lab test report - brother uk/media/pdf/buk/buyers lab... · 2015. 8. 3. · the brother pds-5000...

Lab Test Report

BLI RECOMMENDATION

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BUYERS LAB

BuyersLab.com © 2015 Buyers Laboratory LLC. This report is the sole property of BLI. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected].

A Comprehensive BLI Laboratory Evaluation JUNE 2015

When compared with competitive A4 scanners tested, the 60-ppm (120 ipm) Brother PDS-5000 gave a very good overall performance during BLI’s evaluation. The unit exhibited faster than average scan speeds in most tests. In fact, the unit’s tested speeds at 300 dpi were the fastest of competitive units tested. Its larger than aver-age ADF handles a wider than average range of document sizes, including plastic ID cards and long documents up to 236". Thanks to its bundled Button Manager utility, users can customize a virtually unlimited number of profiles for frequently used operations, nine of which can be accessed from the unit’s two-line LCD control panel. The bundled DS Capture software provides direct access to TWAIN functionality for additional image processing features. The unit also comes bundled with Nuance OmniPage SE 18, which uses a BLI award-winning OCR engine. Additional features include user-ad-justable image enhancements, such as gamma, brightness, shadow and highlight adjustments; the ability to scan to secure PDF format; custom color drop-out; and the ability to create multiple images with varying settings from one scan. Based on its very good overall performance, robust feature set and lower than average suggested retail price, BLI highly recommends the Brother PDS-5000 for work-groups and departments looking for a reliable and versatile scanner.

Brother PDS-500060 PPM (120 IPM)

Test duration: Two weeks, 30,000 scans

Daily duty cycle: Up to 6,000 scans

Reliability ............................................................... ExcellentMedia Handling .................................................... Very GoodEase of Setup ................................................................. FairDrivers/Utilities ..................................................... Very GoodWorkflow Analysis .........................................................GoodImage Quality ....................................................... Very GoodHardware Ease of Use ........................................... Very GoodEase of User Maintenance.............................................Good Productivity ............................................................. ExcellentFile Size .......................................................................... FairOCR Performance .........................................................GoodFootprint .......................................................................GoodValue .................................................................... Very GoodEstimated Cost per Scan ............................................0.085¢

Brother PDS-5000 Lab Test Report


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STRENGTHS

• Highly reliable

• Lower than average SRP

• Customize a virtually unlimited number of scan profiles for frequently used operations

• Scan to secure PDF format

• Faster than average hardware speeds when scanning multiple pages

• Higher than average efficiency rate for all modes tested

• Smaller than average multi-page file sizes in color mode

• Larger than average ADF capacity

• Handles longer than average paper lengths

• Better than average OCR accuracy when scanning BLI’s Red and Blue test documents at 200 dpi

• Linux, Mac and Windows OS compatibility

• Smaller than average storage footprint

WEAKNESSES

• More steps required to install bundled solutions than average

• Below average OCR accuracy for BLI’s Black test documents

• Larger than average black-and-white file sizes using default settings

RELIABILITY EXCELLENT

The Brother PDS-5000 experienced one misfeed while running 30,000 impressions during BLI’s durability test.

Brother offers a one-year limited warranty for the PDS-5000, which is average for the group.

Tested Model Competitive Average

Meter count (beginning of test) 0 0

End of test period 30,000 29,500

Total misfeeds/misfeed rate 1/Not applicable 2/1 per 14,750 scans

Total Malfunctions 0 0

, — and represent positive, negative and neutral attributes, respectively.

TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS



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MEDIA HANDLING VERY GOOD

The Brother PDS-5000 features an automatic document feeder (ADF) with a capacity of 100 sheets, which is slightly larger than average for the group.

The unit’s ADF handles paper sizes from 2.1" x 2.9" to 8.5" x 236", which is a wider than average range.

The ADF accepts paper weights from 7.5 to 106 lbs., which is competitive for the group.

