EXCLUSIVE: HP CM8060 Edgeline Printer review

Medium sized business and enterprises looking for top colour and mono print speeds plus multi-function capabilities have traditionally had no option but to go for a laser printer. With its new Edgeline technology, HP has turned this notion on its head as its latest CM8000 family delivers up to 60ppm mono and 50ppm colour but are essentially inkjet printers.

The new printers target businesses with a real appetite for paper as they aim to satisfy a monthly volume of 25,000 to 50,000 pages. They're pitched against colour copiers from the likes of Xerox, Canon and Konica and although they provide support for A3 printing are optimized for A4 operations with the bulk of printing comprising text and business graphics with around 40 per cent colour output.

Clearly, standard inkjet technology is totally unsuited to high-volume printing for a number of obvious reasons and Edgeline aims to solve them all. It's been seven years in the making and uses four, water resistant, pigment-based inks which HP claims offers superior contrast and brighter colours to dye-based inks. The biggest problem HP needed to tackle was drying time otherwise you'll end up with a soggy mess in your output tray at these speeds. The printer uses a unique bonding agent which is delivered by a pair of dedicated print heads. The agent is applied first where it grabs the ink and pulls it into the paper and a blower is used for final drying.

The next problem is keeping the print head nozzles clean and the printer uses a series of lasers to measure the droplet sizes. If the droplet gets smaller it indicates that the nozzle is getting blocked so the printer 'spits' ink though the problem nozzle to clear it. Paper is introduced to the print head array by placing it on a large rotating drum which uses a vacuum to hold it in place and is large enough to accommodate three sheets at a time. To stop ink 'spits' ending up on a page the drum has slots between each paper position and cleaning only occurs when these are level with the relevant print head.

The printer is very simple to operate and we found build quality to be exemplary. Opening the side panel reveals the drum with the print heads located above and fitted to assemblies that can be pulled out for easy access. However, the print heads are not consumables and are designed to last the life of the printer. The ink cartridges are located below and are very easy to remove and replace. Printing costs are a little difficult to estimate as the printers are purchased with yearly maintenance contracts which include replacement ink. However, HP claims 30 per cent lower running costs than equivalent toner based lasers with costs of between 2.5p to 4p per colour page.

One feature we really like is the new operator control panel. The print formatter runs XP Embedded allowing HP to provide a higher level of access via a large 10in. touch panel. The menu system is very intuitive and HP had added video clips to show users how to clear paper jams and replace consumables. This ties in with a feature coined 'digital breadcrumbs' where each accessible component has an LED on it. If a jam occurs the panel runs a step by step video and uses the LEDs to show the user where to go. There's also less risk of injury as the printer's blower runs at 30C which is a lot less than a laser fuser unit.