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sustainabletimes
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www.binfo.co.uk
erasable toner
Now you see it,
now you don’t
Virgin Media is synonymous with
modern entertainment technologies
and was the first provider of all four
key services in the UK – broadband,
TV, mobile phone and landline.
As well as delivering ultrafast
broadband connections to over half
of all UK homes, it was the first to
offer HDTV and 3DTV on demand.
The company prides itself on
growing its business in a way that’s
good for people and the environment.
Managing waste is a key element of
this objective and customers, staff and
social commentators are all encouraged
to provide input and ideas about how
this can be achieved.
Virgin Media is a long-term customer
of Toshiba TEC UK Imaging Systems.
Responsible for an estimated 7 million
colour print-outs a year, it is keen to make
its print-based functions as efficient as
possible. So when Virgin Media IT Regional
Support Manager Dave Holdsworth was
offered the opportunity to trial the new
e-STUDIO306LP erasable MFP, he jumped
at the chance.
“We’d heard about systems from
other manufacturers that claimed to
do a similar thing – albeit with limited
success – so wanted to see what
Toshiba TEC had come up with.We
were particularly interested in finding
out how this new multifunction product
(MFP) could help us save money and
reduce print-related waste,” he said.
The concept of erasable printing
technology isn’t new. However, previous
systems have relied on plastic-coated
paper that erases toner via a printer’s
thermal heads. The e-STUDIO306LP is
different because it works with erasable,
blue-coloured toner and standard
copier paper that can be wiped clean
and re-used five times or more.
Toshiba TEC marketing director
Jeremy Spencer explained: “When
previously printed paper is fed into the
eraser unit it heats the ink, which wipes
the print and provides a blank sheet to
Virgin Media recently completed a
successful trial of Toshiba’s paper-saving
erasable toner MFP.
use again. This drastically cuts overall
paper usage which obviously saves
costs. Just as importantly, if the same
piece of paper is used five times, total
CO2 emissions can be reduced by 60%
compared to printing once per sheet.”
When erasing a printed page – and
notes made on it with a Pilot FriXion
erasable gel ink pen – the RD30 erasing
unit captures an electronic image of the
document for storage in a document
management system (DMS). Files can
then be accessed from any location and
amended as part of a workflow.
User feedback
Earlier this year, Toshiba TEC installed
a prototype e-STUDIO306LP at Virgin
Media. After the trial, people were invited
to provide feedback and offer their views
about how the MFP could be used longer-
term. The response was unanimously
positive, with widespread recognition of
its potential to reduce waste.
Tony Duffy, ERP Support Analyst in the
IT Development & Support department,
said: “The e-STUDIO Eco is a great idea
and is typical of the innovation that we
expect from Toshiba TEC. I was impressed
with the ease-of-use of both the MFP
and the eraser unit. The e-STUDIO Eco is
particularly suitable for printing internal
documents, emails and memos and would
definitely be useful at Virgin Media as it
could save us money and help us meet
our sustainability-based goals.”
This view is shared by John Adams
who works in Virgin Media’s Remedy
Support & Development department. He
said: “My job involves printing documents
which I then annotate. It’s not possible to
use standard ink pens to do this, as the
paper cannot then be re-used, but I was
able to use a FriXion ball pen as its ink is
erasable like the toner.What’s more, the
eraser unit is able to detect if the sheet
is reusable and automatically places
unusable sheets in a separate bin, which
is remarkably clever.”
Virgin staff also suggested ways in
which the e-STUDIO306LP could be
improved. Pam Ratcliffe, who works in the
Support & Development department, said:
“Although I preferred printing in the blue
ink rather than black, as it provided better
contrast, most of the documents that I
produce include graphs and line drawings
and these need more than one colour to
be easily read. I was therefore pleased
to hear that Toshiba TEC is currently
developing other options, potentially with
a full colour version in the pipeline.”
Jeremy Spencer concluded: “The
feedback we have received fromVirgin
Media confirms our belief that the
e-STUDIO306LP will open the door to
a new way of working by encouraging
users to save money and reduce the
massive amount of waste paper that is
created in offices every day.”
www.toshibatectalk.co.uk
www.toshibatec.co.uk
01932 580190
Sustainable
Editor’s Choice Award
Toshiba Erasable Toner MFP