lbafrin@TECNET-CLEMSON.ARPA (11/14/87)
Hi, I don't tune in very often to Laser-Lovers, but I've got a question that's been bugging me for some time. I would love to get a laser printer for my office (something in the $1500-$4000 range) for the speed and print quality, but I have yet to find any laser that's as versatile as my high-end Diablo D80-IF daisywheel printer. With my Diablo (loaded with dual-bin sheet feeder, envelope feeder, and tractor feeder), I can print a typical office job (first page on letterhead, subsequent pages on matching non-letterhead stationery, and then a letterhead envelope) without any attendance to the printer, no need for manual feeding of any paper (and thus no wasting of my secretary's time if she's involved in other jobs while the printing is going on). I can also print continuous-form jobs with no problems because of the tractor feeder. But with laser printers, there don't seem to be any envelope feeders. Some of the more expensive models can accommodate two cut-sheet bins at the same time (which I would use for letterhead and non-letterhead), but it looks like you always have to feed envelopes manually. And I've never seen a laser printer for a PC that could handle continuous forms, and that's what's been bugging me the most. So many lasers claim, nay, brag about their paper transport paths being "straight-through," which I guess is supposed to make me believe that there's less chance of a paper jam. So if the paper path is straight-through, why can't you put a tractor at the paper entrance slot and another tractor at the paper exit slot? The manufacturer could design the tractors so that when you want to run a continuous forms job, you remove the cut-sheet bin(s) and detach the output tray, and attach in their places the entry and exit tractors. It seems like such a simple idea, but I've never seen such an option advertised. So if it's such a simple idea but I've never seen one marketed, I guess I must be missing something fundamental about how laser printers are built and/or work. Would somebody out there in netland please clue me in? Thanks! -- Larry Afrin Dept. of Computer Science Clemson University lbafrin@tecnet-clemson.arpa P.S. And if you know of any laser printers that have an envelope feeder option, please let me know about that, too.
tim@J.CC.PURDUE.EDU (Timothy Lange) (11/27/87)
I know that BDT corp. makes a feeder unit that has two paper bins and one envelope bin on board. Price is about $1600. They even make one that has seven paper bins. All bins are software selectable, so they may be used with any programs. I have seen a Zyad feeder made for the HP LaserJet. It had two paper bins and the envelope feeder. Price $1400. It worked quite well, it could handle envelope stock thicker than the Laser could. It too had the bins software selectable by just a particular string of ASCII characters, so it could be used with any software. On both of the above units your data cable goes to the paper feeder unit first, then the laser. I think the BDT unit is more complex because of the AppleTalk interface. -- Timothy Lange / PC Learning Resource Center / Mathmatical Sciences Bldg. Purdue University Computing Center / West Lafayette, IN 47907 317-494-1787 / tim@j.cc.purdue.edu