e3508LP Hybrid Copier

[SalesServiceGuy]

1). What would you say is the average monthly volume of a 35 cpm copier?

2). What % of copiers that you install these days are black only?

3). What % of copies made would be in Black vs Erasable Blue.


I know this copier is new and there are not many field statistics out there yet

4). What do you think is the fully burdened hourly cost of a service tech on an hourly basis? This includes labour, car, benefits, cell phone, vacation pay, office space, everything.

[didi2005]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

I only foresee nightmare for tech to service this kind of machine...

Back to the questions:

1). What would you say is the average monthly volume of a 35 cpm copier?

No idea

2). What % of copiers that you install these days are black only?

30% monochorme machine

70% colour machine ( but at least 20% not printing colour )

3). What % of copies made would be in Black vs Erasable Blue.

100%

I know this copier is new and there are not many field statistics out there yet

4). What do you think is the fully burdened hourly cost of a service tech on an hourly basis? This includes labour, car, benefits, cell phone, vacation pay, office space, everything.

No ideas

[seansbar]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

Well, from talking to sales manager, I don't think there is many of these going out in the field. There is one of these in our demo room, but it is on loan and I'm told it's the only demo in the region.

So I'm saying, so far, they are rare.

Second, I got to test (play) with it. If your expecting a full erasure of the blue toner, you may be surprised. It more turns the blue toner to clear, but can still be read by holding to paper up at an angle to the light.

Defintaly not something you can reuse to send letter to clients. Reuse paper from meeting handouts, sure. But paper is cheap and will it be worth the premium that this copier costs?

As for answers to all your questions, I really don't know. The hardware differences are slight, so to service this copier probably cost the same as an ordinary 35 ppm machine. Dont see a nightmare to service the machine, see a nightmare on servicing the customer that had expectations of invisible spy ink.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

The Erasable Blue toner was never intended to create documents that are distributed to customers. It is intended for internal use only.

That is why there is also a permanent black toner inside the copier.

In the firsts tests we have made on this copier, yes, you can read the decolorized document. As you reuse the paper and print on top of the previous document, the original document becomes much more difficult to read. By the 3rd reuse, more difficult to read again.

Documents like incoming faxes or various copier reports can be programmed to always print in Erasable Blue.

The copier seems aimed at those customers with a strong desire to help the environment at almost the same price as a traditional black only copier.

[blackcat4866]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

Can you imagine the confusion, on a number of different points?:

1) Is this an erasable doc?
2) How many times has it been erased?
3) Is the lousy copy quality because it has been erased 5 times, because the paper has been in my file cabinet for 7 years, because of the generic toner, because the machine needs service, etc, etc.

I don't see any way of following the usage of a specific piece of paper. =^..^=

[seansbar]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

I got the new mod, it's a fuser cleaning blade and an ash tray, for when your paper disintegrates it won't foul the machine.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

Can you imagine the confusion, on a number of different points?:

1) Is this an erasable doc?
2) How many times has it been erased?
3) Is the lousy copy quality because it has been erased 5 times, because the paper has been in my file cabinet for 7 years, because of the generic toner, because the machine needs service, etc, etc.

I don't see any way of following the usage of a specific piece of paper. =^..^=

1). If the document is in Blue, it is erasable.
2). Does not matter. You can always recycle the paper.
3). If the print quality is poor after being erased five times, it is time to place that sheet of paper in the recycle bin. By that time, if a sheet of paper costs $0.010, the business has saved $0.040. If a business was to erase 1,000 sheets per month they would have saved $10.00 and benefited the environment. On a typical 60 month lease, they would save $600.00 over a conventional copier and not have had to purchase 5 cases of paper.
4). Generic toner is not likely to be available for this copier. It is a niche market.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

I got the new mod, it's a fuser cleaning blade and an ash tray, for when your paper disintegrates it won't foul the machine.

The paper does not disintegrate, it becomes increasingly covered in decolorized toner. At approx five re uses, you would place this sheet of paper in the recycle bin.

Certainly, this is new technology to the the copier world and the long term implications are not known. The first generation product was poor but this 2nd generation paper recycling copier based upon the well liked eBridge Next platform has some market potential.

[didi2005]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

Frankly speaking, hybrid is not something new...

The erasable print is due to the special design of blue toner where the toner will disappear when certain temperature is apply, nothing to do with the paper...


This Toshiba hybrid copier using 2 process unit, 2 types of toners, but share single fusing unit...I wonder how the fuser unit can last based on all the previous BW models, heater roller worn out before reaching 80% of the life span...

Same as hybrid car, save fuel money but higher maintenance cost for the car especially the expensive battery...

How come others big brand like FujiXerox, Canon, Ricoh and etc never release hybrid machine?

User already started to use fax forwarding to email/folder, use email to replace fax, using tablet for meeting in order to do less printing and save costs.

The cost of hybrid machine is definitely more expensive than BW machine...I wonder what is the meter click charges for black and blue toner???

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: e3508LP Hybrid Copier

The cost of the Hybrid copier is less than $200.00 dealer cost more than the equivalent black only copier. The difference can easily be made up for in paper $ savings.

For the first 210,000 pages, the Erasable Blue toner has the same break even cost per copy as black. There are two meters and both retail for around $0.010.

210,000 pages/ 60 month lease = 3,500 erased pages per month. Probably not enough for a school but more than enough for a typical SMB business.

After 210,000 pages there is a $400.00 charge to replace some parts.

Fusers have been good on the 3508A so I expect the same on this copier. The copier is also built using the frame and similar fuser to the e5005AC colour copiers. For the last year, reliability has been excellent.

The copier appeals to a niche product and the first generation product was a failure. This second generation product might have a better chance as it is less expensive to own and operate than a conventional black only copier when paper $ savings are considered.

Certainly there are many electronic methods to replace printing pages but paper is not going away anytime soon.