HP 5000 with Paper Plates Any Recommendations?

[4stateprint]

I am looking into purchasing an HP 5000 to produce paper plates for short run jobs.
My problem is that I cannot find very much information about the machine other than spec sheets and boasting dealers. So I am asking if anyone on the forum has used the machine and what are your opinions of it? I appreciate any and all opinions, Thanks in advance.

[PrepressCop]

We use a Hp5000 printer for Smartplates. It works good. We use them for small envlope jobs.

[Tommy B]

The HP 5000 is good but try to find a refurb HP5100 on the web. I feel it is slightly better than the 5000 for Laser Plates. Be carful the 5100 is the last HP that will run laser plates, newer models will not have the fuser temperature needed to get a good run from the plate. If you can't get one than you will have to use a laminator just to heat the plate after imaging.

[4stateprint]

Tom,

When you run the plate through laminator do you put it in a sleeve? I had never heard of this idea. Does it make last any longer / less?

Thanks,
Dustin

[Tommy B]

Sorry for the long delay in getting back. The idea of the laminator is to fuse the toner to the plate. If you do not have a HP5000 or HP5100 then you will need to fuse the plate somehow and I have heard of some printer that use a laminator. If unfused the plate will fail on press.

[Tommy B]

Hello Dustin

Just found out that the Okidata 9600 / 9650 which is a color laser does a great job with plates formulated to work on the xante machines. Better quality than HP. Plus you can image 13" plate and you have a great color laser to boot. A little more expensive than HP about $3900. Let me know which way you go and I can reccomend a dealer for the plate material

Tom

[Daniel]

I use an HP5000, with the Baseline poly plates. The have run better overtime than anything else I have tried. Less toner background, and good run lengths. excellent QC from Package to Package of plates. Been using them for about 3 years. I also use MSI toner cartridges. They just work better than the HP toner.

[trackprint]

I have used Omega Fast polyester plates for a few years, I understand that they have been replaced by Omega Ultra, but my supplier has provided Xante which I am told are the same. I had a few teething problems but the system is great.

[apjjr]

I also use MSI toner cartridges. They just work better than the HP toner.

Daniel,
I'm just getting started in this. Where do you get the MSI toner cartridges?

[trackprint]

Further to my earlier post. I was sent Myriad plates for a Xante platemaker for use on the HP5000 as a substitute for Omeaga Ultra plates (supplier assured me they were identical), but they are not and have caused major problems - image breaking up after a few impressions. Last week I tried passing the plate through a second time to improve fusing and it appears to have solved the problem. I presume the Xante machine has a far superior fuser than the HP5000.