Xerox Invisible Fluorescent Printing

Group of Xerox scientists devised a new method for printing hidden fluorescent text using standard printers. The fluorescent text is only visible in ultraviolet light, at the same time it does not require fluorescent toner to print it.

This new method is side product of Xerox’s larger studies to put more security into digitally printed documents by making any element on the page-—such as lines, text, and images-—unique to the recipient. The scientists were playing with differential gloss in a toner to print a hologram-like image, when one of them, Reiner Eschbach, started to wonder if there was any chance to make fluorescent marks using regular toner.

Eschbach's group tried different toner combinations to achieve paper's fluorescence shining when exposed to ultraviolet light. They come to this after they realized most paper already contains fluorescent brightening agents added by manufacturers to make the paper look whiter.

According to the company, the new method of fluorescent printing allows adding more security to commonly printed materials such as checks, tickets, coupons, and other high-value documents.

Xerox Sets New Energy Saving Record

Energy saving has become important not only in development of PC, but also peripherals, including printers and multifunctions. So it comes as no surprise that Xerox claims more than half of its products to be compatible with new ENERGY STAR specifications, which became effective only on April, 1.

The new ENERGY STAR version has a distinctive feature from the previous. Before now, energy consumption specifications only applied to ‘sleeping’ and energy saving modes of copiers, printer and MFPs. This time, a new index – TEC (Typical Electricity Consumption) – is designed to indicate how much energy a device consumes during an average working week.

Meeting ENERGY STAR requirements for Xerox seems easier that for other manufacturers, because Xerox has been partner of the specification developers since the beginning of 90s. Two year ago, Xerox launched a makeover of its laser printing components in effort to reduce energy consumption. The company has succeeded to lower level of energy consumption to 25% compared to previous models.

In part, this achievement became available due to new toner formulation. First, the new toner requires lower temperature to melt and, second, is made of smaller toner particles. All that reduces total printer toner volume and, in turn, energy consumption.

Xerox Introduces Three Printers and Two MFPs

Xerox introduced several new models of color laser printers and multifunctions. This is actually an update of the whole color print line for small and middle businesses. One of the new products is built on Solid Ink Technology. The very junior model, Phaser 6110MFP, combines printer, copier, scanner and fax. This model features rather compact dimensions (18.36x16.99x19.1 in.)

Phaser 6110MFP prints as fast as 16 pages per minute in monochrome and 4 pages per minute in color. It has an USB-port for direct print from flash-drives; besides the printer supports PictBridge Technology.

Next model Phaser 6115MFP demonstrates a faster speed of 20 ppm in black and white, and 5 ppm in color using printer toner. Phaser 6115MFP comes equipped with a duplex unit for two-side printing. Just like Phaser 6110MFP, this model has an Ethernet adapter hence can be used as network printer. Each of the two multifunctions has 128 MB of RAM onboard.

Among the new lasers, Phaser 6180 is the junior. It supports 600x600 dpi resolution and prints 20 ppm in color and 25 ppm in monochrome. The printer comes in two configurations: with a duplex unit and without one. Both configurations are built on 400 MHz processor, have 128 MB of RAM and a networking adapter.

One of the most efficient Xerox models, Phaser 6360, speeds up to 40 pages per minute in both color and black and white print. Maximum monthly duty cycle makes up 100,000 pages. A Risc Power PC 1 GHz processor takes only 9 and 6 seconds to produce a color and monochrome print, accordingly. The printer comes packed with specialty software that allows network administrators configure and copy settings.

The last one of the new models, Phaser 8560, implements Solid Ink Technology. Phaser 8560’s speed is 30 color pages per minute, a first-page-out time – 5 seconds. Supported resolution makes up 2400 dpi. Both Phaser 8560 and Phaser 6360 support a feature that allows printing in black even when color cartridges are depleted.