envelope printing...

[spigot]

Im looking at some options to creat some really decent envelopes. All input much appreciated!
Firstly, presses. I have run many millions on a four colour GTO over the years and had enough of that. and its now far too slow.
Is there a digital press that can handle DL, C4 and C5 envelopes, and produce a good print?
Some of the Quotes i got for outsourcing were ridiculous. In one case 60c a unit for 4Cp.
What about offset? a rotary Litho type system i've seen before. Are there any major drawbacks to these types of presses?

Or is it a waste of time..... are volumes in massive decline due to ipads and the like?
How can I decide wether or not to bother or just flag it and concentrate on something else.
.02c welcome!
thanks

 

[geozinger]

Spigot: "Or is it a waste of time..... are volumes in massive decline due to ipads and the like?"

Good question. I think everyone else is asking that question, too. In the company I work for now, we mostly outsource all of our envelopes to a specialized printer near us. Occasionally, we will print them here and have an envelope converter finish the job. Of course, it all depends upon the size of the job.

In a previous job, we looked at a couple of companies to supply us with preformatted blanks to do #10 envelopes (DLs, I think) on our Xerox 262. It's a process similar to converting envelopes on offset web presses. Unfortunately, the client changed their minds and we never ran the job. But I believe that something like that might be viable for some short run jobs.