Sharp AR 287 Monochrome Copier

OVERVIEW:  

Starting as a basic medium-volume, space efficient copier, the Sharp AR-287 has options to expand it to a high-volume scanner/printer/finisher. It’s able to handle paper sizes up to 11” x 17” double-sided, and the option to hold 6 reams of the more commonly used letter-size paper.

PROS:

The large touch-screen LCD control panel makes using the Sharp’s operation easy to understand and with the online information guide help users through most operations and jamming resolutions. An animated display assists in giving step by step instructions.

Two 500-sheet trays allow for printing onto sheets as large as 11” x 17”. If this enough paper capacity, two more oversized 500-sheet trays can be stacked underneath the AR-287, and a 3,000-sheet 8½” x 11” high capacity tray attached its side, bringing total capacity to over 5,000 sheets. A 50-sheet bypass tray allows for unique low volume printing of heavyweight, transparencies, or labels.

Another nice feature the AR-287 has is the ability to physically shift the position of each set of copies in the output tray for easy collating and stapling. This is achieved by pressing the Electronic Sort (or E-Sort) button on the control panel. The multi-page original is scanned first into memory, and then copied in order.

Monochrome copies up to 13” x 19” can be made directly on the glass platen, or using the Duplex Automatic Document Feeder (ADF).  The duplexing ability of the ADF allows for making copies from 2-sided originals without having to manually flip the papers. Zoom scales from 25% to 800% with a choice of 1% increments, automatic resizing, or in twelve jumps. Up to 999 copies can be reproduced. Resolution and print speeds are spec’d at 600 x 600 dpi up to 28 pages per minute, with either text or image digital enhancement modes. Copies are at 256 level grayscale, for making color graphics still visible in B&W.

The AR-287 is able to make copies of originals that have up to 120 pages. Other copiers just set the limit to the physical limitations of their ADF. Sharp’s Job Build mode allows the AR-287 to handle quantities typical for business users.

16MB of expandable memory and a 4.2GB hard drive enables this Sharp to handle any size print request and to securely save jobs to the hard drive. To easily delete anything saved on the storage, two simple keys are available to automatically or manually erase stored data.

Two optional Finishers can give the AR-M355 basic stapling and sorting features. Additional options are controller cards to add 600 x 1,200 dpi network printing and PostScript support to the AR-287. 

CONS:

The AR-287 is a very good copier. However, the ability to add printing and scanning cards after the fact may be beyond the technical abilities of its end-users, requiring a Sharp field engineer.  And even with the multi-functional options, there are less expensive mid-range multi-functions that with faster and higher print quality.

INK / TONER NEEDS:

The AR-287 comes with a “starter” toner cartridge, but it carries more than enough toner to give you enough time to purchase a full cartridge with a yield of about 22,000 pages.

Other consumables to consider will be are the drum unit and the used toner bottle.