Professional Industrial Serial Impact Printers

Newbury Data has been the UK's leading supplier of high performance serial impact printers since 1974, following in the successful footstep of the popular ND640, ND680 and ND825 printer series the ND2000 and ND3000 Series printers offer our customers the most reliable an application flexible printing solution available. Newbury Data offers a wide range of Personality Modules (PM) for the ND2000 & ND3000 Series of high performance impact printers. Simply plugged into the printer, the PM combines interfaces, emulation's and protocol converters.

 

ND2000 Series

ND2500

500cps, 24 pin, 136 column, front feed continuos form, zero tear off

 

ND2600

600cps, 24 pin, 136 column, front feed continuos form, zero tear off, 3 x ASF

 

ND2700

700cps, 24 pin, 136 column, dual tractor front feed continuos form, zero tear off

 

ND2700C

700cps, 24 pin, 136 column, dual tractor front feed continuos form, zero tear off and integrated cutting device for automated job separation

ND3000 Series

ND3106

600cps, 24 pin, 92 column, front feed continuos form, zero tear off

 

ND3207

700cps, 24 pin, 160 column, dual tractor front feed continuos form, zero tear off

 

ND3210

1000cps, 24 pin, 160 column, dual tractor front feed continuos form, zero tear off
   
Related Links Other Manaufacturers supplied by Newbury Data:
PSi PP20x Series: Entry Level Dot Matrix Printers
 
 
 
 
 
 

About High Speed Professional Industrial Dot Matrix Printers

Market Research indicates that there are still on average sales of over 2000 high performance impact printers each year in the UK, this figures does not include sub entry level dot matrix printers. Approximately (25%) 500 of these are line matrix and (75%) 1500 high-speed professional industrial dot matrix printers. High speed professional industrial dot matrix printers range in price between £1500-£3500, the highest volume of sales in this market segment are printers with 24 pin print heads, 600-1000 cps, multiple paper paths, multiple connectivity options for up to date networks and ERP’s, and very low cost of ownership.

High Speed Professional Industrial Dot Matrix Printers made easy

The 3 key things to address with every dot matrix printer enquiry:

  1. Application
  2. Interface
  3. Emulation

1. Application

Understanding the application helps choose the correct printer for the customer’s requirements.

  • What is the form size
  • helps to select narrow or wide carriage printer
  • Is the form multi-part, if so how many parts
  • printers vary in the number of parts each can print
  • How many pages per day
  • multiply the daily requirement by 22 to ensure the printers monthly duty cycle can support the required volume
  • How many hours per day to print daily volume
  • The printers duty cycle may support the required volume, but may need the printer running all day if the pages per hour capability is insufficient, this could mean a faster or additional printer is required
  • Is media continuous or single sheet
  • Helps identify if both tractor and ASF option is required
  • Is the continuous media separated by hand after printed
  • Helps identify printer type if cutter option is relevant or required
  • Are multiple forms being used
  • Helps identify possibility for dual tractor printers

The most common areas of use for professional industrial dot matrix printers are within manufacturing plants, logistics warehouses and accounts departments where robustness, reliability and low cost per page is required. The most common applications for dot matrix printers today are printing bar coded pick list & job sheets, labels, tickets, lists, shipping documents, invoices, financial statements and multi-part form sets.

2. Interface

Modern interface requirements require Ethernet (LAN) or Wireless Ethernet (WLAN). However many dot matrix printers are still used in legacy applications that require a Serial interface. Newbury Data ND2000 and ND3000 series printers supports the widest variety of exchangeable interfaces models (see connectivity) to ensure our customers can migrate between systems without the need for new investment in the printer hardware.

Newbury Data Personality Modules (PM’s – see connectivity) make direct connection for the ND2000 and ND3000 Series printers for every host system and network. Interfaces, emulation’s and protocol converters are integrated in the PM. All PM capable printers can be adapted at any time to changes in the system environment and support the following interfaces: Parallel, Serial, Ethernet LAN and Wireless Ethernet (WLAN), TwinAX, and CoAX.

3. Emulation

Systems that support dot matrix printers generally use ASCII or printer specific command sets, this is to ensure that the printer operates at its maximum capacity and efficiency. Windows applications using Windows drivers can result in the printer appearing to print slowly and with imperfect print quality, which when printing bar codes could result in poor or unreadable scanning. Discussion about emulation type required or native printer programming languages will ensure you select the right printer. Newbury Data offers the following emulation’s: Tally MT50, DEC LA / Epson FX (Newbury Data ND640, ND680, ND825 and Sprint direct replacement PM), Genicom, IBM XL24, EPSON LQ/P2, Printronix IGP, IBM IPDS

Newbury Data offers a valuable solution to emulation discussion where discontinued emulation requirements and support exist, or where modification to data output is required, our StringChange solution allows the use of any existing data streams to be converted into the language our printers use. Not only does this reduce the amount of possible software modification and subsequent costs, but it also offers the supplier the chance to provide the printer as a solution and not just a box, allowing for extra margin and customer retention. (see String Change for further details)

StringChange

Personality Modules with StringChange functionality are used where problems with the printer data stream are not supported, which can only be resolved by modifications and adaptations of the data stream. This kind of problems appear if existing old printer installations need to be replaced by new equipment and incompatibilities have to be fixed which can not be done within the host software.

The StringChange functionality of the corresponding Personality Modules for the ND2000 & ND3000 series printers offer our VAR´s opportunities to develop independent solutions for their customers and to protect their margins and gain customer retention. In general terms StringChange is the treatment of incoming character strings and output to the printer. StringChange can modify or convert control commands or delete unnecessary characters from the data stream.

StringChange examples:

1. C.ITOH CI5000 Printer with GAP emulation

Newbury Data was asked by one of our VAR’s to work on an enquiry with a client who where using C.ITOH CI5000 printers using the C.ITOH GAP graphics emulation to produce bar code documents and labels in a warehouse management system (WMS) application. The customer was also looking to switch over to a direct network connection.

The problem:

The original software programmer for the application had left the company, meaning that a new developer would have to employed, and the possibility of having to re-write the entire print program to support alternative printers. The cost was investigated and was found to be too expensive and meant looking for an alternative approach.

The solution:

The VAR, being aware of Newbury Data’s expertise in printer programming solutions contacted us to discuss the enquiry. Using StringChange we were able to convert the GAP programming language into the Newbury Data printers native language, making the conversion transparent to the customer application. At the same the customer was also able to select the required network interface.

The benefits

2. Bar Code Printing with no software/system capability

A medium sized manufacturing business contacted Newbury Data when it was struggling to overcome a way of introducing a bar code on its shipping labels in line with a compliance mandate from one of their customers, without the need for costly system re-works. The application required some of the data being printed as a bar code as well human readable text.

The problem:

The system data was being sent to the printer as ASCII, printing in the resident font at 10 cpi. The pre-printed form being used meant that precise placement of data was vital. The company had investigated middleware form design software programs that could be used, but were put off by the high initial purchase price, implementation, user training and yearly support licence costs.

The solution:

The customer gave Newbury Data the required output files, and within no time we had supplied an evaluation printer with StringChange that converted the text data to both text and bar code data. We then asked the customer where they preferred to purchase by the printer, giving us the name of their preferred IT supplier.

The benefits