Hitachi's New Printer Cuts Power Use by 30 Percent

Hitachi Ltd. of Japan, on December 3, 2007, launched sales of its new mid-range model of continuous-feed printer, the HT-4558-120A, which consumes about 30 percent less electricity than conventional printers when it goes into sleep mode after a certain period in standby mode.

The new model is the latest product in Hitachi's HT-4558 series of medium-speed, continuous-feed printers for use in an open system. The series consists of machines used for core tasks such as printing receipts with the EAN 128 barcode used by convenience stores, or printing slips with the QR Code widely used in manufacturing and logistics. (QR code is a two-dimensional barcode capable of encoding a large amount of information by displaying it both horizontally and vertically -- one of the other selling points of the new printer.) In addition to its lower electricity consumption, the HT-4558-120A model also features the smallest level of setting space for a medium-speed, continuous-feed printer, which was attained by shortening the width of its case by about 10 percent compared to conventional models.

In response to the need to reduce the electricity consumed by IT devices, company engineers successfully revised the design of the print controller, a component that converts prints data into actual print images. This redesign can lower the new model's electricity consumption in the energy-save-mode by up to 54 watts, which is 30 percent less than that used by conventional models, and also satisfies the standards of the International Energy Star Program for IT devices.

The Hitachi group plans to install the new model in its Cool Center 50 Project, which is aimed at reducing the amount of electricity consumed at its data center by up to 50 percent within five years.

http://www.hitachi.com/global/index.html

Posted: 2008/05/03 10:49:11 AM