Media Types Scanned During Testing

Business cards Yes

Checks Yes

Credit cards Yes

Embossed cards Yes

ID cards Yes

Long documents Up to 236"

Carbonless forms Yes

Wrinkled paper Yes

Tri-folded documents Yes

Hole-punched documents Yes

A4-size documents Yes

Rice paper Yes

BLI scans each test document unless otherwise prohibited by product documentation.

The PDS-5000 has multi-feed detection, which is typical of most units tested.

The Button Manager utility provides a continuous feed feature that lets users add pages to the batch during scanning. However, BLI technicians noted that it is difficult to find. The setting is located at the bottom of the last tab (More Settings tab) in small lettering. If using the TWAIN driver, this feature can be found at the bottom of the Paper tab via the Reload Timeout slide adjustment. Some competitive scan utilities tested provide this feature on the main screen.

This unit can separate batches based on the detection of a blank page in the batch, by a pre-programmed number of pages or via barcode separation. BLI technicians did not experience any slowdown during batch processing.

In BLI’s tests, the device handled a mixed batch of different sizes, types and weights of media without any problem.

This unit scanned BLI’s vertical market batch, containing a HIPAA form, a medical his-tory form, an insurance form and an ID card, without any errors.

The document feeder offers face-down scanning in portrait orientation.



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The Brother PDS-5000 scans long documents up to 236".

EASE OF SETUP FAIR

The PDS-5000 comes with one disc that contains Brother Button Manager, DS Capture Software, scan drivers, Nuance OmniPage SE 18 and a trial version of EMC Captiva QuickScan Pro.

— Installing all software and drivers (except for the trial version of QuickScan Pro) took a total of 22 mouse clicks, which is more than average.

Users don’t have to restart the computer after installation; some competitive scanners require this extra step. However, technicians noted that it was unclear which order the software needed to be installed in and prefer a process that installs the software and drivers simultaneously.

The device comes fully installed out of box.

To finish the installation, users must insert the AC cable into the power inlet, then con-nect the AC cable to a power outlet and connect it to a PC via a USB cable.

DRIVERS/UTILITIES VERY GOOD

ICA, SANE, TWAIN, ISIS and WIA drivers are included.

The drivers are Microsoft-certified.

EASE OF SETUP



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Brother Button Manager provides selections for image mode, paper size, resolution, file name, file format and OCR settings on the main page. Via the Image Adjustment tab, users can access gamma, brightness, contrast, shadow and highlight adjustments via slide bars. The Image Processing tab provides blank-page removal and image rotation tools. The TWAIN driver provides additional image enhancements, compression tools and digital imprinter settings, among others.

Brother Button Manager lets users customize a virtually unlimited number of scan profiles for frequently used operations, nine of which can be accessed from the scanner’s control panel. To customize a profile, users can right click on the icon on the system tray and select the profile manager to see all profiles currently available, and then click the Add button to create a new profile. Existing profiles can be edited and deleted as well, and users can choose whether to launch the included TWAIN driver during the scanning process.

Button Manager Properties Window

Users can create multiple images with varying settings from one scan.

The scan utility provides several pre-set profiles, including iScan Image, iScan OCR, Scan to File, Scan to File (OCR), Scan to App, Email, Printer, Shared Folder, FTP and SharePoint.

— A Help file is not available for the drivers.

A scan preview is available through the TWAIN driver.

Pop-up error messages indicating a paper jam, for example, are displayed at the PC.

Unlike most competitive scanners tested, the PDS-5000 offers scanning to a secure PDF.



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Destination

Network folder Yes

Connected printer Yes

Local folder Yes

Email application Yes

Integrated USB port No

Scan to cloud Yes

Microsoft SharePoint Yes

Other FTP

File Type

PDF Yes

Encrypted PDF Yes (secure PDF)

Searchable PDF Yes

Single-page TIFF Yes

Multi-Page TIFF Yes

JPEG Yes

Other BMP, GIF, PNG, RTF, TXT, XPS, DOC, XLS, PPT, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML

WORKFLOW ANALYSIS GOOD

The PDS-5000 comes bundled with DS Capture and Nuance OmniPage SE 18.

DS Capture is a proprietary capture solution that provides access to the TWAIN driver’s features to scan and route documents.

