On Monday, June 24, Toshiba America Business Solutions held a Webinar for analysts and press to announce under non-disclosure the e-STUDIO306LP with the e-Studio RD30 eraser unit and erasable toner co-developed with Pilot, the pen company.
It’s not like this product was a huge secret since a prototype was shown last year at Toshiba’s LEAD event. What’s been held not so tightly under wraps since then was officially unveiled this week.
The product itself is nearly identical to the existing e-Studio306, the primary difference being the eraser unit and erasable toner as well as green trim. Toshiba product manager Robert Covington reports that 90 percent of the components in this model are the same as the current e-Studio306. Another difference is that the fuser temperature has been reduced, meaning less power consumption. It’s not available with a stapler finisher either because sheets that have been stapled cannot be reused multiple times.
Apparently, end users and dealers who have seen this product are besides themselves with excitement. “Never in 17 years have I seen a product that’s generated more interest,” said Robert Covington, Toshiba’s product manager.
Toshiba’s e-Studio306LP MFP with eraser unit and erasable toner.
That’s a huge positive for Toshiba and for customers looking to more fully embrace the green movement. “With this product we think you can make some inroads in reducing CO2 emissions,” noted Covington.
The concept came from evaluating the number of temporary copies made across a variety of organizations that eventually get tossed into recycling bins and what if those temporary copies could be reused again after the toner has been removed?
A Toshiba Tec study found that 30 to 40 percent of office documents are for temporary use and 90 percent of those will not be stored but likely disposed of within a week.
The term Toshiba is using to describe what’s going on with this technology is “Paper Reusing System.” Printed output looks similar to a mimeograph sheet, which denotes it’s erasable. When sheets with the erasable toner are run through the system they are automatically scanned and saved to a network location, before they’re erased. The system automatically sorts the paper that has been fully erased into one bin and paper that has not been erased into a second bin for recycling. That second bin will likely accommodate sheets produced with traditional toner, stapled or hole-punched sheets, or paper that is wrinkled or folded and not suitable for reuse. For users in a secure environment that prefer not to archive the documents being erased, that feature can be disabled.
The toner uses the same principle as “Frixion Ink” by Pilot. Heat causes the toner to lose its colorant fixture making it transparent instantly. Tests revealed that blue provided the best image color and quality although Covington reveals that Toshiba is investigating other toners, which may show up in future evolutions of the product.
Covington feels there’s a great market for this product and the benefits are numerous with the most obvious being that it allows users to reuse paper that would traditionally be recycled or thrown away after short-term use. The system tracks how many times a document has been erased. Toshiba estimates that a document can be reused up to five times. On the sixth pass through the system the paper goes into the bottom drawer for recycling. The reason for the term limits on paper reuse is that it loses some of its properties on each pass through the system, particularly its flexibility when run through high heat multiple times.
The MFP itself is also eco friendly although Covington notes that it is not light years more so than the traditional e-Studio306. It’s made of recycled plastic and bio plastic and is also ROHSo ROHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) compliant. But the biggest green benefit is CO2 reduction resulting from reusing the paper.
Toshiba has long fostered an environmental message even though Covington concedes that they’re in the paper consumption business and this product is somewhat counterproductive to that. Yet he says it’s a win-win with the reduction of paper being a hugely significant factor. Incidentally, Toshiba conducted a life cycle analysis, which was validated by the British Standards Institute that revealed how reusing paper up to five times reduces CO2 emissions by up to 50 percent. “And you’re not taking a tree out of circulation either,” adds Covington. Plus the paper-making process uses a lot of water, and this process reduces water consumption by up to 80 percent as well.
“If you cut paper usage without reducing print volume, you’re going to save a lot of expense,” emphasizes Covington. “We’re promoting this as an ecological advantage versus an economical advantage.”
Indeed, using this feature over five years of expected printing volume an organization that would normal print 330,000 sheets would reduce that by 5,000 sheets, saving one tree. By decreasing to 1/5 the amount of paper used they’d save 58 trees. “You’re going to have an impact on the environment. We don’t think all output will go to this, but a sizable amount will,” notes Covington.
Toshiba is positioning the e-Studio306LP with the e-StudioRD30 as a general office MFP with ‘exceptional environmental attributes.’ They’re targeting customers who want to make an overt environmental statement and customers with ‘temporary paper’ internal workflow such as mobile users who want to print right away or organizations such as schools where teachers print assignments or schedules without knowing how many they’re actually going to need. With this system, unused printed documents can then be purged and reused.
“Everybody who I’ve shown this to in a purchasing capacity has said they want this product,” notes Covington.
Toshiba is also targeting new customers who only use one device as well as their competitor’s installed based since this is the only MFP with reusable toner on the market right now.
There is a premium associated with this product. The e-STUDIO306LP MFP and RD30 eraser unit are sold separately. The suggested retail price for the e-STUDIO306LP is $10,047. The MSRP for the RD30 is $5,945.
The cost of the toner also has a premium associated with it, roughly three times that of conventional toner and that’s with Toshiba taking a hit on the margin so there wasn’t as huge a disparity between erasable and conventional toner. Right now the toner can only be used in this one model.
Ultimately, Covington says that the main cost reduction comes from the purchase of less paper compared to a regular MFP. “When think about it cost of paper is roughly 50 percent cost of printing on a regular MFP,” notes Covington.
He adds that for the dealer the value is the ability to be the first on their block to offer this eco-friendly MFP using this technology. They won’t have to compete with compatibles on the toner side and that this is an easy door opener and easy for customers to understand. Plus the customer’s print volume will not decrease, only their paper consumption.
“This is a door opener for our dealers,” concludes Covington. “There’s a ton of interest in it. In demos, customer loves product. It’s not for everybody, but it lets people see how innovative Toshiba really is.”
