Philips Kommunications Industrie AG, Siegen, West Germany, has come up with a flatbed printer that it claims incorporates the benefits of dot matrix printing, such as low cost per page and various paper format handling, with those of laser printers, including low noise levels and fast page throughput. One interesting feature of the heavy-duty PP405, intended for use 12 hours a day, is the flatbed design, which at first glance makes the printer somewhat strange to look at; Philips says this design was a logical step to allow a straight-through paper path so that even very thick paper can be handled, and positioning is more accurate. The other main feature is the in-house-designed printhead with 24 large-diameter diameter needles that are intended to give greater dot overlap and therefore better print quality. Ther needles are arranged in a slanting line so that they do not fire all at once: this reportedly makes for a noise level of under 50dBA. At draft speed, the PP405 can handle 510 pages per hour at a print speed of 600 characters per second; for letter quality printing, throughput falls to 260pph, with a print speed of 165cps. Built-in typestyles include Data, Letter-Gothic, Courier, Orator and Micro, with additional emulations of the Philips GP 310/490 and IBM Proprinter XL24 lines. Paper sizes ranging from A6 to A4 are handled, with a total of three 200-page sheet feeders as optional extras. Colour ribbon options are available, as is extra memory up to 128Kb. Available now through sole agents London-based PMC Ltd, the PP405 will cost UKP2,300 in the UK, with extra memory costing around UKP180.
