Answer: No.  Printronix has earned an outstanding reputation for providing long term product support.  We will continue to fully support all spares, repairs, and services for P5000 products.  We will do so for a minimum of five years, including the building of new spare components as required to support the installed base.

Answer: First, P7000 Ultra Capacity Ribbons deliver a lower cost per page, up to 42% less, than all models of Printronix P5000 ribbons.  Second, the 6th generation technology of the P7000 encompasses reliability improvements that yield more up time and lower maintenance costs. Finally, the long life of the new ribbon coupled with smart consumable management via the new Integrated Print Management feature, substantially reduces user interventions, resulting in significant labor savings.  These three factors combine to provide significant operational cost savings over the already industry leading P5000 family!

Answer: Yes.  The quiet cabinet models use the same powerful drive motors, straight paper path through the print station, and gentle curve to the output area as their P5000 counterparts.  The pedestal models, however, have been dramatically improved.  The fairly sharp bend and thin exit slot on the P5000 models has been eliminated and now the new P7000 pedestal paper path more closely follows the proven design used on the cabinet models.  The result is that the P7000 pedestal can now handle 17 inch wide forms and feeds paper at the same high speed as the cabinet units.

Answer: No. We are fully aware that modifying host applications are always undesirable and often impossible, so extensive testing has been performed to insure that the P7000 is fully backward compatible with all existing P5000 applications.  Additionally, every P7000 comes standard with the ability to intercept and modify a data stream before printing. Any changes can be corrected or modified to create the desired output without any costly host application modification.

Answer: The P5000's design for repair was outstanding and this has been carried forward with the P7000 family.  The same basic components and method of troubleshooting remain the same.  The only differences are minor items that improve upon the P5000, for example, making the power supply easier to swap without losing the hardware.

Answer: There are a few parts that are common between these two families, but generally they are completely unique.  The common parts are smaller items like drive belts and shafts, but all the major components like power supply, controller and shuttles are unique.

Answer: In the world of high technology, the P5000 design is fairly old and some parts are becoming harder to source.  As always, we will do our best to continue to identify economical sources for these older parts, but over time it is expected that some upward price pressure will be inevitable.

Answer: No, this is not possible.  The P7000 ribbons are too large to physically fit in either pedestal or quiet cabinet P5000 printers.  Additionally, the new easy load hub on the P7000 will not accommodate the older P5000 spool design.

Answer: No.  The P7000 is built on a new controller platform that is not compatible with P5000 firmware.  Additionally, major new features, such as the Integrated Print Management system, are not supported on a P5000.

Answer: No.  The core of the P5000 code base was developed in 1996 and is no longer being improved.  Therefore, at this point, the P5000 firmware feature level has been frozen and development resources are now focused on advancing the P7000 firmware.  This will be the Printronix platform for growth.

Answer: This display tells you how much ribbon life is remaining on the currently loaded ribbon. It is fully automatic and does not require any set up or additional procedures to work. Just load and change ribbons as you ever would on an older line printer. It can then tell when new ribbons are loaded and adjust the life display accordingly. Now it is possible to gauge how much longer you have before you need to change ribbons or if you have enough capacity to finish that large job.

Answer: Yes. On PrintNet Enterprise equipped printers ribbon life can be viewed anywhere remotely via a simple web browser. Even better, PrintNet Enterprise can be set to issue your web enabled portable device an e-mail once the ribbon life is low and again when it is out.

Answer: Yes. The system uses a sophisticated algorithm that tracks usage in all the various sections of the ribbon automatically. As print patterns shift, it will use different parts of the ribbon, but this is all tracked and properly accounted for. The net indication then is the life remaining in whatever is the most depleted section of the ribbon.

Answer: This is not problem; the system will always be accurate. It is true that not all ribbon types have the same life, but the Integrated Print Managements system automatically detects this and adjusts its display correctly.

Answer: Yes. A ribbon can be taken off and replaced at any time, and the system will correctly tell you the ribbon life remaining on the currently loaded ribbon. The system keeps track of all ribbons being used and remembers how much life was remaining on them when they were removed. When it sees a ribbon is reloaded, it will update the life indication to reflect the correct remaining life. The only restriction is that the ribbon must be replaced onto the same machine and in the same orientation. If a partially used ribbon is placed on a new machine or it is flipped over, it will incorrectly be reported as new.

Answer: The life indication will continue to count down until it gets to two percent. At this point, the system will warn of a Ribbon Life Low condition. The indicator lamp will flash, the warning message will be displayed, and optionally e-mail alerts will be issued. Printing, however will continue without any interruption. Once the remaining two percent is consumed the printer will stop to prevent the print quality from degrading below the set limit. The error lamp will flash, the audible alarm will sound, the display will indicate that the ribbon needs to be replaced, and optionally an e-mail alert will be issued.

Answer: Yes. By returning the printer to the on-line state, it will resume printing for approximately two more minutes. If still a bit more printing is needed, the printer can continue to be returned to the on-line state to gain extra minutes of operation. This process can be repeated indefinitely to extend printing as long as desired.

Yes. This point is totally adjustable and can be set to match your application's requirements. The system is set up by default to meet most user's requirements. However, some applications require that the output remains darker than the nominal set point, and some applications are less critical and could tolerate a lighter final image. A setting under the Printer Control menu is available that allows you to adjust the final image darkness. The range is as follows:

Darker +3, Darker +2, Darker +1, Normal (default), Lighter -1, and Lighter -5

The ribbon life indicator will always cycle between 100% and 0%, but if a darker setting is selected zero will be reached more quickly. If a lighter setting is selected, the system will extend the amount of printing it takes to reach zero. The adjustment procedure is described in your Quick Setup Guide, Users Manual, and in a special addendum included with each printer.

Answer: Yes. Under the Advanced User section of the printer menus, you can select an option to ignore the ribbon end point. The ribbon life indication will continue to work, but no warnings will be issued and the printer will not stop once the life reaches 0%. Responsibility for insuring the proper change interval reverts back to the user.

Answer: Yes. The printer keeps track of the quantity and types of all ribbons used on the machine. This log can be checked at any time, and viewed remotely via PrintNet Enterprise, to determine how fast and how many ribbons your operation is consuming

.

Answer: This tells the printer all the key attributes of the ribbon. Whenever a ribbon is loaded on the machine, the printer will read this code to determine the brand, type, length, life and serial number of the ribbon. This data is used to accurately drive the ribbon life indication.

Answer: Generally no. You can ignore this label and load the ribbon in any orientation, and it will work fine. The only exception is cases where you wish to remove a ribbon that is partially used and replace it later. In these cases, you can need to reload the ribbon in the same orientation it was removed.

Answer: Yes. In some cases, the print pattern of the application is narrow enough that only half of the ribbon is used when printing. In these cases, the ribbon can be flipped over and the other half used. The integrated print management system will detect the flip and reset the ribbon life to 100%. Please note, it is the user’s responsibility to insure the print pattern is sufficiently narrow to support flipping. If not, the ribbon life may falsely indicate 100% for the flipped ribbon.