Nick Taylor, Head of Office Print Sales at Epson UK & Ireland spoke to PrintIT Reseller about the advantages of heat-free technology, and the launch of four new Replaceable Ink Pack System (RIPS) devices which feature high-capacity inks for reduced maintenance and increased productivity
Epson has been delivering office print solutions for ten years, and notably over the past six years, has differentiated its offering via its powerful sustainable messaging. Epson’s heat-free inkjet printers require no heat in the print process and therefore consume less energy than comparable laser printers.
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, and awareness of the need to reduce carbon footprints and adopt green initiatives is at an all-time high. “We’ve been very heavily focused on communicating the benefits of switching from laser to heat free printers in terms of lowering energy consumption and reducing the environmental impact of printing,” Taylor said.
“Whether it’s procurement, IT, or facilities, almost everybody we speak to during the buying cycle is aware of the reasons why their organisation has to be more environmentally sustainable. It’s no longer just the large corporate enterprises or the public sector – that awareness and desire to act extends to the smallest of businesses.”
A sustainable advantage
He continued: “For our reseller partners, Epson’s heat-free technology offers two distinct advantages. Firstly, it gives them the opportunity to have a different conversation with their customers. That conversation centres around how they can reduce their business’s carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, rather than focusing purely on feeds and speeds.
“And secondly, Epson devices have fewer replacement parts, they don’t have drums
or fusers for example, so are low intervention from a service perspective, they include long-life consumables and are eligible for eight-year warranty. That can significantly impact a partner’s service profitability, so they can grow their MIF and their customer base, without necessarily needing to take on more engineers.”
Epson is predominantly a channel-centric business and does not sell its office printers direct. Taylor points out that the strong focus on promoting the advantages of switching to heat-free from laser has been beneficial to its partners.
“We have a strong value proposition and, we have an excellent product offering. Epson business inkjet devices are feature-rich, easy to use, extremely reliable, competitively priced from a hardware perspective and very economical in terms of running costs
– all of which has contributed to increasing our market share, particularly in the A4 space. Epson now occupies a top three position in the 20 to 40 ppm A4 colour MFP sector,” he said.
Replaceable Ink Pack System (RIPS) technology
Last year, Epson continued its drive to bring heat-free technology through its office print range with the launch of the AM-C400 and AM-C550 A4 devices. An expansion of its WorkForce Enterprise AM-C A3 range, the new models bolstered Epson’s existing A4 inkjet line-up with devices suited to users with higher print volumes.
Now, the company has further extended its offering with the introduction of the Workforce Pro EM-C8100 and EM-C8101 A3 MFPs and the A4 EM-C800 multifunction product and the EP-C800 single-function printer.
All four new devices incorporate Epson’s Replaceable Ink Pack System (RIPS) technology to deliver high-capacity ink within a small product footprint, along with low power consumption and fast first- page-out speeds.
Epson’s Workforce Pro RIPS printers continue to lead innovation in the evolution of cartridge-less inkjet printers, the advanced RIPS technology uses super-high-yield ink supply units which lower the need to order and replace supplies frequently, helping to deliver predictable print costs and a competitive total cost of ownership.
“The AM-C A3 devices are the most compact in class, and we’ve carried that small footprint through to this new range, notably the EM-C A3 devices can also be deployed as desktop devices,” Taylor explained, adding: “The new models have also had a facelift and now have a look and feel synonymous with the AM-C range, and are all backed by an industry-leading eight-year warranty.”
WorkForce Pro EM-C8100 and the EM-C8101
The WorkForce Pro EM-C8100/8101 MFPs’ key features include a fast first-page-out time of 5.5 seconds with no warm-up time, print speeds of up to 25 ppm and a single-pass document feeder that delivers professional quality, duplex scanning of up to 45 images per minute (ipm).
The high-capacity replaceable ink pack system enables printing up to 86,000 mono/50,000 colour pages without changing the supplies. Other highlights include a 12.7cm LCD colour touchscreen, high paper capacity of up to 1,835 pages, compatibility with embedded solutions (such as IP-Fax and easy remote diagnosis with Epson Remote Services) as well as third-party solutions thanks to the Epson Open Platform, bring additional functionality to the device.
WorkForce Pro EM-C800 and EP-C800
With prints speeds of up to 25 ppm, fast first-page-out-time of 4.8 seconds, paper capacity of up to 1,830 sheets with optional cassettes, a 10.9 cm colour touchscreen (EM-C800), 6.1 cm colour display (EP-C800), and an intuitive user interface, the EM-C800 MFP and EP-C800 single-function printer are ideal for small workgroups with high print volume needs.
Thanks to RIPS technology, these printers deliver up to 50,000 pages
of continuous print in mono, and 20,000 pages in colour, increasing user productivity, reducing maintenance and product downtime.
The Workforce Pro EM-C800 4-in-1 device also offers a duplex scan speed of up to 60 ipm. And because both products are compatible with a wide range of Epson and select third-party ISV solutions, they can be easily integrated into existing fleets, workflows and management systems.
A reliable, cost-effective choice
RIPS technology uses high-yield ink supply bags so there is less need
for user intervention. With fewer consumables than comparable lasers, waste is also lower, and service interruptions are kept to a minimum.
“High ink-yield, fewer parts to replace, lower costs of servicing and intervention make the new RIPS devices a reliable and cost-effective for businesses. And if we go back to the sustainability piece – in addition to the low power consumption advantages, high-yield ink packs mean fewer need to be produced, shipped and disposed of, further supporting Epson’s, our partners’ and the end-users’ wider sustainability agenda,” Taylor concluded.
