Digital Office Solutions are applying the environmentally desirable process of remanufacturing which returns previously used copiers to showroom condition and offers customers a cost-effective alternative to brand new equipment.

Apart from the 'green' advantages of reducing the wasteful scrapping of perfectly serviceable machines, there are financial benefits in acquiring equipment that looks as good and performs as efficiently as a new model - and carries exactly the same guarantees of copy quality and reliability as a brand new copier

Key Points

Ascertain the customers budget & requirements, and make suggestions that might not of occurred to them.
Choose in our opinion the right machine to meet the requirements.
Buy a machine that suits the clients requirements.
Clean lubricate and replace any relevant parts.
Check for modifications.
Calibrate equipment.
Test & deliver.

Initial sales meeting

We only employ Sales Engineers they are all copier engineers who have worked in the office equipment market for up to 20 years. We will have a very good idea of your requirements from similar business's that we have serviced.

Our first question is always what type of business are you. If your a solicitor we will appreciate that you main requirement will be a fast machine with a fast first copy time, we will explain about document archiving, do you need a fast scanner capable of handling a lot of documents.

Refurbishment

1 "You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear", Most clients focus on how old it is, the real issues should be

"does it suit my requirements" f
"what condition is it in",

It quite often follows that the youngest machine is in poor condition. Young machines quite often come from short term projects like, the Channel Tunnel construction, or the Millennium Dome. Construction companies will lease a machine for the duration of the contract, at the end of the contract these are then returned to the finance company. Machines from building sites are usually in a very poor condition, damp in the winter and dusty in the summer, these conditions lead to the machine being contaminated with a muddy dirt that acts as a lapping paste destroying bearings and contaminating all areas of the machine.

The perfect second hand machine would be a product that has been sited in a hi-tech clean room environment, the machine will have done very little work in a perfect environment, stable climatic conditions and no dust to contaminate it. At DOS we believe that refurbishment starts with picking the right machine, we purchase equipment to suit a customers requirements, we purchase all our machines from one source where we have a choice of up to 10,000 machines.

2 We choose machines to suit our clients requirements and then make our final selection based on the condition of the machine and number of images produced. We collect the equipment ourselves so as to ensure we choose the right machine and that it

Out of the thousands of machines only a few meet our exacting standards, we will then choose the one that in our opinion will suit your requirements.

does not get damaged in transit. Therefore our clients get exactly what they require and a machine that in our opinion is the best available. Although this is expensive what it costs to acquire good quality equipment is offset by a lower refurbishment cost.

Most faults on copiers are caused by dirt, we strip and clean the equipment thoroughly prior to rebuild.

What defines a refurbishment, a wipe over with a damp cloth on a kitchen table or as in the DOS case a full rebuild cleaning and replacing parts as necessary. When the machine arrives in Crawley it is firstly checked for damage. It is then stripped and cleaned ready for the rebuild during this process we make careful note of any parts that may need replacement.

After dirt the most common cause of problems are worn consumables, during rebuild we inspect and replace any worn conponents.

As the machine is reassembled each part is checked, cleaned & replaced if necessary. During this process we check whether a machine has received all the appropriate manufacturers modifications. Ricoh and all of the other manufacturers monitor field performance if it comes to light that their is a problem on a machine it shows up very quickly. The manufacturer then looks into why the equipment is failing. After they have diagnosed the cause of the problem, they will issue a modification bulletin, recommending replacement of suspect parts with modified ones. An example of this can be found on the Aficio AP3800C this is a large colour multi-function machine, it suffers with faults on the CCD (charge couple device) Ricoh made available FOC replacement CCD. The CCD should have a white dot on top of the lens, to denote that it is modified. All machines supplied by ourselves have all current modifications fitted. Consumable parts are replaced with genuine consumables.

By carrying out these measures we ensure our reconditioned equipment is better then new.

During refurbishment machines are toroughly tested, adjusted & callibrated.

Once the rebuild is complete the machine must be calibrated to give optimum performance, this can take just as long as the rebuild especially so with colour machines. Most issues on second-hand equipment have been created by lazy or ignorant field service personnel, "why clean a machine when I can mask the issue by turning up the main charge". Our biggest headache can come with setting the machine back to its default settings The machine will also be configured for the customers individual requirements. Equipment is then Portable Appliance Tested, to ensure electrical safety.

Finally the machine is thoroughly tested ready for installation.

"Or would you prefer to buy from a supplier that has a damp cloth and a kitchen table, their equipment will almost certainly be cheaper than ours".

Support Areas

Photocopier Support

Our refurbished equipment is in better condition then one year old copiers that where supplied new!

As long as the equipment is maintained in accordance with the manufacturers instructions the equipment will prove to be just as reliable in day to day use.

Should it turn out that the machine does not live up to your expectations, we will replace it!