According to the Clean Air Council, Americans throw way so much office paper a 12-foot wall could be built from New York City to Los Angeles with the paper.

Thankfully many businesses are now using digital documents. These documents are not only better for the environment, they also cut down on paper costs and other office expenses.

Unfortunately, the transition to digital documents can be a messy and time-consuming process. Most companies that make the transition have filing cabinets full of documents. To put this into some perspective, the average four-drawer filing cabinet can hold more than 15,000 sheets of paper.

Scanning boxes of documents with a flatbed scanner is not really feasible for most businesses. In order for a business to save time and money they will need to invest in a high-volume scanner.

High-volume scanners can typically scan 86-plus pages per minute. Some of the top of the line high volume scanners can handle 150 to 160 pages per minute. Most document imaging companies give you the option of renting or purchasing a high-volume scanner.

For companies that are looking to digitize old paper documents, a scanner rental is the better option. For companies who have a regular stream of documents that need to be scanned, it would be better to purchase a scanner.

To help you find the right high-volume scanner you should follow these guidelines.

Durability

Durability is an important quality to consider before making a purchase. You will want to find a scanner that can handle thousands of pages in a day. Some heavy duty scanners can handle as many as 30,000 pages in a day.

Paper Path

Finding a scanner with a simple paper path is very important. A paper path involves how a page travels though the scanner. You want to find a scanner with a simple paper path to avoid paper jams. Paper jams are one of the worst problems you can encounter during a scanning job.

Staple Detection

Staple detection is another great feature to have on your high-volume scanner. Sensors can detect various staples in documents and immediately stop the scanner to avoid paper jams. This is a great feature when you’re scanning thousands of pages of old documents.

Automatic Document Feeder

An automatic document feeder is another feature to help you determine what is the right high-volume scanner for your business. Some scanners will allow you to feed as many as 1,000 documents. A scanner with a high volume document feeder will save you a lot of time in feeding documents into the scanner.

Driver Support

Drivers are programs that allow the scanner to communicate with a computer. Any good scanner manufacturer will have a website where you can download drivers. Communication between the scanner and the computer is a critical element. Without the proper drivers, you won’t be able to scan documents.

Summary

High-volume scanners are a great way to quickly get rid of those filing cabinets in your office. If you do not have tons of documents to scan, you may want to consider looking at low-volume scanners. To find out which networked scanning systems is right for you company, we suggest looking at all of the different networked scanning system providers.