Overview
Instead of expecting someone to decipher a spec sheet to determine which MFP is a fit for their business, I’ll try to write this is in friendlier terms to someone who isn’t a printer know-it-all like me.
The HP DesignJet T830MFP is a wide format printer, scanner, copier engineered for use at job-sites or small offices. Emphasis is on convenience printing/scanning, mobility, and collaboration.
The HP DesignJet T3500MFP is a wide format printer, scanner, copier engineered for CAD design workgroups. Emphasis is on productivity, high reliability and unattended printing for low volume printing (less than 4000 sq.ft. per month)
Specifics: HP DesignJet T830MFP
Paper capacity: This printer holds a single roll of paper up to 36” wide and 150’ long (2” core). Prints are released in the front and drop into the basket under the printer. If you’re printing more than a couple of pages, it’s best to take them out of the basket as they fall. This keeps pages from getting curled up and out of order.
An auto sheet feeder for A/B size documents is located on the rear of the printer. It’s meant to serve as a convenient substitute for A/B size if you don’t have a smaller office printer close by. I wouldn’t rely on it to replace an A/B printer. Also, you must unload the roll feed to use the sheet feeder.
Ink | Printhead: The printer includes a pre-installed print head which can be replaced by the end user when it needs replacing. How long the print head lasts depends on how much is printed. In most cases, this amounts to once a year. A replacement print head is ~$400.
The printer holds 4 ink cartridges: C,M,Y,MK. The black cartridge (MK) is pigmented ink, which helps reduce smudging and fading, and makes the drawing archivable. A unique feature is the ability to use 3 different size ink cartridges. Generally, we see most people use a 300ml Matte Black cartridge, and smaller 40ml or 130ml color cartridges. The image quality is quite good for a 4-color printer. A 300ml cartridge is ~$180; 40ml is ~$37.
Scanner: The scanner is tightly integrated on the top of the printer. For the price, it’s a pretty impressive unit for a convenient walk-up scanner/copier. There’re a few nice image settings on the control panel to suppress background noise, adjust contrast, de-skew, re-size, and invert blue prints. The scan speed is respectable at 4.5 inches per second (ips) for gray scale; 1.5 ips for color.
Scanning to network, PC direct, cloud and email is supported.
Connectivity, memory, speed: Fast Ethernet, WiFi and built-in hot spot, USB thumb drive slot. 1 Gig RAM. Prints a D-size drawing in 25 seconds.
Summary: This is a durable, reliable little multifunction plotter for small offices, estimators and, in particular, construction job sites. The mobility of it is amazing. It can easily be taken off the stand and loaded in the back of an SUV to move from site to site. Making a few prints here and there is quick and convenient. I wouldn’t consider it for making collated sets of plans though. I also wouldn’t recommend it for batch scanning. But, for getting copies made, or marked-up as-builts drawings scanned as single-page or multi-page PDFs and sent to project stakeholders, it’s a perfect fit. The price is right too at just $5,995. A scanner alone is about that much.
Specifics: HP DesignJet T3500ps MFP
Paper capacity: This printer holds 2 rolls of paper up to 36” wide and 500’ long. By using two big rolls of plain paper, you drastically reduce your cost per print. This also allows you to load 2 different size rolls, for example, a 30-inch roll for 30x42 plans and 22-inch roll for half-size. Or perhaps, plain paper on one roll and heavy, presentation bond on another. You can also use 150’ or 300’ rolls of inkjet media.
This is key - prints are delivered to a unique, top delivery unit that keeps them flat and organized. This solves the “curled-up inkjet prints issue” and allows you to print collated sets up to 100 pages.
Ink | Printhead: The printer includes a long-lasting print head which can be replaced by the end user when it needs replacing. Of course, how long the print head lasts depends on how much is printed. A safe estimate is to plan on replacing it after 9000ml of ink has been used. A message on the control panel will let you know when it’s time for replacement. A print head is ~ $350.
The printer holds 6 ink cartridges: C,M,Y,G,MK,PH. The matte black cartridge is pigmented ink. This helps reduce smudging and helps make the drawing archivable. Ink cartridges are 300ml. This is considered big ink and again, helps keep per-print costs low. With 6 inks, you can not only produce stunning images for presentations, but also, true neutral grays for construction plan printing. A 300ml cartridge is ~$120.
Scanner: The tightly integrated scanner is mounted on the top of the printer. It’s fast, at 7.5 inches per second (ips) for gray scale; 2.5 ips color. Any faster and it would pull the document out of your hand and destroy it. I’ve seen this happen. A super-fast scanner is generally only needed if you work in an archive facility. Scanning to network, PC direct, cloud and email is supported.
The scanner has a full set of tools for image adjustment plus, customizable pre-sets that allow you to make templates for various types and conditions of documents. For example, if you frequently scan a set of documents to a multi-page PDF format, 300 DPI, mixed CAD/GIS, that needs a bump in background removal, you can create a pre-set for that so you don’t have to make these manual adjustments every time. Of course, it already has several set up for you to choose from as well.
Connectivity, memory, speed: Fast Gigabit Ethernet only, USB thumb drive slot. 128 Gigs RAM, 500 Gig Hard Drive. Beefy Intel Processor. Prints a D-size drawing in 21 seconds. Instant printing from cold start – less than 30 seconds for first page to print. The T3500ps includes an Adobe PDF Print Engine. This is a huge plus and allows the printer to quickly process and print large, complex PDF or PostScript files. Built-in security tools and HP Web Jetadmin makes a network administrators job easier.
Summary: The T3500 is a highly reliable workhorse of a printer for design workgroups or enterprise deployments. Consider it as an upgrade to your existing plotter or even as a replacement for a low volume, black & white toner plotter. The paper capacity, flat stacker, and big ink allow for unattended (no babysitting) printing. Print black & white, true grayscale or color CAD files for about $0.07 per sq.ft. (similar to toner). Price: $9,995 – although most HP Partners offset this with a $2500 trade-in credit.
Print Away!
