Riso Comcolor

gregbatch

Well-known member
OK. Is anyone out there using Riso Comcolor printers successfully? We are looking for an economical machine for direct mail, letter merges, newsletters, etc. In this do it yourself world I think there is a whole class of customer out there who would be happy to run 1000 flyers or newsletters on their home inkjet if not for taking forever and eating up ink cartridges. I see the possibility that the Comcolor could fill that niche, offering color output for much less than toner based machines. Bring your flyer to us and we'll knock out 1000 color prints in 10 minutes for less than you would spend on ink. So, if you are using a Comcolor, please let me know the positives and negatives of your experience. I have tested multiple files and am fully aware of output quality. I would never represent this as equal to offset, but I think many customers would trade a little quality for the eye appeal of color. Thanks!
 
I have seen them at the shows, but like the other memjet printers out there I think the real world consumable prices are higher than they let on. Curious to see some real world numbers on it.
 
Thanks. I've done some real world (as real as possible without a machine) crunching and the numbers still aren't that bad. Mind you that we're looking at a used machine at a fraction of the price, so that small overhead allows us a more profitable outlook. I ran multiple files through an ink coverage calculator to get a more realistic cost. I contacted aftermarket ink manufacturers for ink yield numbers because the official Riso numbers seemed unrealistic. They were. A typical 8 page newsletter that we do came out at 13.4 cents in ink for the whole document. That's using aftermarket CMY and factory K (aftermarket still can't get the black density up). Less than half what our toner machine would cost in clicks. And they aren't Memjet heads. It is actually their own proprietary print head. There is no background "spitting" like on the Memjet.
 
you are paying too much for your toner machine is 13.4 cents is less than half for an 8 page newsletter.
 
That is what I was thinking as well, with a production laser you should be able to do that for 8 cents or less for (2) 11x17 or 12x18 color double sided.
 
Hi - we have a Riso ComColor - have had it in the shop for just about 3 yrs and previously had an HC (the previous version of Riso's inkjet) for about 3 yrs . We have put over 3 million impressions on these and have tracked our ink costs. We are a small ($450,000/yr.) digital print for pay and copy centre in a community of about 12,000 souls. Our ink cost per impression has average $0.015 per letter sized document in that period. The Riso's have required very little in service (ComColor is way better than the HC was) mostly to do with feed rollers being adjusted, cleaned or replaced. Very useful machine and has been profitable from the get go. It does not replace anything - we also run Ricoh toner machines - but is a great option for many jobs. Envelopes, NCR (numbered in the software), instruction manuals and directories are all some of the applications we run regularly. We look at ink coverage to determine if the job qualifies to be run on the ComColor or should move to our toner machine - high coverage goes to the toner machine (cost on it is about double the ComColor). Of course the finish of the job comes into play as well as does what stocks we need to utilize. As stated - they have their own print head technology and the inks are soya based - they do not need drying time and they are not water soluble. You cannot print on any stocks with a gloss or semi gloss type finish - we find that a good 24lb. stock will work well - of course the better quality stock the better the look of the finished product. I am more than willing to share our experience on these machines also on the Riso duplicators which we have been utilizing instead of a small press for over 20 yrs. Many applications that are profitable, easy to train operators, very low service requirements and cost, small footprint and extremely low power requirements (no fusers to run) - all make this an attractive addition to any print operation. And no - I do not work for Riso!!
 
Yea, 2 cents a click for color up to 13x19 depending on your volume.

Click should be somewhere between 3.5-4.5 for a new production machine. I've not seen or heard of anyone getting their click down to 2 cents.
 
AP90 is correct.

Ours is $0.049 - (no base, locked in for the life of the lease) New Xerox Versant 2100.

I was paying $0.0675 on the Xerox DocuColor 8002 that the Versant replaced.

I can't imagine any color, toner-based machine at $0.02 per click
 
3.5-4.5 makes more sense. Thanks. We are just about to upgrade (most likely the V2100) and I am confident our clicks will go way down in the process. I may hold on this until I see where we end up on the toner machine. BobRym thanks for the info. I too was going to make coverage a decision point. The attraction is I can plug it in anywhere. I don't have to bog down the 2100 with jobs that don't need the quality (MS Publisher crap). It's fast! Can run standard window envelopes. NCR (as mentioned) without baking it. We do a pile of merge letters and this would be much faster and cheaper. BobRym, do you use factory ink or aftermarket?
 
Thanks MailGuru. We're looking at the same machine so I imagine we'll be right there where you are.
 
I've used the Comcolor 7050R for about 5 years now for primarily envelope runs of 1000 or less. It can handle #10 and #9 non-window envelopes and 12 x 18 cover stock well and duplexes the sheets with no problem. But I really dread jamming, cause once it starts, it is very hard to right the ship again. When we get persistent jamming we get ink splatters and it's better to just power off overnight with better luck resuming the job in the morning.
 
How is Comcolor with back flaps of envelopes? We run a lot of announcement envelopes imprinted on the back flap. We have tried Xante Illumina and Formax ColorMax and have major issues with both leaving marks on the envelopes in various areas. Was looking at a comcolor but leery of the same problems.
 
gregbatch - in our case the jam would occur before getting to the exit tray.

Kringle - Cannot recommend it for printing on back flaps. We're a mailing house and the return address is always left upper corner.
 
Kringle - Cannot recommend it for printing on back flaps. We're a mailing house and the return address is always left upper corner.

So, it may work fine... you just don't have experience with it?

Do you have an envelope feeder on yours? if so, which one and does it work well?
 

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