Black and white production equipment

[mical]

I am trying to decide between a Canon Image Press 1135P or a Kodak Digimaster EX138. Dependability is critical to our operation and this machine will need to be able to produce 25 million prints in a 4 year time span without excessive down time after the first 10 million prints.

[X33]

that's a little over 500k a month. Have you look at the Xerox Nuvera product line? You need something really robust.

[DocuGo!]

I think Kodak Digimaster EX138 is the way to go, 20 millions is baby for this printer.

[vwrome]

I would consider two or three Ricoh Pro 1357's connected together. Output could be 270PPM or 405PPM and always having a backup machine if one goes down. I think it would still be cheaper then the Canon or Kodak. These new boxes can handle volume well.

[Craig]

I have an Ricoh MP9000 that just turned 3 years old and has 11.2mm on it. My dealer guaranteed it for 5 years and 25mm.

[vwrome]

So 25m on two machines would be fine. All for a much cheaper price.

[CSimpson]

First let me say I am not familiar with the price point or the Cannon machine itself. I will say that the Kodak is a good box and if you go that way I am sure you will be happy with your choice. However, I think there are better choices unless there are specific reasons why you narrowed it down to those boxes that you haven't disclosed such as inline finishing requirements or something of that nature.

If cost is an important factor you could get two KM1050s or two of something similar like Xerox 4112s for less than a single Kodak, and I think you will be okay at that volume as far as reliability goes.

If reliability is the most important factor I would steer you to the Oce Varioprint line. I have a 6250 and it averages 2 million between service calls. Nothing I have ever seen comes close to this in reliability. This might be slightly outside your price range but they make a simplex version called the 4xxx series which would be significantly less than the Kodak.

[idadunit]

The Kodak 138VP is not exactly new tech but it is known and works well is you push it. The new Canon is just that 'new' however the basic tech is sound and the EFI rip offers some functionality that you wont get with the Kodak

[mical]

I thank everyone for the input. I have decided to go with the Canon unit and then back it up with a Ricoh EX 1107 unit. We have massive volume swings from 200,000 to 800,000 a month and limited space. In the past I tried the 3-machine approach with three Ricoh’s from Ikon I ended up replacing them with two - one KM 1050 from a local dealer and one Ikon 1050 unit, they are basically the same machine. I wanted to evaluate the service provided by both vendors. I found I received better service from Ikon with the 1050 then the Ricoh’s; this was before Ricoh purchased Ikon. I feel having multiple vendors gives me more leverage. So, now I will have three vendors all competing to keep me happy. Not to mention I will have an opportunity to see if Ricoh has really improved their product. The justification for the Canon over the Kodak where concerns for decreased operator production levels. Created by the absence of a document feeder for hard copy input, approximately 40% of our work is still hard copy. I also had concerns with the Ricoh/Ikon / Kodak long-term relationship should it sour in the future. I like the idea of user replaceable components for improved up time. The Canon specs and output make it a winner; I’m hoping the service won’t turn it into a loser. I did talk to Xerox but the cost per click was the highest of the three for comparable machines.