Feb/March 2007

There are some key factors to take into account when choosing a mobile printer. m.logistics pulls together some tips on making the right choice

In these days of digital signature capture and real-time communications, you might expect that demand for paper copies of transactions would be diminishing. In fact, almost the reverse seems to be happening.

Even if your mobile workforce has be converted to a paperless operation, those all-important customers at the end of the chain may not be. They want documentary proof that you have collected a parcel, completed a service inspection according to the contract, or delivered a pallet-load of goods. Emailing can supply some of these demands, but a piece of paper still has a reassuringly solid feel to it.

The first step when choosing any mobile printer is to know what it is you want to print, and how often you will need to produce it. Various mobile activities might need a print capability in the field. It could be anything from a simple receipt for a parcel collection to a penalty ticket for a parking infringement, an invoice or service inspection record. These activities all have different printing requirements, so what works for one type of mobile employee in your company may not suit another.

 

One of the key choices is between small-format printers and large printers capable of printing A4 documents. Small-format printers come in 2in (58mm), 3in (80mm) and 4in (112mm) widths and use thermal printing technology. They are now widely used for receipts, ticketing and so on.

If your mobile worker needs to print an invoice or service report, an A4 or 80-column output printer is probably more appropriate, especially if you need multiple copies. The printers can be direct thermal, dot matrix or inkjet.

Thermal printing has come a long way since the days of early fax machines. Modern devices are fast. 'Thermal printers are up to four times faster than a dot matrix printer,' says Tony Revis, general manager Extech Data Systems. 'The process uses special paper with a heat-sensitive layer embedded in the paper. The images are now more resistant to fade, so documents can be archived.'

Another plus point, says Mike Gerschel, managing director of Pentax UK distributor RGI Mobile Solutions, is that less energy is needed to 'burn' an image than is required for inkjet or dot matrix printing, so it uses less battery power.

However, Revis warns that printing from software running on Windows Pocket PC devices can be difficult without a utility application from a specialist supplier such as Bachman. Another company specialising in this sort of utility is ThinPrint, which has teamed up with Pentax to make printing possible from mobile devices such as BlackBerrys, as well as smartphones and PDAs using the Symbian operating system. Using the ThinPrint system, users can print directly to the Pentax PocketJet 3 BT and 3Plus portable printers.

Connectivity

There are three ways of connecting peripherals such as printers wirelessly to your output device: infra-red (IrDA), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. For a long time portable printers have relied on direct connection with the mobile device, or an infra-red port. But range with the latter is limited to around 10 ft, and a line-of-sight juxtaposition of the two devices is essential.

Still, it is a well-proven approach, and Extech Data has sold over 75,000 printers with infrared connectivity since it pioneered such products in 1978. The company says that some connectivity problems arise because not all infra-red printers use the international IrDA standard. Those that do comply should be able to handle temporary disconnects in communications between the two devices and allow two-way communications. Infra-red is cheap and plug-and-play, Revis points out.

Both Bluetooth and 802.11b are radio-frequency technologies. Unlike infra-red, neither depends on line of sight, although Bluetooth range is limited to around 30ft. And if you have several devices using Bluetooth in the same vicinity, you need to ensure that the RF network can distinguish which device it is communicating with. Revis warns that Bluetooth communication can cost four times as much as infra-red, can be more difficult to deploy, and can introduce a time lag for users as the devices have to 'discover' each other before they can communicate.

A Wi-Fi network based on the 802.11b standard offers fast printing up to 11Mbps and a range of up to 300ft.

Battery life

'With mobile printers, there is a direct correlation between battery life and the number of characters printed,' says Revis. If your application requires either a lot of small print jobs or a smaller number of longer print jobs, he warns, make sure the printer has enough power to meet the need.

Most mobile printers rely on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack which is recharged between uses - either in the printer, or in a separate recharge station. Lithium-Ion technology overcomes many of the issues of memory-effect power loss and of the need for conditioning that arose in earlier nickel cadmium batteries, and can handle partial discharge and recharging much better than them.

Revis says buyers should check both the total voltage available and the capacity of the battery. A minimum voltage of 7.4V is preferable, and 2 amp-capacity. He also recommends checking the amount of paper the printer can cope with on a single charge.

Print speed

Printing speed is defined in characters per second, lines per second, inches per second, or pages per minute. 'If possible, do some comparisons in a controlled test, and don't forget to time it from the moment you hit the 'print' button,' Revis advises.

