Solid ink technology has been around for a while since 1986 when was invented by Tektronix. After Xerox bought Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division this technology was used in Xerox line of products for office printing and imaging products. The cost of the early printers was very high The Phaser III cost $10.000 US. There are several advantages of using solid ink printers. One of them is the time it takes for solid ink printers to warm up if they have been started. When the printer has just been started it takes a few minutes to produce the first page. During the day when the printer is in standby he first page can be produces in very few seconds. As you all know laser printers need a little time to warm up before printing the first page. This can be very annoying when you need to print something very fast and you haven’t used the printer for a while that day.




Another advantage is that you can’t misplace the colors because Xerox produces the blocks of solid ink in different shapes. You get better print quality because the wax covers the stock with a glossy surface. You can use third party supplies with the risk of guarantee voidance. Now don’t get too excited because there are some disadvantages from using solid ink printing. One of them is the risk of scrapping of the printed text due to the high resolution. Lower printing quality do not uses as much ink but there is still the risk of scrapping off. The printer must be in sleep mode to keep a small quantity of each color wax near the melting point. This can consume near 50 watts of electricity.

Modern solid ink printers from Xerox cost under $1000 and if you are lucky enough you can get one with consisted discounts in computer stores across the country. Since this printing solution address business consumer they are not widespread such as laser color printers, but they have affordable consumable prices. Xerox Phaser 8560N Solid Ink Printer is one model that can print up to 30 ppm Mono or Color. This model can be used in business environment as network printer because it has Fast Ethernet. This can handle up to 85000 pages per month that is very good for small business because they can have very low cost per pages. The ink color system of this model is CMYK. The resolution of printed material is 2400 dpi x 2400 dpi. The standard input sheet capacity is 625 sheets. The ADF capacity is 100 sheets and it can also handle duplex printing.

The price of ink blocks vary from one store to another, but usually is somewhere around $100. Of course business clients can benefit from consistent discounts when they buy in bulk or from wholesale retailers. Even individuals who own solid ink printers can benefit from promotions and discount sales if they allocate the time for searching the best deal and don’t rush in buying from the first store they have found on the internet or offline.

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