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  Buying an MFD?

  Jayesh Limaye, Feb 27, 2008 1759 hrs IST

  Thinking about purchasing an MFD? The following should help you make an informed decision

  

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MFDs (Multifunction Devices) are omnipresent in today's offices. The most obvious good thing about an MFD is that it is one device that can do it all -- print, scan, copy, and fax, thus eliminating the need to have several different devices for these functions. MFDs save on expensive office desk space. They increase the productivity of your workforce simply by taking away the need to make trips between different devices. The cost of maintenance is also significantly lower. The downside to MFDs is that there may be increased downtime: if one of the components, such as the scanner, malfunctions, you will be able to use neither the copier nor the fax-sending function, though you will still be able to print and receive faxes.

MFDs are available in two flavours, Inkjet and Laser, and Lasers are further divided into monochrome and colour. Inkjet MFDs are less expensive as compared to laser MFDs due to the inherently lower cost of production, but lasers tend to be more cost-effective when work volumes are high; in addition, they are comparatively more rugged and heavy-duty. Therefore, if you are a SoHo, you can choose between inkjet MFDs and entry-level lasers MFDs; if you are SMB to enterprise, heavier-duty laser MFDs should be your choice. If you work in photography or multimedia, an inkjet photo-MFD should be your choice, because colour lasers do not even come close to that of inkjets. Colour MFDs are good for offices that need to print presentations such as documents with graphs, since excellent photo quality is not what expected.

MFDs are primarily targeted at offices, but they are finding a new level of acceptance and usage in homes as well. The major reason is plummeting costs -- an entry-level MFD today costs as much as a printer was priced just a couple of years ago.

Here some features that you need to pay attention to, and which will help you decide better about your purchase of an MFD (whether inkjet or laser).

1. Buffer memory: The larger the buffer memory, the better an MFD will perform (in the printer department). A larger buffer allows the printer to accept large documents and images directly into the buffer, without the need to spool it in the PC, thus increasing printing speed.

2. ADF (Automatic Document Feeder): This allows you to scan or copy a stack of documents without the need for you to be present near the MFD to manually keep feeding them one by one. Not of much use for a home or SoHo user, this a feature is very important for larger offices.

3. Duplex printing: A printer feature that lets you print to both sides of the paper without your having to manually feed the paper back into the MFD. Since this saves time, it increases productivity, but increases the cost of the unit. Again, this is of more importance for larger offices.

4. Paper tray capacity: This should ideally be more than 100 for an office; a smaller capacity will do if the MFD is for home use. Additional trays are available for attachment to some MFDs, so if your business is growing, check if this is available.

5. Speed and resolution: Find out the PPM (pages per minute) that the MFD is capable of printing. This is very important, more so for businesses, where time saved is money earned. PPM and resolutions are different for printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. When you enquire, what you get will be claimed values that are never really achievable, but these are indicative of the performance.

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