What Is the Meaning of the Duty Cycle of a Printer?

Industry standards for determining duty cycles vary among companies.

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Printers, like people, sometimes run out of steam. Your printer's duty cycle measures how many pages it can print in a month without straining. You damage the printer if you print above the defined duty cycle for the printer. Choose a printer with a duty cycle that handles your printing needs even in a busy season. However, it's not the only factor to consider when shopping for hardware.

Related Searches: The Duty Cycle

When you compare printers, the specifications include the duty cycle for the model you're reviewing. A typical home printer has a 5,000-page duty cycle. Office printers run from 20,000 pages a month for a low-end model up to 100,000 pages a month or more for top-of-the-line printers. The duty cycle sets the absolute maximum you can print before the printer fails. However, many printer specifications also include a recommended maximum, which is often a limit lower than the duty cycle.

Printer Lifespan

Manufacturers determine the duty cycle by stress-testing their printers to the breaking point. The same stress tests help manufacturers estimate how many years the printer can run before the parts wear out. However, the industry doesn't use standard guidelines for stress testing and measuring duty cycles. As a result, comparing duty cycles on different manufacturers' printers does not define clearly which printer is better. Some manufacturers use different interpretations for life-cycle stress testing: One manufacturer declares its printer dead when a key part breaks, another decides that since a key is an easily replaced part, the printer can run a while longer.

Heavy Usage

Some printers don't come with a manufacturer-recommended maximum. A standard rule of thumb in such cases is to look for a printer with a duty cycle three or multiples of the number of pages you print. If your office prints heavily, PCMag recommends you think about other aspects of printing as well, such as how often you'll have to restock the machine's paper. Ideally, you want a model that holds enough paper, when full, to last you a week.

Considerations

If your printing needs are slight, duty cycles may not be a key issue in your purchase decision. However, if you print enough material that the cycle matters, also look for a printer with a stacker and a sorter to make large jobs easier. Look for a fast printer so that heavy-duty printing doesn't take too much time. Output quality and price are important, however much you print. If you can't find a printer that meets your needs exactly, decide which characteristics are most critical and which are worthy of compromise.

ReferencesPCWorld: Printer Buying Guide: The Specs You Need to KnowPCMag: How to Buy a Business PrinterAllBusiness: How to Ignore Duty Cycle Shopping for a PrinterPCMag: The Best Office PrintersResourcesConsumer Reports: Printer GuidePhoto Credit Hemera Technologies/Photos.com/Getty ImagesRead Next:

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What Is a CINE Printer?

Print this articleUhler Cine Machine Company in Detroit, Michigan was a company that manufactured film projectors and printers aimed at both professionals and amateur enthusiasts. These machines are now collector’s items and museum collection pieces for fans and historians of the history of cinema. Interestingly, movie makers weren’t the only professionals to whom these machines were marketed.

Related Searches: Uhler 16 mm and 18 mm Film Printer

The Uhler 16 mm and 8 mm Film Printer was a contact-type printer that could copy either 16 mm or 8 mm films. It did this by spooling both the positive and negative portions of the film continuously over an exposure aperture to transfer the images. It also had the ability to simultaneously record the sound track while the pictures were being transferred. Uhler’s literature for this machine states that it could hold up to 1,200 feet of positive and negative film on its flanges. Uhler also states that, since six perforations on the film were continuously engaged with the sprocket, it was possible to copy film reels with broken perforations with this machine.

Uhler Reduction Printer

The Uhler Reduction Printer was designed to take a 35 mm film reel and copy it to a 16 mm film reel, which was easier to use and more widely distributed in areas outside movie theaters. According to Uhler advertisements, it allegedly had the ability to retain all the detail that was present in the original 35 mm print when the transfer was complete. It could also take an existing 8 mm film and increase its size to fill the frames of a 16 mm reel. To use it successfully, all you had to do was have your own darkroom and appropriate film stock for copying.

Uses

Besides cinema enthusiasts, Uhler Cine products were also marketed to those in the medical field of radiography. Cineradiography, or the art of taking moving x-ray pictures, is useful for making some kinds of medical diagnoses. While modern times have seen the advent of digital technology in the radiography field, reels of film were once commonplace. It is uncertain how widely used Uhler Cine Printers were in the medical profession.

Considerations

The Uhler Cine Company no longer seems to exist as of November 2011, and it is uncertain when the company closed its doors. However, the company's Cine Printers can still be found via sales from collectors, estates, and auction sites like eBay. In some cases, you may still be able to find one in good working order that you can use, so long as you can find good film stock for it.

ReferencesAgassiz Trading Company: Uhler 16mm and 8mm Film PrinterBrian Pritchard: Uhler Motion Pictures LeafletRadiological Society of North America: Radiology, Vol.74 No.3, March 1960Greek Film Archive Museum of Cinematography: Museum Exhibits: 16mm Uhler PrinterRead Next:

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