HP Edgeline technology speeds MFP printing

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 12 April 2007 13:01

Your IT - Home IT

Hewlett-Packard's new CM8060 and CM8050 colour multifunction printers - designed for departmental use - can churn out up to 60 pages per minute thanks to a new kind of inkjet printhead.

Conventional inkjets only lay down a few pixels at a time as they scan across the page. HP's Edgeline head - introduced last year in a small format photo printer - has 10,560 nozzles

The new MFPs use six of these heads, arranged in pairs so they can print the entire width of an A4 page in one go. One pair is used to deliver the yellow and black inks, another for cyan and magenta, and the remaining pair sprays a bonding agent onto the page. Static printheads mean faster and more accurate printing.

HP officials claim this combines the best attributes of inkjet and laser technologies in one device.

The CM8060 prints at 60 pages per minute in mono and 50ppm in colour, while the CM8050 is limited to 50 and 40ppm respectively. Other features including duplex printing, copying, faxing and a built-in JetDirect print server are common to both models.

"Building on HP’s MFP industry leadership, HP is extending our portfolio with new Edgeline color MFPs," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, imaging and printing group, HP. "The Edgeline offerings will transform the industry, providing customers a multifunction printing solution with unprecedented ease of use that can improve productivity and lower color operating costs by up to 30 percent."

Purchase prices start at $US18,930 for the CM8050 and $US23,530 for the CM8060. Reflecting the way the CM8000 series treads on the toes of traditional office equipment vendors, HP also offers usage-based pricing.