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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Vivo! Replacement Option

If you need a high speed, high resolution color label printer in-plant, you should contact me; as I have a TrojanOne Color Label printer.

TrojanOne Label

Now I can send you print samples immediately as well as give you on-site demonstrations as I completed three this week with Brian Jobmann, Chief Technology Officer of Trojan Color Systems.

B. Jobmann

One of our demonstrations was conducted in a company currently using Vivo Color Label printers from Quick Label Systems (QLS):

Vivo! Label Printer
Vivo Label Printer

QLS, a division of Astro-Med, introduced this LED printer named the Vivo in 2006: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=120530&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=813026&highlight=.   My customer has been using these printers for the last two years to print labels “somewhat” on-demand.  I say somewhat as they need to print and rewind labels in advance; to insure the labels are available to apply during any of their 3 shifts.  Once printed, they store printed labels in racks on the plant floor.

Preprinted Labels

During our discussion, I learned from the customer that keeping these printers running is a difficult task.  It seems they continuously need repair, especially with the media handling.  In fact, my customer said “we had to get a spare recently for a spare printer QLS had already provided to us.  Can you imagine, a spare for a spare printer?  Although QLS has supported us, the Vivo printer has design problems that make it difficult to keep them running.”

During our discussion, Brian and I covered three key aspects of the TrojanOne color printer making it the perfect replacement for a Vivo LED label printer.  First, the TrojanOne color label printer was designed to make it easy to service and support.  With the online secure server connectivity, Trojan Color Systems connects to your printer to diagnose problems and provide support, including editing the firmware.  According to Brian, 98+% of all issues are resolved with this type of support.  No other in-plant label printer offers this type of remote support.  I covered this issue in detail in my earlier post: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2014/03/trojan-triumps.html.   With QLS, you need to contact them to get service or to send out a replacement printer. This type of service costs money that you ultimately pay.

(Side Note:  After setting up my TrojanOne printer, I had an issue that I could not fix.  While driving in a car in TX, Brian connected to my printer and fixed the issue immediately.  It was an amazing example of the support Trojan provides.)”

Second, the TrojanOne printer is easy to operate.  With the capability of the Trojan Control Panel to store print jobs, operators can reprint labels quickly and easily.  In addition, operators can use the built-in service capability to conduct routine maintenance easily. 

TrojanOne Control Panel

Third and most important, the TrojanOne can reduce ink costs on your in-plant prime label production significantly.  With this customer, we estimated label costs would be reduce by 50% to 70% compared to the Vivo.  The TrojanOne label printer would print their labels with more than 90% coverage for less than $0.02 each.  According to our customer, “QLS can’t tell us our estimated label costs.  All we know is that we spend more than $250,000 a year with them in ink and labels.” 


And it’s not just the ink.  With a list price of $14,995 ( http://www.quicklabel.com/products-services/label-printers/color/vivo-touch.html#priceeven the Vivo printer hardware is more expensive than the TrojanOne label printer.  In addition, the Vivo requires fuser, transfer belt and image drum replacement parts making this printer expensive to keep running.

In addition to the service/support, ease to operate and lower costs benefits, the TrojanOne offers other benefits relative to the Vivo Color Label printer; including significantly faster speed (up to 12 ips versus 2-4 ips), higher resolution (1,600 x 1,600 dpi versus 600 dpi) and much lower energy requirements.

If you have a Vivo printer, contact Color Label Solutions.  We help you print higher quality, in-plant prime labels at a savings of 50% to 70%.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
#colorlabels

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