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Erasable Printing
How to reduce the
environmental impact of
printing is a question more
and more businesses are
asking and all manufacturers
are happy to answer – never
more so than when it leads
on to a discussion about the
benefits of managed print
services.
Toshiba has been able to talk
at greater length on the subject
than many competitors thanks
to its long-standing relationship
with co2balance. Whatever the
rights and wrongs of carbon
offsetting, Toshiba’s decision
in 2009 to offset emissions
caused by the manufacture,
transport and use of its MFPs
Innovation for
innovation’s sake?
Toshiba’s erasable copier is a great example of innovation,
but does it have a place in the modern office?
From June 2009 to December
2012, Toshiba offset more
than 200,000 tonnes of CO2
generated in the manufacture,
distribution and operation
of MFPs supplied to the
European market. This is
equivalent to 44 flights on the
Space Shuttle, a third of all
European air travel for a day,
or the annual carbon footprint
of 39,607 European cars.
To honour the achievement
Yasuhiro Jingu, Vice President
& General Manager of Toshiba
TEC Europe (centre), was
recently presented with an
award by Steve Hewson,
Sales & Marketing Director
of co2balance (left). Also
in attendance was Jeremy
Spencer, Marketing Director of
Toshiba TEC UK.
has given it a compelling story
to tell (see caption).
With the launch of the
e-STUDIO306LP/RD30, it now
has another.
The world’s first erasable
copier operates just like a
normal 30 pages per minute
MFP, except for its use of a
special blue toner that can be
erased through a combination
of heat and pressure in an
accompanying eraser unit (the
e-STUDIO RD30). If required,
the RD30 can scan and create
a digital record of a document
before erasure.
Toshiba says a sheet of
paper can be erased as many
as 15 times, but because a
waxy ghost of the original print
remains, it recommends people
re-use each sheet a maximum
of 5 times. For the same reason,
the e-copier is not suitable for
confidential documents.
What it is good for, says
Toshiba, is the 80% of internal
print and copy jobs that are
binned within half an hour
of being produced. Instead
of throwing paper away, the
e-copier lets you re-use it,
saving money and reducing
the environmental impact
of printing: 50% of carbon
emissions associated with the
print cycle come from paper.
A potential weakness of
the e-STUDIO 306LP is that
notes must be written with an
erasable Pilot Frixion pen. Use
any other pen or pencil and
the eraser unit won’t be able
to remove the marks and will
automatically send the paper to
the tray reserved for recycling
rather than re-use.
It will be fascinating to
see what MFP buyers make
of the product: it is certain to
generate a lot of interest –
when Toshiba took a prototype
to News International, Rupert
Murdoch got wind of its arrival
and came down to have a look
– but will the paper-savings on
offer trump concerns about
compliance, data security and
the higher cost per page?
The expense of acquiring
one or more e-STUDIO 306LPs
(RD30s can be shared between
devices to keep installation
costs down), not to mention the
complexity of managing records
produced with erasable toner,
will limit the market for such
devices, especially in smaller
organisations. However, it is
possible that there will be a
place for them in specialist
environments – Toshiba cites
schools as an opportunity –
or as one of many devices
provided as part of a managed
print service.
Whatever the market makes
of erasable copiers, full marks
to Toshiba for innovation and
perseverance. Other print
vendors have developed
erasable toner and re-usable
paper, but Toshiba is the first to
bring the concept to life.
The e-STUDIO 306LP/RD30 combination
is not the only example of how Toshiba is
reducing the environmental impact of its
products.
At a recent dealer event, Toshiba 360,
it highlighted two other products that
demonstrate Toshiba’s commitment to
resource efficiency: the e-STUDIO 2505,
which has a paper bypass tray for occasional
A3 printing and the smallest footprint of any
A3-capable toner device; and the e-STUDIO
5055, which consumes 60% less power than
its predecessor thanks to the use of LED
technology.
In addition, Toshiba’s new e-STUDIO407cs
series of colour MFPs gives SMEs a high
speed, 42ppm colour MFP without the
overheads of a large A3 device, while the
e-STUDIO2006/2506 (left) provide A3 mono
output from a compact desktop unit.
www.toshibatec.co.uk
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