Print A/E/C plans at 12,600 sq ft per hour ??? !!!

Reprographers, how would you feel about a wide-format (color and black & white) print engine that is capable of printing A/E/C plans from files and capable of producing 12,600 sq ft output per hour?

Years ago, when I was in the blueprinting business and we time-tested our blueprint (diazo) machine operators, we found that our best guys(gals) were capable to producing approximately 500 - 30 x 42 prints per hour, or about 4,500 sq ft per hour. To be able to produce that much output, it required not just one operator but a team of 2.5 operators; one operator, one puller (to take originals out of the receiving tray and place the originals back on the table) and 1/2 of a person to catch and trim the prints (1/2, because we could have the "back" person work the backside of 2 machines, where we placed our equipment back to back.) Anyway, 4,500 sq ft per hour of diazo blueline output, using a $24,000 diazo machine and a crew of 2.5 people.

So, today, when I saw the technical specs of a "prototype" wide-format printer capable of outputting 12,600 sq ft per hour ..... I about fell off my chair!

Will we soon (perhaps within the next year or two) enter a new era in the A/E/C reprographics business where reprographers will no longer be printing plans in black & white and where all plans will be printed in color?

More about this in my next post.