Epson’s Laser Printers Are Not Long For This World, Here’s Why

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Japanese printer and electronics brand Epson announced it would cease global sales and distribution of laser printers hardware by 2026. What’s the reason? The company strives to be more sustainable. The company believes that inkjet can be more responsible for the environment than laser printing.

Koichi Kubota is the general administrative manager for Epson’s Sales and Marketing Division. He stated, “Our printing business will now focus on inkjet and leverage our proprietary technology to deliver efficient and sustainable print solutions for partners and end users.” He continues to say that Epson has “…long committed to sustainable inkjet technologies and have decided to discontinue sales of laser printer hardware. Inkjets use less energy and have fewer consumable components. This is a commitment from Epson as a company. Epson’s Heat Free technology, which uses mechanical energy to ignite ink onto pages, consumes less electricity than laser printers.

Technically, Epson has ended laser printer sales in all markets other than Asia and Europe. However, it has stated that it will continue to support repairs as well as consumables. It didn’t specify how long. 

The company’s announcement coincided with the launch of a new range inkjet multi-function printers (multi-function printers) for business. The WorkForce Enterprise AM-series printers will highlight Epson’s piezo Heat Free line head technology. The new inkjets are capable of printing 40-60 pages per minute (pages/minute) to cater to laser printer users. They also have a higher resource efficiency than laser units. 

Between all the canned chatter about sustainability and sunsetting their laser printers, it also seems coincidental that Epson had made some of their printers have a predetermined end-of-life date, after which they would brick themselves. It was necessary to have the machine repaired or replaced by an authorized facility.

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