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General discussion

WANTED: A really really fast DUPLEXING laser printer

Jul 29, 2009 5:09AM PDT

Hi All,

A couple of years ago I purchased 2 HP 4350 LaserJets to use to print billing mailer forms. These forms are 8 1/2" X 14" and require printing on each side. We print roughly 7500 of these billing forms in a job. While the 4350's are rated by HP at something like 55 pages per minute, our actual experience on these duplexed forms is more like 6 per minute per printer, meaning the job runs for about 10 hours.

Why so slow? Well...it's because we are using the duplexing feature. I knew up front that duplexing would mean the printers would run slower, but I certainly never appreciated HOW MUCH slower until I started running these jobs.

Is anyone aware of a laser printer that would print this job faster? Does anyone make a duplexing printer that actually prints both sides at the same time? Or, do all duplexing printers print one side, reverse the paper path, and then print the other side?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

Phil

Discussion is locked

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We cheated.
Jul 29, 2009 5:49AM PDT

We redesigned the print job so the back page was not custom to each print. So at full speed we would print one side then back into the hopper for the real printout.

HP makes a fairly nice laserjet so get on the PHONE to see what they have is their fastest. This changes monthly so my answer is already out of date.
Bob

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Not printing presses
Jul 29, 2009 11:11PM PDT

While a laserjet(any brand) can provide some impressive results don't expect these to be printing presses. The documents generated are on a real time basis, meaning each is a 1-for-1 output, each is an original even if seemingly a copy. What you want is industrial or commercial grade so take that into consideration. Next, contact a sales or local vendor to better help you into a match. I found those that sell copiers also provide details on printers. Given the info you can buy or deal with them or just get the printer in the open market. With that output you want a service contract maybe a good idea and/or self-fix get repairs kits, etc.. In other words you're beyond the typical home users in demands of a printer or you've reached another level outside of home use.

As for output much of that is based on 5% coverage(ideal text) on the media. So, if you generate output that covers 15%, you've dropped in reference to that and that excludes any pictures/graphics or logos, etc.. The density of page print will determine the output and with duplex become less. I like to use a rule of thumb, whatever the specs say, expect 1/2 of that in the real world for most printed outputs, of course that varies.

tada -----Willy Happy