Lexmark Releases Industrial-Strength Printer

Lexmark International rolled out May 9 its Mustang industrial ink-jet printer, which provides OEMs with a printing platform for mail addressing, product coding, packaging, tickets, bar-code labels, and bills and statements.

Using Lexmark's thermal ink-jet technology, the Mustang printer enables OEMs to print at speeds of up to 760 feet per minute with a print resolution of 600 dots per inch. By combining several imaging modules on one printer, the Mustang gives OEMs a total imprint area of as large as 8 inches in a single pass.

The imaging modules support both disposable ink cartridges, used for short production runs or spot-color print jobs, and bulk cartridges, used for higher volume print jobs. The bulk cartridges are refilled using 400ml bulk ink tanks that can be replaced without having to stop a print job.

"Mustang can be easily integrated by the OEM with an end user's existing transport base or packaged by the OEM as part of a ready-to-run variable data printing solution," Shannon Lyman, spokesperson for the Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark, told eWEEK.

Both cartridges are also available with Lexmark's aqueous inks, providing enhanced text and graphics that can be used on hard-to-print surfaces.

"This new industrial printing system uses our advanced thermal ink-jet technology to provide our OEM partners with a solution that delivers speed, reliability and superior cost performance," Najib Bahous, vice president and president of the Consumer Printer Division at Lexmark, said in a company statement.

The new printer platform also features Windows software, including the printer driver, which is the user's interface from the industrial application program to the printer and device control modules, providing an interface between the printer driver and the USB port.

Also included in the Windows software is usability tools, which are the user's interface to the printer and enable them to configure the printer, align ink cartridges and monitor the status of the printer.

The Mustang industrial ink-jet printer is available now; pricing varies depending on what the OEM wants.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International