Scanners Comparsion

[roh...@gmail.com]

Its been long since , I have written anything for OMR Solutions . I
have been asked several times by people who are looking for data
capturing using OMR on scanners and they would like me to draw some
insight on each scanners . Frankly I do not compare any make as this
would seem , I am favoring to one make over other . But then one day
one of my friend called me and said , you have enough experience on
the OMR why don’t you want people to get into right advice . Now that
was some thing that appealed me ‘Right Advice’ .

So before , going anything further on this , readers may differ from
my views and they can send me a mail for which they feel is wrongly
mentioned , I would certainly give it in my next addition article .

So the major Manufacturers of OMR

a. NCS Opscan They have strong US and European , Asian Market as well
in Lower leve and Mid level segment , also produces higher Segment OMR
Scanners , purchased Chinese Scanner as an OEM for them as wll . But
has now been taken over by Scantron Corp.
b. Scantron Corp : Strong Data Capturing specialist , develops good
softwares and manufactures OMR Scanners for small and mid segment ,
recently took over OPSCAN
c. Sekonic Corp. Japan : Majorly into OMR in Japan and Asian market .
Strong presense in India , manufacture mid range OMR Scanners . Also
manufactures lightometers and Hygrotherms , RFID etc
d. DRS : Based in UK , Strong High Segment OMR Scanner PS 900
series ,have its own printing and bureau services as well.
e. Axiome : Swizerland based OMR manufacturer which makes smaller and
higher level equipments , low international presence .
f. Chinese Scanners from Nanhao and Maystar : Manufactures OMR
Scanners from small to mid level , Maystar sells higher segment as
well
g. Chatsworth /Datawin : Application specific scanners


In this discussion , I would start comparing base model from each
manufacturer except DRS which do not make lower end models other
models I would cover in this series .

NCS , till the time it had been taken over , had recently stopped
producing OPSCAN 4 and have upgraded to Insight 4 U speed 2200 sheets /
hour , duplex , reads pencil –pen , imprinter and barcode reader .
Scantron has two models in the same range ES2260 and ES2800 both have
the same specifications except ES 2800 comes with rejector and speed
2800 sheets /hour . Sekonic has recently released SR3500 OMR Scanner
perhaps the highest speed in this segment 3500 sheets /hour and rest
all same
Axiome axim 960 with speed of 3600 sheets /hour .

Being the base model what we should expect is scanning per day
throughput should be 8000 to 12000 scans per day for 8-9 hours
working .

When we talk of this we need to work on the Hopper size of the scanner
to generate high throughput , lower size would always keep operator
busy and thus would involve more labour in such case the running of
the machine would depend very high on operators ( Obviously they have
to be depended to generate any throughput whatsoever) . I have seen
scantron ES 2260/2800 and OPSCAN 4 costing around USD 5500 to 6000
end user prices . Long running is difficult with them , as operator
has only 150 -200 sheet hopper size which hampers operators
performance . While axim has a feedback of being hot up after some 3
-4 hours working and yes hopper size is also less. Sekonic SR3500 by
far has high Hopper size 500 Sheets and continuous running is
possible as Operator can re-feed the OMR Sheets while machine is in
running mode . Chinese scanner Maystar and Nanhao they are the poorest
of the lot carries only 100 sheets hopper and its been seen with
Nanhao if more you keep the speed goes down , so you need to keep only
45-50 sheets . Nanhao 48 series claims speed of 2 scans /sec ie
whopping 120 scans /minute . But hold on if you accept this claim only
50 scans would happen in one minute in best of the condition rest two
minute operator would take as the feeding mechanism is odd . You have
to tighten one screw each time . Sekonic re-feeding is simple , just
place into the hopper . So practically Nanhao and Maystar do not fit
in this lot , they are better off doing 700-800 scans per hour .
Sekonic Practically goes to 2200 scans /hour . ES2800 of Scantron goes
upto 2300 scans /hour ( thanks to its rejector) OPSCAN 4 is same as
well 800-1000 scans per hour .Axiom axim has scans of 1400 -1600 scans
per hour . I would rate Scantron ES2800 better off and then Sekonic
SR3500 OMR on this criteria.

Now the most important is accuracy and ease of use software . Sekonic
has open source system , which means it allows the end users to make
their own software apart from using their software Mark View , Vendors
like OMR Solutions have developed Vision OMR which seems similar like
Remark Classic OMR From Gravic Inc. But Remark Classic OMR

Recently there had been some changes in the system , after take over
of scantron on pearsons data group . Would keep you updated for
anything.