With Nuance OmniPage, users can create scan profiles to automatically redact or high-light certain information, recognize key points on a document, and save the document to its final destination. Scanning can also be initiated from OmniPage.

To create a scan profile via OmniPage, users simply select New from the applications menu and follow the step-by-step instructions. BLI technicians noted that setting up scan profiles was simple—easier than with some other OCR solutions evaluated. OmniPage also allows users to create their own OCR zone templates, which come in handy when recognizing multiple documents in the same format (e.g., invoices).

The PDS-5000 is compatible with Kofax VRS sofware. However, VRS is not included with the unit’s software bundle.



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Nuance OmniPage SE 18

IMAGE QUALITY VERY GOOD

The Brother PDS-5000 offers a very good selection of image processing features, including auto cropping, automatic color detection, blank-page removal, de-skew, de-speckle, smoothing, reverse image and dynamic threshold. Additional features include hole-punch removal, color adjustments, error diffusion, halftone binarization, mirror image and split image.

Note that some image processing features are available through the TWAIN driver and some are available through the Button Manager utility. Users may need to activate TWAIN via the Button Manager software to access all features.

Brother provides two separate color drop-out tools. When accessed through the Button Manager utility, users can remove red, green, blue, or a custom color. However, they must upload an image file and then choose a color from within the image file to remove for the custom color drop-out tool. When used through the TWAIN driver, users can remove red, green and blue, and pick which color to remove via a color picker tool, or use the auto drop-out feature.

When removing the color red from the document using the TWAIN driver, all text was clearly readable, though some speckling remained. When using the auto color drop-out feature, one text box in the document was blacked out and unreadable; all other areas were as readable as when the color red was removed.

IMAGE PROCESSING



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Button Manager provides a resolution range from 75 to 600 dpi, while the TWAIN driver has a resolution range from 72 to 600 dpi. Both resolution ranges are competitive for the group.

When digitally reproducing colors using default settings, the unit experienced a com-petitive amount of color shift for cyan, magenta, warm red and blue, and a higher than average amount of color shift for yellow and green.

Color Shift Reading

Pantone Originals Tested Model Delta E Shift

Pantone Process Cyan 29.72

Pantone Process Magenta 23.94

Pantone Process Yellow 39.45

Pantone Warm Red 12.02

Pantone Green 31.43

Pantone Blue 18.92

The colors for the tested model are based on the RGB values of the original Pantone images after being scanned at 300 dpi and saved in TIFF format using default settings. The closer the Delta E number is to zero, the closer the scanned color is to the original Pantone image.

HARDWARE EASE OF USE VERY GOOD

The PDS-5000 has Power, Start and Stop keys, and up/down arrow keys to select one of the nine available scan profiles.

The Power LED light illuminates green when the scanner is on, blinks green when the device is initializing or in power-save mode and blinks red when there is a problem with the scanner. Error messages appear via the two-line LCD.

BLI technicians noted that loading paper is simple and on par with most other units tested in that users can simply adjust the side guides and load paper. In addition, the side guides provide stacking assistant guides that can lift up to secure a large batch. And users can lock the guides for additional ADF security.

Indicators guiding users to scan documents face-down and to avoid staples and paper clips are provided on the ADF. Paper sizes and a card orientation icon are also provided.

HARDWARE EASE USE



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Misfeed Access Area

Removing misfeeds is simple and on par with most other competitive scanners tested. Users simply pull on the gray lever below the document feeder to open the ADF cover and remove the misfeed.

EASE OF USER MAINTENANCE GOOD

The PDS-5000’s user-replaceable consumables include a reverse roller, a pick-up roller and a separation roller, each with a rated life span of 200,000 scans, which are competi-tive for the group.

BLI technicians noted that the procedure for replacing the reverse roller is on par with other scanners tested. Once the ADF cover is open, users press and hold the left and right sides of the roller cover to open it and then pinch the reverse roller to pull it out of the machine.

The procedure for replacing the pick-up roller is also typical of others tested. Users must first open the ADF side guides as wide as possible, then open the ADF cover, open the pick-up roller cover using the available finger hole and then pinch the roller to pull it out of its housing. The separation roller can be removed in the same fashion.

