Printers can generally be grouped into two categories: those that use dry powder toner and those that use liquid color ink (inkjet). You may end up finding both in an office depending on the type of business. Commercial inkjet printers fall into two categories — office inkjet and architectural engineering inkjet.
Types of Commercial Inkjet Printers
Architectural Engineering Inkjet (Plotter)
Commercial inkjet printers are known for their large output capabilities, with some being able to print documents up to 42 inches wide. With one of these printers you can print construction plans on the fly. In fact, that’s more or less the sole purpose of these commercial inkjet printers, also known as “plotters”.
A plotter is designed to do nothing else but print large drawings. It doesn’t scan anything, it doesn’t copy anything, it just prints. With such limited use capabilities, commercial inkjet printers are only useful to those who absolutely need them. In my experience, it’s typically only architectural engineers who need this type of printer in their office.
As you may have assumed by now, commercial inkjet plotters are highly specialized, which means they also come with a hefty price tag. Not only is it expensive to own one, it’s expensive to use one. Liquid color ink for a commercial inkjet is many times more expensive than the dry powder toner used in commercial laser printers. However, commercial inkjets are the best way to print large drawings, which makes them a valuable asset to those who need them.
Commercial inkjet printers are not very practical for the majority of businesses we work with, which is why we we only get involved with them to a certain extent. We don’t sell them or sell any of the supplies for them, but we will service them on a case by case basis. From experience I can tell you not many companies work on these type of printers, but we can specifically service plotters made by HP and a few other manufacturers. If you require service on your commercial inkjet printer, please contact us and we will do our best to provide a solution.
Office Inkjet Printers
Another type of inkjet printer you may run into in an office are those small, inexpensive printers that use liquid ink cartridges. These printers are typically purchased from big box stores like Best Buy for a few hundred dollars or less. I won’t go into too much detail about this type of inkjet printer, because I have many articles explaining why they are a poor option for businesses.
Generally speaking, with an inexpensive inkjet printer you will end up spending more money to use the machine than what it costs to buy one. Companies are able to sell inkjet printers cheap because they make their money back on supplies. With the sky high cost of liquid ink, it actually ends up being more expensive to own an inkjet printer over time than buying or leasing a commercial toner-based machine. For more information about inkjet printers, and why businesses should stay away from them, please see my article here.
Wrap Up
I hope you’ve learned something new about the two types of commercial inkjet printers that are on the market. Unless you frequently need to print large drawings, you’re better off going with another machine, such as a commercial multifunctional copier. If you have any other questions please leave a comment below.