per inch printed. The standard resolution of 600 x 600 dots per inch is sufficient for most everyday printing, but is not suitable for printing quality photos or graphics. The more dots printed per inch, the higher the quality of the image.
The scanner function is also of great importance in a multifunction printer that can use two types of scanning technologies. A charge-coupled device (CCD) uses a light-sensitive integrated circuit that stores and displays image data in such a way that each image element, or dot, in the image becomes an electrical charge. Contact Image Sensors (CIS), most often used with flatbed scanners, place the image sensor in almost direct contact with the object to be scanned in contrast to using mirrors to bounce light off a stationary sensor, as is the case with conventional CCD scanners. A CIS typically consists of a linear array of detectors, covered by a focusing lens with LEDs that allow the CIS to be highly power efficient, and many scanners are powered via the minimum line voltage supplied via a USB connection. CIS devices typically produce lower image quality compared to CCD devices, but they make the printer more durable. Another feature of scanning is how the documents are scanned; they can be fed one sheet at a time, in which case an automatic document feeder that holds at least 50 sheets makes it easy to use, or they can be scanned on a flatbed. Flatbeds allow you to scan thicker objects.
The fax function is itself the one that can be the simplest. The minimum fax/modem speed should be 33 Kbps. Other fax features that can be provided include color faxing, faxing, and/or group dialing, as many MFPs do not offer full fax capabilities.
Finally, given all the functions that a multifunction printer requires, the lack of internal memory is very noticeable. While 8 MB of memory may be adequate for home office or small office use, an efficient and effective MFP that has at least 16 MB of memory or more. The larger the amount of memory, the faster certain MFP processes can be carried out.
Rugged Mobile Printers
Rugged mobile printers are rugged laptops. Being mobile, they can practically fit in your pocket or glove box. Rugged mobile printers can be mounted in vehicles next to your rugged laptop or some mount directly to a rugged computing device. A rugged printer is built to take a beating, and most can withstand drops from nearly 10 feet. The rugged mobile printer is designed around MIL-STD 810F testing confirming its robustness and ability to handle the daily rigors of everyday use. From 2.5″ to 4″ receipt printers, to 8″ x 11″ full sheet printers. A rugged printer will handle any job while you’re on the road printing inventory receipts or printing citations issued by law enforcement.