Additional maintenance includes cleaning the scanner glass and rollers.

Consumables must be removed prior to cleaning them.

Consumable and total scan counters are available via the Button Manager Options screen.



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Reverse Roller Replacement

PRODUCTIVITY EXCELLENT

With a rated speed of 60 ppm (120 ipm) in black-and-white and color modes, the PDS-5000’s tested scan speeds are faster than average when measuring hardware throughput in all modes tested at 200 and 300 dpi. When measuring software processing times, speeds are competitive for the group in black-and-white and auto color modes at 200 dpi and faster than average in all other modes tested.

The unit’s efficiency rates (the percentage of the rated speed at which it operates) are higher than average in black-and-white, color and auto color modes when measuring hardware throughput and software processing times.

Tested Multi-Page Portrait Speed in PPM | Competitive Average

Hardware Software200 dpi

Black-and-white 74.8 68.4 68.9 64.3

Color 74.2 67.8 68.3 63.2

Auto Color 74.2 68.3 67.7 63.9

300 dpi

Black-and-white 73.7 63.7 68.8 60.0

Color 74.3 62.3 67.9 58.2

Auto Color 74.1 62.1 67.9 58.7

PRINT/COPY PRODUCTIVITY 2



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Multi-Page Hardware Efficiency Rate Multi-Page Software Efficiency Rate

Tested Model

Competitive average

Percent

0 75 10025 50

124.6Black

109.5

Color123.6

108.6

Auto Color123.7

109.3

125

Percent

0 5025

114.8Black

102.9

Color113.8

101.3

Auto Color112.8

102.3

12575 100

The efficiency rate is the percentage of the rated speed at which the unit operates at 200 dpi for both black and color scan modes. The closer the rate is to 100%, or if it exceeds 100%, the more efficient the unit.

% Decrease* In Hardware Scan Speed At 300 dpi Versus 200 dpi

Tested Model

Competitive average

Percent

0-2 82 4 6

Black

Color

Auto Color

1.5

6.8

-0.1

8.2

0.1

9.2

10

* Note that a rate of 0% or less indicates that there is no slowdown or an increase in speed when increasing the resolution.

% Decrease* In Software Scan Speed At 300 dpi Versus 200 dpi

Tested Model

Competitive average

Percent

-2 2 4 6 80

0.1Black

6.7

Color0.6

8.1

Auto Color-0.3

8.4

10

* Note that a rate of 0% or less indicates that there is no slowdown or an increase in speed when increasing the resolution.



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When increasing the resolution to 300 dpi, the unit’s speeds when measuring hardware throughput and software processing times exhibited virtually no slowdown in black-and-white, color and auto color modes, which is competitive to slightly better than average for the group.

O BLI compared the unit’s speeds before and after disabling auto page-size detection and de-skew to gauge whether the device maintains its rated speed after changing settings. When measuring hardware throughput and software processing times, the unit exhibited virtually no slowdown in all modes tested, which is competitive for the group.

O The unit did not slow down when duplex scanning in black-and-white and color modes, which is also competitive for the group.

O The unit’s single-page scan speeds are competitive when measuring hardware through-put and slightly slower than average when measuring software processing times in all modes tested (black-and-white, grayscale, color and auto color).

Tested Single-Page Portrait Speed in Seconds | Competitive Average

Hardware Software200 dpi

Black-and-white 0.92 1.02 9.09 6.70

Grayscale 0.91 1.00 9.26 6.68

Color 1.00 1.03 9.53 6.85

Auto Color 0.94 0.99 9.72 6.75

300 dpi

Black-and-white 1.02 1.06 9.13 7.06

Grayscale 0.97 1.06 9.18 7.08

Color 1.00 1.20 9.43 7.25

Auto Color 0.98 1.16 9.59 7.32

FILE SIZE FAIR

— When scanning multi-page documents using default settings, file sizes are larger than average in black-and-white mode and smaller than average in color mode at 200 and 300 dpi. File sizes in auto color mode are competitive at 200 dpi and smaller than aver-age at 300 dpi.

