There’s no doubt that the print and mail industries are evolving. More and more marketing programs are switching to digital platforms, paperless invoicing has become the norm in many industries, and year over year fewer people have printers in their homes.
One major reason people switch away from print to digital is protecting the environment. Fewer trees will be cut down, less ink will be improperly disposed of, harming the soil and water, and less waste will flood our landfills.
These arguments are engrained in marketing strategies in North America, but herein lies the reality, a new credit card can’t be physically delivered through an e-mail, nor a purchase from Amazon Prime be delivered without proper packaging. The print industry will never be replaced despite undergoing incredible changes. So how do we do better for our customers who are conscious of the environmental impact of the print industry? The answer lies in the equipment we use to print with.
Which brings us to RISO, a Japanese brand that not only provides incredible production speed through their inkjet printing solutions but also design and develop products that exert the smallest possible impact on the environment through their lifecycles.
RISO achieves this in a couple different ways, mainly through their ink, power requirements, duty cycle and lifespan. Happily, RISO’s Vice President of Sales, Andre D’Urbano, was willing to speak more on the reduced environmental impact of RISO products compared to competing equipment.
Perhaps the most drastic difference between RISO and other inkjet competitors is the oil-based ink that RISO uses. “All competitive inkjet devices are water based,” says D’Urbano. “As a result, they require a dryer to dry the water based ink as well as a de-curler at the back end to flatten out the sheet of paper. Our ink requires no dryer, no de-curler, and no heat to run those items.” Consequently, a standalone RISO unit is roughly five feet long, while competing equipment are typically between 25 to 30 feet long.
By reducing the footprint of the machine there are less emissions in the manufacturing part of the equipment’s life cycle. At the same time, not needing the dryer or de-curler greatly reduces the power consumption of the machine, something that D’Urbano notes the competition struggles with. “Toner devices are the equivalent of turning on an oven and never turning it off. They heat up to 160 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit to bake toner on to paper and must always remain on to avoid going through multiple warm-up processes. Even in sleep mode the heat must remain on.”
These toner machines typically require 220V of power to run and pull huge amounts of electricity even in their downtime. Meanwhile RISO inkjet printers only require 110V during production, using the same amount of power as a household blow dryer. When they’re not in production mode, it uses as little energy as your television does when it’s not in use, none.
The energy savings are without a doubt incredible. What’s almost hard to believe is that the FT line of RISO printers can still print up to 120 pages per minute, while the GL can run up to 160, and the Valezus lines can achieve upwards of 320 pages per minute, all without producing any heat.
Andre also indicated that the ability to run cold adds even more benefits to users of the RISO products. “Depends on the model, but RISO equipment typically lasts three times longer than Toner because there is no heat.” Not only do they last longer and require less maintenance, but the RISO equipment also boasts impressive duty cycles ranging from 500k impressions per month all the way up to 1.5 million.
“When a toner device is rated to be able to run 200,000 copies per month, [it can’t manage that number] due to the heat build up. Drive your car non-stop in the red and your engine would give out. Nothing is designed to operate at maximum levels, except inkjet. Many accounts run our GL printer at 750,000 imprints per month, one customer in the healthcare field have four GL’s at 1 Million per month each. You can run inkjet at its posted duty cycle whereas toner machines can’t handle their posted volume.”
As Vice President of Sales for RISO you would both understand and forgive Andre for speaking in hyperbole and overselling the durability of RISO printers, but in this case the numbers don’t lie. The Valezus line of printers are rated to have a life span of approximately 100 million impressions. Yet the oldest Valezus in the field, located in Atlanta, has already surpassed 170 million impressions, an incredible statement not only to the build quality of RISO products, but to their ability to service and maintain their equipment as well.
One RISO customer outside of Atlanta have 7 Valezus, of which the oldest has about 170 Million impressions.
RISO cut-sheet Inkjet is a blend of Offset and Digital. Fast and economical like an offset with all the ease and benefits of digital toner units. Its oil-based ink is instant dry and uses the smallest footprint on the market to generate as much as 19,800 Impressions per Hour. The range of RISO equipment specializes in providing colour at nearly the same price of black and white, all while offering a more sustainable production model that maximizes the environmental friendliness your customer’s demand. If you are new to Inkjet, start with RISO!
