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<p>A model no one has mentioned (perhaps very few institutions use
one aside from us and the AMNH) is the SATO M-84Pro.</p>
<p>This machine is very old, very clunky, requires very old software
to run (we have a dedicated Windows 2000 machine, without which we
can't interface with it), and is astonishingly slow. We use it to
print barcode labels for specimens, and it prints 13 labels in a
row each iteration. Each iteration takes ~100 seconds. That's
something like 7 or 8 labels a minute, and we often print
thousands of labels in one job, so it sometimes prints all day
long to finish a job. It uses datamax rolls/ribbons ("Datamax
4x500 poly tag continuous"), which we have been sourcing from
Alpha Systems (alphasystemsva.com).<br>
</p>
<p>The plus side is that it is <b>very</b> low-tech, and rarely has
need of any form of maintenance. It's nearly 20 years old, and the
few problems we've had with it were all something we were able to
fix ourselves.</p>
<p>I keep expecting it to die, and I do read threads here regarding
other printers, planning for the eventuality of replacing it, but
it hasn't happened yet. Perhaps the one thing I'd be curious about
is whether there are other places besides Alpha Systems where
folks have found the pricing significantly better for the same
printing supplies, since it looks like our printer uses the same
rolls and ribbons that many others are using. It's been a long
time since we've needed to re-order, but it's in the foreseeable
future.</p>
<p>Peace,<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html">https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
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