Comparing laser toner cartridges
Years ago, the copier market discovered the benefits of selling cost per copy. Today, the printer market is making the same discovery. Cost per page is a better measure of laser toner cartridge expense than cost per cartridge. Cost per page applies cost accounting concepts to the cartridge purchase decision. This measure correctly allocates cost to a unit of output.
Page yield is required in addition to cartridge cost to determine cost per page. Cartridge costs are readily available. Tests from independent testing laboratories are necessary to verify manufacturers claims about page yield per cartridge.
New cartridge designs, like PageMax from Clarity Imaging, deliver twice the yield per cartridge that OEM cartridges do. Clarity's "high efficiency toner transfer technology" results in a 20-30 percent savings for the end user. Significantly, the dealer can make double the gross margin dollars in high volume accounts. Cost per Page - The typical cartridge user is concerned with what it costs to run laser printers to produce his product. If his is churning out mortgage forms, his ultimate concern is how much each form costs.
The problem with cost per cartridge is that it does not associate cost with a measurable unit of benefit. Cost per cartridge is one input for determining cost per page. The other is page yield.
Page yield per cartridge measures the number of pages a cartridge will produce under normal conditions. Different cartridges for different printers can produce anywhere from 3,000 to 30,000 pages. More importantly, cartridges produced by different manufacturers for the same printer can produce widely different page outputs. Page yield for cartridges compatible with the HP 98A can vary from less than 6,000 to more than 13,000 pages. Obviously, with such a dramatic variation, page yield can have a profound impact on the end user's cost.
Cost per page is a mathematical relationship: cost per cartridge divided by page yield per cartridge. The industry has focused on cost per cartridge because sticker prices are easy to see. With the results of independent testing laboratories, dealers can reliably compare costs per cartridge from different manufacturers.
Independent Testing Labs - The Standard Test Method for Comparing Printer or Copier Cartridges, ASTM Standard F-1531, is a comprehensive test of laser toner cartridges and the print they produce. ASTM is the American Society of Testing Engineers, a standards setting organization.
According to ASTM F-1531, page yield must be determined by a full life test of cartridges under laboratory conditions. The tests are run in five stages, each being one fifth of the manufacturer's estimated yield, and the tests are run until the cartridge is exhausted. The tests are performed using 5 percent print coverage per page. Random copies from each stage are examined for quality defects. Copies from successive stages are compared for evidence of deterioration of image quality.
Shorter versions of laser toner cartridge tests save time, but may not provide accurate and reliable results. These abbreviated tests infer the life of a cartridge based on printing only 1,000 pages. The performance of a cartridge over the first 1,000 pages does not necessarily indicate what the performance will be over the life of the cartridge. This test assumes a constant toner usage factor, which does not account for progressive wear. Components within the cartridge can wear or fail before the cartridge runs out of toner.
There are several independent laboratories used by the manufacturers of toner cartridges. Leading laboratories like Buyer's Laboratory and Industry Analysts provide testing in a variety of areas: product reliability, cartridge and materials compatibility, energy consumption, life-cycle cost, and productivity.
Saving the Customer Money Cartridges are a major office supply cost, second only to paper, and there is great pressure on purchasing personnel to reduce cartridge expenses. You can save your customer money by focusing him on cartridge cost per page.
You can use independent laboratory tests like the one above from Industry Analysts to build a cost benefit analysis for a prospective customer. An analysis uses competitive cartridge costs and competitive cartridge yields to determine savings per page. If you know the customer's annual cartridge usage, you can also determine his annual savings.
Value Added: Margin Added - The technologies employed by the new generation of cartridges, such as PageMax, result in greater profitability for the dealer. The value added from the technology not only saves the customer money, but also provides the dealer with more profit. Higher gross margins are possible because dealers selling OEM cartridges are all selling the same product. This forces dealers to compete on price alone, and margins are pushed down.
Value added products, because they deliver a clear advantage to the consumer, can be very profitable for the dealer.
A Good Deal for Dealers - Focusing the customer on his cost per page can save him money. Dealers can also make more money. Steve Silver, President of Clarity Imaging observes: "By using our patented technology we can give the customer and the dealer a better deal than the OEMs can. The business of selling quality cartridges can become profitable again."
