Docucolor 2060, advice please

[GusG]

I run a pre-press bureau in Kampala, Uganda. In 2007 we ventured into digital printing with a Konica Minolta Bizhub C352P and found that there was indeed a large niche market for digital printing. Our competition saw what we were doing and soon everyone had a Bizhub so we bought a C451 to stay ahead and we are currently doing 50K clicks per month on average. Our experience with these machines is that they tend to need a lot of servicing, have a lot of jams, bits break off them and the image quality degrades with time (even when replacing the consumables such as drums, transfer belts etc) and our local technicians don't know what to do about it. I do recognise that these are not production printers but even so, we do not run them more than the stated monthly capacity though we run lots of 250 gsm coated board.
In response to this we have bought a used Docucolor 2060 from Europe (which we shall probably install in the coming 2 weeks) and are at the moment negotiating with the local Xerox people about a per click contract. The Xerox people are waiting to see the actual condition of the machine before they will make a proposal. We hope this will take us to the next level of digital printing.
I am therefore asking anyone who has run or still runs a 2060 or 2045 if they are willing give me any advice on this machine with respect to the daily running of it, its particular strenths and weaknesses etc.

 

[doubting_thomas]

We replaced our 2060 last year, but I ran it for 5 years or so
up to that point. There are some issues that we consistently
ran into. Printing heavy coverage on uncoated papers was
very hit and miss. Many times inconsistent imaging would
force me to pull jobs and go back to a client to change
stock. There was a fair amount of color shifting during a
run, particularly when it came to running on card stocks. The
first few sheets of would be very nice. After that the image would
dull, or look less vibrant. We also had difficulty with built
grays. They'd shift toward magenta generally. These were
my biggest issues.

I'd recommend printing as much as you can on coated papers
(gloss and matte), and when proofing on heavy papers, pull
your proofs after 7 or 8 sheets run off.

 

[jonteo]

We had a Docucolor 2045/2060 before we upgraded to the Docucolor 5000. Experienced same problems as doubting_thomas noted above. Printing on gloss stocks also had its problems. On a heavy, dark solid background, there will be a "gloss differential"– a vertical roller mark somewhere around the middle of a 12" x 18" sheet. We had a Creo Sprire RIP at that time too which I thought helped a bit. Make sure you keep the machine calibrated daily. And keep stocks to a proven few that will perform. But overall, I think you will be pleased with your upgrade from the Konica. 50K clicks a month is nothing.

 

[Savage]

We replaced our 2060 last year, but I ran it for 5 years or so
up to that point. There are some issues that we consistently
ran into. Printing heavy coverage on uncoated papers was
very hit and miss. Many times inconsistent imaging would
force me to pull jobs and go back to a client to change
stock. There was a fair amount of color shifting during a
run, particularly when it came to running on card stocks. The
first few sheets of would be very nice. After that the image would
dull, or look less vibrant. We also had difficulty with built
grays. They'd shift toward magenta generally. These were
my biggest issues.

I'd recommend printing as much as you can on coated papers
(gloss and matte), and when proofing on heavy papers, pull
your proofs after 7 or 8 sheets run off.

We also recently chnged from a 2060 to a 5000. We had all the problems doubting_thomas described, plus one, wich i consider the worst of them all... Even with Xerox paper, and with 3 technicians working on the machine, the best they could pull out from the machine was a 2mm difference between the front and the back of a duplex printing. The average would always be about 5mm difference! Thats was huge for us, that run duplex in almost every job, and that was the main reason we upgraded to the 5000... Before the 2060, we had a docucolor 12 wich had better color consistency and registry than the 2060!
Overall, i wouldn't recommend the machine.

 

[GusG]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I'm rather worried about Savage's experience with the registration during duplexing.
Is up to 5mm a general observation on these machines?
How about sheet to sheet registration and backing sheets manually?
I'd also like to know how much the rated speed of 60ppm falls when using heavier stock.
Thanks in advance

 

[Craig]

Gus,
I can't speak on the 2060 but I had a Canon product with the same registration issues. Sheet to sheet on the Canon was +/- 2mm, that means it would move around on the sheet 2mm in either direction throughout the run. It really makes for fun times at the cutter, especially with business cards!

 

[doubting_thomas]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I'm rather worried about Savage's experience with the registration during duplexing.
Is up to 5mm a general observation on these machines?
How about sheet to sheet registration and backing sheets manually?
I'd also like to know how much the rated speed of 60ppm falls when using heavier stock.
Thanks in advance

The registration issues are as described. I made manual adjustments to
compensate prior to ripping, so you can solve it that way. I could never
really get rid of the skew front to back on some sheet sizes. Sheet to sheet
registration for us was pretty good though, less than 2 mm.

If I remember correctly 60 ppm are single sided on 85-105 gsm 8.5" x 11"
stock. Any other setting will slow that machine down to some degree.
Running heavy weight stock slows the machine down considerably.
I usually figured 10-15 ppm at 12 x 18 on 187-220 gsm. Letter sized
sheets were slightly faster.

 

[derekalive]

Looking into purchasing a used digital press. What experiences has anyone had with the xerox 2045?
Looking for some reviews

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

Looking into purchasing a used digital press. What experiences has anyone had with the xerox 2045?
Looking for some reviews

Rather then a used digital press you might want to consider a new entry level machine. Digital technology has been advancing where anywhere from 6-18 months something new from the same manufacture or a competitor comes out. While the older machines are not obsolete new ones have improvements such as better speed, resolution, up time, and media's that can be ran on them.