Digital duplicators can save money over copiers

Have you ever printed a marketing flyer only to wish a few days later that you could change the offer? A digital duplicator might just fit the bill.

No, these are not the same duplicators as the ones you used in grade school, with their purple ink and headache-inducing vapors. Although it does print black, the digital duplicator has had its limitations -- namely poor copy quality -- which has kept it from being an office staple in spite of its low copy cost. But with last year's introduction of 600 dots per inch (dpi) models, this product is starting to fill a niche for companies that frequently make more than 30 copies of their originals.

With a digital duplicator, you create a master of the document to be copied and wrap it around a print cylinder. Every copy is made from that master, as opposed to having continuous "pictures" taken of the original as copiers do. Combine this technology with a perfectly straight paper path, and you have a versatile, low-cost machine whose slowest model duplicates at a speedy 60 pages per minute and onto paper as small as 4" x 6", as light as 14-lb. carbonless paper, and as heavy as 110 lb. cover stock.

Digital duplicators are ideal for large runs of single copies. Your only consumables consist of ink and masters. Often, businesses that purchase duplicators will do so in tandem with a copier or to complement their existing copiers. They use the copier for low-volume jobs; then, as quantity creeps up, they switch to the duplicator. As a rule of thumb, once you hit 25 copies, your cost per copy is 1/3 of a cent per page-- generally less than that of copiers.

Like a printer, they can also can print on demand with the addition of a print controller, whose costs start at around $2,500. If you often print forms that need tweaking, newsletters in bulk, menus that change weekly or daily, or marketing materials that continuously evolve, printing on demand can be the most cost-effective method for reproduction -- you don't have to bulk up on quantity just to qualify for the lowest price, rendering the documents obsolete before you use them up.

Digital duplicators can also print in color. While color copies typically cost 50 cents to $1 per copy, duplicators can do the same for pennies, as long as your color needs aren't extensive. The duplicator simply creates a different master for each color you are using -- up to three -- and then runs the job once per copy for each color. Changing color takes as little as 20 seconds.

Like copiers, duplicators can be configured with automatic feeders and come with a variety of control panel features like photo mode and reduction/enlargment. Prices run from about $6,000 to about $20,000.

If most of your copying consists of reasonably small runs of copies or one-off single copies, don't bother considering a digital duplicator because you won't get the value out of it. But if you regularly produce between 30 and 2,000 copies at a time, a digital duplicator may well be worth investigating.

Keep it confidential. If you're concerned with confidentiality with sending sensitive material out to print shops, it may be worth considering a digital duplicator for that reason alone. Paper doesn't vary. There is usually only one tray available for copies; if you need to use a different stock often, you may not be crazy about manually changing the paper in the tray. For higher quantities. When you need more than a couple thousand copies of a page, your best bet is to turn to a commercial printer, where print costs are lower at higher volumes.

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