I’m excited to announce that we can start taking orders for
the new TM-C7500 with shipments to start approximately February 1, 2015. When thinking about this new color label
printer, I say:
My New Printer Is Fast!
Take a look at my printing and rewinding 100, 4”
x 6” labels in one minute.
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| TM-C7500 Label Rolls |
Over this short run, you’ll see the printer running at
approximately 10” per second at a 1,200 x 600 dpi resolution. That’s fast and high resolution. During the video, you probably noticed the
printer stopping for maintenance. To
keep the inkjet nozzles from drying and clogging, the C7500 has a choice of
settings for print head maintenance:
With “Continuous Printing”, the printer does not stop for
maintenance; but “spits” tiny droplets of ink occasionally while printing. The droplets can be seen with a magnifying
glass; but are barely noticeable otherwise.
From my past work, I know the Memjet technology has the same type of maintenance
function. With “Pause for Maintenance”,
the C7500 stops periodically and checks/cleans the printhead; that’s exactly
what you are seeing in the video. With
this setting, the C7500 still averages approximately 10” per second.
Although the C7500 is a fast color label printer, I don’t
believe this feature is most important.
In fact, I see three other aspects of the TM-C7500 as more important.
1. 1. My Printer is High Resolution
At 1,200 by 600 dpi, the C7500 has much higher resolution
than then C3500 or the first generation C3400.
Low resolution printing, especially for “flood coated” labels is the
major objection I’ve faced with these earlier printers. This new printer will provide much higher
resolution, offering better looking on-demand color labels; especially for prime
labels.
2. 2. My Printer is Durable/Requires little to no
Maintenance
Over the years, we’ve worked with printers that require a
lot (relatively speaking) of maintenance and consumable items such as
printheads, transfer belts, fusers, image drums, and other items. In addition, we’ve elected not to sell color
label printers like the Swiftcolor and don’t recommend the Kairo printer from
QLS given the requirement to dismantle the printer to change one of four
printheads. In production, maintenance
requirements are a hassle. And replacing
consumable parts gets expensive.
In addition, most these printers require “return to factory”
for repairs; therefore requiring a manufacturing operation to purchase a “Hot
Swap” printer to use in case the first printer breaks.
With the C7500, little to no maintenance is required. For example, the printhead lasts the life of
the printer. You do need to replace the “maintenance
kit”, but this change takes only a few seconds and occurs only occasionally
based on how much you print.
As for repair, Epson will have the Spare-in-the-Air warranty
program which sends out an overnight a replacement in case a printer requires
repair. It’s a great deal. In addition, I understand Epson is developing
an on-site offering as well.
When placing a printer into production, you must consider
service and maintenance; and the C7500 is durable and easy/inexpensive to
maintain.
3. 3. My Printer has ZPL Emulation/Native BarTender
Drivers
Potentially the most interesting feature of the new TM-C7500
is the ZPL emulation. With this feature,
you’ll be able to store in the printer the background image of your labels;
then send only the variable data to print on each label. Plus, you’ll be able to “colorize” ZPL to
add color fonts/text; and add variable color images. This feature means the new C7500 will be plug
n play with existing Zebra applications; allowing you to replace easily your inventory
preprinted labels with on-demand.
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| Preprinted Label Inventory |
The ZPL feature along with the lowered cost ink offered by the
TM-C7500 could change a large part of the label printing market; and offer you
a much easier solution for printing labels with color.
If you want more information, read my earlier post on the TM-C7500: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2014/09/first-review-tm-c7500-at-label-expo.html
If you are interested in a high resolution, durable/low
maintenance and ZPL enabled printer for your operation solution; or just
interested in the price of the new C7500, contact us. We’ll help you move to this new evolution of technology.
Guy Mikel
800-962-7670
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