Text printing requires less time than graphics printing, and some printers allow graphics files such as logos to be stored in printer memory so they don't have to be sent from the handheld every time. Additionally, it is possible to switch between graphics and text printing within a receipt to minimise total print time and to produce the best-looking image.

What else?

Reliability should be top of the list - printers will no doubt be dropped at some point in their life, so make sure yours can survive a 4ft drop test.

Is the printer easy to load and simple to operate? Your mobile worker hasn't got lots of time to spend messing around trying to feed paper on to spools. The latest clamshell designs eliminate this task.

Compact size can be important for some applications - for printing receipts, for example. The printer should also be light, especially if the worker is going to be carrying it around all day. Typically, mobile printers have a weight of 1.5kg or 3lb.

For the same reason, the printer needs to perform all the tasks required of it during a shift without the battery having to be recharged, and the paper roll needs to be long enough to avoid frequent changes.

Mobile printers save lives

You might not think of portable printers as representing a key element in a leading-edge healthcare project, but in fact they are playing a vital role in an emergency-response ambulance service that has been rolled out in East Anglia.

Computers lie at the heart of the system, and universal electronic patient care records are the lynchpin that make it possible. These will eventually allow patients to be treated better and quicker. Information is kept in a secure but easily accessible electronic format, and can be consulted by paramedics in the field, along with information about the patient's condition.

However, for the system to work properly it was decided that there must be a way to print out the information in the vehicle - partly for easier consulting and partly as a back-up, in case there should be a break in connectivity with the main system. So a reliable portable printer became an essential component in the system.

Behind the project, which forms part of NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT), is consultancy Accenture, which is working with East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust. This covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and looks after a population of six million.

The former East Anglian Ambulance has formed the main development centre for a special ambulance-based mobile computing system that uses GPRS to help link paramedics seamlessly with local hospitals.

The system is built round ruggedised handheld computers. Paramedics tap data into these at the patient's side, and once they are docked back in the vehicle, the information is beamed ahead so that it is accessible by accident and emergency department via a Web browser, ready for when the patient arrives at A&E.

Replaces a lot of form-filling

'This is going to mean incredible efficiency in terms of collecting and storing patient information,' says Ian Arbuthnot, IT manager of East Anglian Ambulances, 'and it will soon dovetail with the NPfIT's main electronic care record application as it comes on stream.' He adds: 'It replaces a lot of manual form-filling, which could be very inaccurate as well as time-wasting.'

By the end of 2006, 300 vehicles had been equipped with the new technology, which includes Panasonic CF-18 hardware and Medusa's Lifenet EMS package. The devices also hold a library of medical care literature that can be used by patients, as well as key forms and other material.

Also essential to the system are portable Pentax PocketJet 3 printers from Pentax Technologies. 'We had been looking for a suitable printer to complete the in-vehicle set-up for some time,' recalls Arbuthnot. 'We eventually determined that thermal printing was the best basic technology for us, but then we struggled to find the right supplier - one that could meet all of our specialist needs.'

Problem went away overnight

RGI Mobile Solutions, a major partner of Pentax in the UK, was able to deliver the technical expertise required. 'We had some issues with the Windows operating system with the handhelds,' Arbuthnot says. 'We found that there were problems when we moved from dock to dock as the system tried to 'find' each local printer anew, which it didn't need to do and which wasted time.

'The solution RGI soon came up with was that it was able to put the same 'unique' identifier on each printer in the fleet so that the problem just went away overnight.'

So far the PocketJet 3 has performed absolutely to requirement, he goes on. 'In the first few months of operation we have had about three laptops come back with some kind of problem; but not a single printer has been reported as non-functioning.'

Such levels of reliability aren't just nice to have - they are vital. 'We don't have the luxury otherwise,' he says frankly. 'If a printer breaks down we would have problems as we are such a big Trust area. We could be back and forth for six hours across the counties tracking down the problem, and for that amount of time we'd have an operational ambulance out of use. We chose a printer that had to be able to operate very very well in what is something of a hostile environment, and I'm glad to say we seem to have made the right choice.'

The printer is expected to serve as a back-up, not to be used every day. 'The reaction of the crews has been very positive. We had to explain that if you are used to 24-page a minute laser DeskJet printer, a portable thermal printer is going to seem a bit slow! But the guys have got used to that and it has been accepted now as a highly useful piece of kit.'