At first glance this machine is big and heavy, and what immediately comes to mind is 'this must be fast'. Gladly it doesn't let us down and does exactly what is says on the box!
Inside the box of the Truper 3600 you'll find some QuickScan Pro software and the installation disk. The Truper 3600 is conveniently supplied with Kofax VRS 4.1 built in and ready to use. You also get a basic cleaning kit in the box containing a handy little airbrush, to help clear the scanner of dust, and some roller cleaning sheets.
The scanner is easy to set up but just be aware it is heavy and bulky so may need two people to get it into position. This also means it will need a designated home as it won't be easy to move it around regularly! It has a large footprint too so you will need at least a 60cm x 40cm of desk space.
As with all of our tests we scanned the sample docs with Adobe, creating non-text searchable (for speed) files.
100 A4 text pages.
The Bell and Howell Truper 3600 took 1 minute 35 seconds, a little quicker than the quoted rate of 60ppm. (Scanning at 200dpi black and white, which is fine for text files)
The Bell and Howell Truper 3600 is quoted as being capable of holding 200 sheets in its feeder, although it could easily have taken a further 30 pages.
On testing, the scanner had no problem with feeding the documents. It took 200 sheets with ease, giving us reassurance that we could leave the machine whilst scanning and trust that everything would get scanned without jamming or double-feeding.
We also did a test to see how the scanner coped with a mixed batch of invoices. The invoices were all different sizes and thicknesses of paper, yet they were still pumped through at a consistant speed, the rollers having no trouble feeding the paper. However, the Truper will not scan business cards. When this was attempted they jammed the scanner, although this was half expected as it uses a 'U' path rather than scanning straight through. It was easy enough to free the jam though, just open the scanner with the blue button on the side and pull out the document.
(When removing jammed documents, it's always worth double checking inside incase a small piece of paper has been left)
Unfortunately this machine isn't the quietest of the bunch and you'll certainly notice it when it's scanning - however this shouldn't stop other members of the office from working and as with most things, you will get used to having it around after a while.
It is not recommended by Bell and Howell, or any other manufacturer, to scan documents containing staples or paper clips, but in everyday life it does happen. The Truper 3600 stopped scanning as expected, although this was after it pulled the first stapled page through causing a bit of a jam. As with the business cards this problem was easily solved by opening the unit up and slowly pulling the page through.
(IMPORTANT NOTE: please remove all staples prior to scanning!!... No manufacturers recommend you scan staples, paperclips etc - this will very quickly scratch the scanning lens and will not be covered in your warranty!)
Something else worth noting; when a scan does jam, you get a window open on your computer screen saying that you need to 'start scan again'. We had already scanned around 70 pages so initially thought we would have to start from scratch - luckily the batch has just been paused, so once you have cleared the jammed paper and added the rest of the batch, you just press 'scan' and it will continue where you left off.
Another great feature we noticed within the built in Kofax VRS (within advanced settings) was a tool for capturing highlighted text. When you scan in a text file containing some highlighter pen, you then have the option to show this highlight either in colour or as an outline around what was the highlighted area. This enables you to see that it is highlighted without requiring to scan in colour and therefore you'll have a much smaller filesize as a result!
The final test was to see if the Bell and Howell Truper 3600 could cope with duplex pages full of images. As a further test we used a glossy magazine with high quality pictures, rather than standard office documents. Once again the scanner came up trumps, scanning 20 duplex pages in 1 mins 27 seconds and all at a very good quality (500dpi), proving that this machine is built to scan anything.
Conclusion
With the Truper, what you see is what you get: this is a big robust scanner that is capable of scanning all sorts of documents at a fast, reliable speed as promised by Bell and Howell. It is slightly on the expensive side, but once you start scanning on a daily basis you'll see that it's money well spent.
The Bell and Howell Truper 3600 is built to scan large quantities a day. Couple this with Kofax VRS built in to increase the quality of those scans and you have an effective all-round scanning solution!
Please note that all of our reviews are based on one sample scanner and may not therefore be a statistically correct assessment of the model in question. Given the simplistic nature of the tests, in an attempt to keep the reviews comparable with other models, many of the features available to each model were not tested and we strongly recommend visitors to our website to view the official product specifications provided by the manufactures. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure all information is accurate we accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions and any decisions based on information contained in this review are the sole responsibility of the visitor.
At first glance this machine is big and heavy, and what immediately comes to mind is 'this must be fast'. Gladly it doesn't let us down and does exactly what is says on the box!
