---
I heard that the design office of an associate of mine had purchased an imageRUNNER C3200, so I went over
to take a look for myself. My first surprise was seeing how compact the unit is. You can get full-color
operation out of a machine that small? Kuribayashi: If your associate was replacing a color copying machine, you should have noticed
quite a lot of newly freed space. What did you think?--- Yes, I found the evidence of the opened up space. There was a lot of new paraphernalia
around the office, like a guitar and an old vintage PC. (Laughs) You were in charge of the hardware development,
weren't you, Kuribayashi-san? Kuribayashi: The print engine, to be exact. This converts electronic data coming into the unit
to print out toner images on paper.--- And your efforts to make this engine more compact contributed to more efficient
usage of office space... Kuribayashi: Making the unit more compact was important, but the mission given to the development
team was to "maintain image quality while increasing operating speed by 50% and greatly reducing costs."--- That sounds absurd! It's like asking a manager of a baseball team to "keep
up visitor numbers and win 50% more games, while cutting player salaries." Any players in their right mind
would be looking for a new team pretty quickly.
 |
|
 Canon's
compact color network digital MFP was realized through the adoption of a cleaner-less structure and densely
packed components, such as toner cartridges.
|
Kuribayashi: Canon had been highly evaluated by creative professionals around the world for
its full-color copying machines, but we had to meet all of these conditions, in order to enter the office-use
market with a color network digital MFP.--- I understand, but... Kuribayashi: Did you look inside the machine? There are four toner cartridges in the print engine,
one each for yellow, magenta, cyan and black (YMCK), but each cartridge is quite small.--- I think I remember those cartridges. Is this structure very different from
what you have had until now? Kuribayashi: It's a "cleaner-less system." In other words, we eliminated the mechanism
that removes residue toner on the photosensitive drum. We did this by thoroughly reevaluating the materials and
processing of the toner and drum, as well as of the structure and control methods for the mechanisms around the
many drums related to toner image formation. We ended up increasing transfer efficiency from less than 95% in
conventional products to more than 98%.--- Forgive me, but an improvement of three percentage points doesn't sound like
such a huge advance. Kuribayashi: On the contrary. In terms of the amount of residue toner left on the drum, the
improvement is from 5% to 2%, equivalent with a decrease of 60%.--- A 60% reduction in one fell swoop! Now that's big! (Laughs) Kuribayashi: Residue toner left on the drum after a page is output can impact succeeding pages.
In previous print engines, a cleaning blade was used to remove this toner, and a tank was needed to collect it.--- I've heard from laser beam printer engineers that the cleaning mechanism is
always difficult to develop. Kuribayashi: But with 60% less residue toner on the drum after each printout, it becomes possible
to completely rethink the frequency and methods of cleaning the drum. If you were to liken a network digital
MFP to the human body, the cleaning system would be the liver and kidneys. In a building, it would be the toilets
and sewage disposal facilities. We successfully raised the efficiency of the individual parts to achieve a 60%
reduction in the amount of waste generated.--- The fruit of all of your efforts... Kuribayashi: We were able to remove the tanks for residue toner located in various parts of
the machine, collecting all of the cleaning functions in a single unit. The number of components needed was also
slashed, contributing to higher reliability in a more compact size. And the potential of damage to the drum by
a cleaning blade was also removed, which means a longer drum lifespan.--- Bravo, Mr. Manager! |