When using the scan utility’s compression tool, file sizes for black-and-white mode reduced by about 64% at 200 dpi and 63% at 300 dpi. Color files reduced by about 63% at 200 and 300 dpi, and auto color file sizes reduced by about 64% at 200 dpi and 63% at 300 dpi.

FILE SIZE



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— Tested file sizes when scanning single-page documents are larger than average in black-and-white mode and competitive for the group in color and auto color modes at 200 and 300 dpi.

Tested File Size in KB | Competitive Average

200 dpi 300 dpi

Single-Page Black 262 53 466 95

Single-Page Grayscale 220 234 460 441

Single-Page Color 196 267 381 524

Single-Page Auto Color 196 223 381 431

Multi-Page Black 8,013 1,499 14,510 2,521

Multi-Page Color 4,789 6,099 9,797 12,763

Multi-Page Auto Color 4,890 5,720 9,797 11,812

OCR PERFORMANCE GOOD

— When using the unit’s bundled Nuance OmniPage SE 18 software, the unit exhibited lower than average accuracy when scanning BLI’s Black test document at 200 and 300 dpi.

The unit’s accuracy when scanning BLI’s Red and Blue test documents at 200 dpi was better than average.

O The unit’s OCR accuracy for BLI’s Red and Blue documents at 300 dpi, and BLI’s Green document at 200 and 300 dpi are competitive for the group.

OCR Accuracy in Percent | Competitive Average

200-dpi Accuracy 300 dpi-Accuracy

Black 56.7 77.0 63.6 84.8

Red 90.8 83.6 89.8 89.6

Blue 91.6 85.6 92.7 91.3

Green 78.0 81.6 85.0 87.8

Note that for OCR testing, BLI compares the unit’s bundled OCR software results with those of other scanners tested. When OCR software is not provided, BLI tests OCR using Nuance OmniPage 18 Professional.

OCR



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OTHER FEATURES NOT RATED

ENERGY STAR-qualified.

Linux, Mac and Windows OS support.

FOOTPRINT GOOD

O Weighing 10.34 pounds and measuring 12.4" wide x 7.3" deep x 7.2" high, the PDS-5000 offers a smaller than average storage footprint (trays closed). With trays extended for operation, the depth and height increase to 27.0" and 9.5", respectively. While the depth is larger than average, its height with trays extended is shorter than average.

VALUE VERY GOOD

The PDS-5000’s list price of $899.99 is lower than the average of comparable A4 scan-ners available in its speed range.

The PDS-5000 has a projected total cost of ownership of $4,032 over a three-year period, which equals an estimated total cost per scan of 0.085¢. Both the TCO and the estimated cost per scan are competitive with the average. This estimation was based on a daily scan volume of 6,000 sheets and includes the device’s list price, two-year extended warranty and the cost of maintenance over three years.

Brother PDS-5000 Competitive Average

Device Suggested Retail Price $899.99 $1,258.62

Three-Year Warranty Cost $162.49 $168.81

Maintenance Kit Cost $124.99 $83.12

Rated Yield Between Kits 200,000 222,222

Total Cost of Ownership (3 years) $4,032.24 $3,663.64

Estimated Cost per Scan 0.085¢ 0.079¢

The competitive average includes comparable scanners currently available in the United States. All values are based on manufacturers’ suggested retail pricing.

FOOTPRINT

VALUE 2

OTHER FEATURES



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Test Environment: This product was tested in BLI’s 10,000-square-foot test lab, in an environment monitored by a Honeywell Temp/RH chart recorder, which replicates typical office conditions.

Test Equipment: A PC running Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, based on a 3.3-GHz Intel Core CPU with 4-GB memory and a 74-GB hard drive. The scanner is connected to the PC via a USB cable.

Test Duration: A single product is tested for two weeks, one week of which consists of a reliability test during which the product is run at its manufacturer-rated duty cycle.

Tested Configuration: Brother PDS-5000 base unit.