Copyright B U S Publishing Group, Inc. Aug 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
Page yield is required in addition to cartridge cost to determine cost per page. Cartridge costs are readily available. Tests from independent testing laboratories are necessary to verify manufacturers claims about page yield per cartridge.
New cartridge designs, like PageMax from Clarity Imaging, deliver twice the yield per cartridge that OEM cartridges do. Clarity's "high efficiency toner transfer technology" results in a 20-30 percent savings for the end user. Significantly, the dealer can make double the gross margin dollars in high volume accounts. Cost per Page - The typical cartridge user is concerned with what it costs to run laser printers to produce his product. If his is churning out mortgage forms, his ultimate concern is how much each form costs.
The problem with cost per cartridge is that it does not associate cost with a measurable unit of benefit. Cost per cartridge is one input for determining cost per page. The other is page yield.
Page yield per cartridge measures the number of pages a cartridge will produce under normal conditions. Different cartridges for different printers can produce anywhere from 3,000 to 30,000 pages. More importantly, cartridges produced by different manufacturers for the same printer can produce widely different page outputs. Page yield for cartridges compatible with the HP 98A can vary from less than 6,000 to more than 13,000 pages. Obviously, with such a dramatic variation, page yield can have a profound impact on the end user's cost.
Cost per page is a mathematical relationship: cost per cartridge divided by page yield per cartridge. The industry has focused on cost per cartridge because sticker prices are easy to see. With the results of independent testing laboratories, dealers can reliably compare costs per cartridge from different manufacturers.
Independent Testing Labs - The Standard Test Method for Comparing Printer or Copier Cartridges, ASTM Standard F-1531, is a comprehensive test of laser toner cartridges and the print they produce. ASTM is the American Society of Testing Engineers, a standards setting organization.
According to ASTM F-1531, page yield must be determined by a full life test of cartridges under laboratory conditions. The tests are run in five stages, each being one fifth of the manufacturer's estimated yield, and the tests are run until the cartridge is exhausted. The tests are performed using 5 percent print coverage per page. Random copies from each stage are examined for quality defects. Copies from successive stages are compared for evidence of deterioration of image quality.
Shorter versions of laser toner cartridge tests save time, but may not provide accurate and reliable results. These abbreviated tests infer the life of a cartridge based on printing only 1,000 pages. The performance of a cartridge over the first 1,000 pages does not necessarily indicate what the performance will be over the life of the cartridge. This test assumes a constant toner usage factor, which does not account for progressive wear. Components within the cartridge can wear or fail before the cartridge runs out of toner.
There are several independent laboratories used by the manufacturers of toner cartridges. Leading laboratories like Buyer's Laboratory and Industry Analysts provide testing in a variety of areas: product reliability, cartridge and materials compatibility, energy consumption, life-cycle cost, and productivity.
Saving the Customer Money Cartridges are a major office supply cost, second only to paper, and there is great pressure on purchasing personnel to reduce cartridge expenses. You can save your customer money by focusing him on cartridge cost per page.
You can use independent laboratory tests like the one above from Industry Analysts to build a cost benefit analysis for a prospective customer. An analysis uses competitive cartridge costs and competitive cartridge yields to determine savings per page. If you know the customer's annual cartridge usage, you can also determine his annual savings.
Value Added: Margin Added - The technologies employed by the new generation of cartridges, such as PageMax, result in greater profitability for the dealer. The value added from the technology not only saves the customer money, but also provides the dealer with more profit. Higher gross margins are possible because dealers selling OEM cartridges are all selling the same product. This forces dealers to compete on price alone, and margins are pushed down.
Value added products, because they deliver a clear advantage to the consumer, can be very profitable for the dealer.
A Good Deal for Dealers - Focusing the customer on his cost per page can save him money. Dealers can also make more money. Steve Silver, President of Clarity Imaging observes: "By using our patented technology we can give the customer and the dealer a better deal than the OEMs can. The business of selling quality cartridges can become profitable again."
Copyright B U S Publishing Group, Inc. Aug 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
Labels: laser toners