IBM rolls out multifunction printers

IBM Friday rolled out four new laser multifunction monochrome printers for midsized businesses.

Multifunction printers, or MFPs, typically consolidate printing, copying, scanning and faxing functionality into one box, which printing vendors say can help businesses reduce overall document output costs.

Among the new machines is the IBM Infoprint 1540, which is geared for small to medium-sized workgroups and prints letter-sized pages up to 35 pages per minute (ppm) and ledger-sized up to 19 ppm. It is priced around $11,542. For midsized workgroups, IBM rolled out the Infoprint 1560, which prints letter-sized sheets up to 45 ppm and ledger-sized up to 24 ppm. It costs around $12,858. And for larger workgroups, the new Infoprint 1580 bumps up the printing speed to 55 ppm for letter-sized documents and 28 ppm for ledger-sized and the price to around $14,462. Maximum monthly printing cycles for the new machines are 150,000, 200,000 and 300,000 pages, respectively.

The new models all add an 8-inch color touch screen that allow users to scan, fax, copy or print documents. Scanned documents can be previewed and routed to multiple e-mail or fax addresses.

IBM also beefed up the security features in the new machines, with user sign-on and encryption technologies to help protect confidential documents from getting into the wrong hands.

The new machines are fueled by a 625MHz Freescale processor and have 256M bytes of memory. Parallel, 10/100Base TX Ethernet and USB ports are standard features, with wireless connectivity options available for additional cost.

All the models can handle double-sided printing, or duplexing, and come with two 500-sheet drawers and a dual 2,000-sheet drawer. Other features, such as a finisher and high-capacity feeder, are available for additional cost.

IBM also launched a new MFP for letter-sized paper, the Infoprint 1570, which prints 50 ppm and has a 533-MHz processor, 256M bytes of memory and a maximum monthly printing cycle of 225,000. It is priced at around $3,259.

The printers will be available later this month.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.