Test Procedures: The test methods and procedures employed by BLI in its lab testing include BLI’s proprietary procedures. An industry-standard KATUN test original, as well as BLI’s 6% coverage original, are used in the speed tests. BLI’s test is designed to replicate real-world use over an eight-hour workday, and as such includes a mix of various types and sizes of documents, color and black-and-white, legal size and letter size, single-sided and double-sided. Tested originals include lightweight invoices, checks, business cards, heavier card stocks, credit cards, ID cards and embossed cards, when supported. Speed tests are conducted in black-and-white, grayscale and color modes using a single page and a stack of pages that is equal to double the unit’s manufacturer-rated scan speed. Speed tests are performed at 200-dpi resolution using single-sided pages and default settings. Additional tests are conducted to check for any slowdowns in duplex mode or after increasing the resolution to 300 dpi, or when enabling/disabling automatic scan features (auto de-skew, auto crop, auto orientation). The scan processing/transmission speed is measured from the time the technician initiates scanning from the scan software to the time it takes for the scanned image to appear at the PC or to be accessed from the PC (depending on the functionality of the utility). To measure the hardware speeds, technicians add an extra page to the batch to warm up the scanner, but only measure the speed from the time the second page begins scanning to when the trail edge of the last document exits the feeder. OCR tests are performed with all pertinent image processing features enabled at 200 dpi and 300 dpi using four clean, good-quality test documents in black, red, blue and green font colors. Each document contains the same pangram repeated in various font sizes and types.

About Buyers Laboratory LLC: Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) is the world’s leading independent provider of analytical information and testing services to the document management industry. For over 50 years, buyers have relied on BLI to help them differentiate products’ strengths and weaknesses and make the best purchasing decisions, while industry sales, marketing and product professionals have turned to BLI for insightful competitive intelligence and valued guidance on product development, competitive positioning and sales channel and marketing support. BLI also offers private, for-hire testing services that help manufacturers develop and market better products and consumables.

Note: This report is based on BLI testing one representative test sample at a specific point in time. BLI is not responsible for differences in performance that may be the result of lot-to-lot variation, changes in production and machine modifications implemented by the manufacturer, service issues or any other reason beyond BLI’s control. Test unit serial #: U63939C5U111173.

Gerry Stoia, CEO

Anthony F. Polifrone, Managing Director

Gerry O’Rourke, Managing Director, BLI International

Daria Hoffman, Managing Editor

Dr. Simon Plumtree, European Managing Editor

Tracie Hines, Senior Editor, Competitive Analysis Reports

Jamie Bsales, Senior Product Editor, Solutions

George Mikolay, Senior Product Editor, A3 MFPs

Marlene Orr, Senior Analyst, Printers and A4 MFPs

Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor, Scanners and Environmental

Carl Schell, Senior Writer

Priya Gohil, Senior Editor

Kaitlin Pendagast, Associate Editor

David Sweetnam, Head of European Research and Lab Services

Pete Emory, Director of Laboratory Operations

Martin Soane, European Lab Manager

Pia Beddiges, Manager of Competitive Services

Anthony Marchesini, IT Director

T.R. Patrick, Art Director

BUYERS LABORATORY LLC • North America • Europe • Asia

SUPPORTING TEST DATA

LAB TESTED

RELIABILITY CERTIFIED

2015

Anthony F. PolifroneMANAGING DIRECTOR

DATE

CERTIFICATE OF RELIABILITY

THE LEADING INDEPENDENT OFFICE PRODUCTS TEST LAB AND BUSINESS CONSUMER ADVOCATE

NORTH AMERICA EUROPE ASIA WWW.BUYERSLAB.COM

BUYERS LABORATORY LLC

COPYRIGHT ©2015 BUYERS LABORATORY LLC. REPRODUCTION WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF BLI IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

JUNE 2015

This is to certify that when subjected to a 30,000-sheet Buyers Lab durability test, the Brother PDS-5000 proved to be a highly reliable product.

Awarded to

BROTHER INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONfor the performance of the

Brother PDS-5000in BLI’s in-house durability test.

lab test report - brother uk/media/pdf/buk/buyers lab... · 2015. 8. 3. · the brother pds-5000...

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