Advice - Considering New Light Production Machines

[Digits]

We run a small print shop in-house for an association and are looking at leasing new equipment. We have been Xerox customers for a long time but are looking to make a change. We recently received quotes from Konica, Canon and Ricoh and I am looking for advice from people who have experience with these brands. We print roughly 1.5 million impressions annually with about 1 million black and white and .5 million color. Specifically I am wondering if people can comment on:

1. Service when the printers go down
2. What brands are known to break the least
3. Quality of print jobs
4. What are the strong points and weakness for each brand
5. Any general comments/advice

We hope to install two light production machines where we need to split jobs, build jobs and do light finishing(staples, three-hole punch, booklet making, etc). We are not a commercial print shop so we can get away with slightly lower color quality but things still need to look decent.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MailGuru]

Sounds like your running about 100,000 to 150,000 per month. You might want to take a look at the new Xerox J75. I've read and heard some good things about it.

 

[Josh]

I've not done the sums and don't know how much room you've got but it could probably work out cheaper (and more productive) to have separate colour & mono machines You'll get a massively reduced mono click rate on a dedicated mono machine.

 

[Digits]

We are debating installing one color and one dedicated B & W. It's just nice to have the redundancy in case the color machine goes down in the middle of a time sensitive run.

 

[Possumgal]

One other thing to think about is the click charges. If you get just one machine for both, the B&W may be more than on a dedicated machine, but the numbers will bring down the click charges for the color. You might want to get quotes both ways and figure those charges in based on your projected output.

 

[Captain Kirk]

We have been running Ricoh machines exclusively for several years, having just awarded a new 3 year bid this week. We run 4 - 1107's and 2 907's. We put over 25mil on the six machines per year. VERY happy with the quality and service we receive. We used Canon and Oce prior to switching to Ricoh, and other than good service (had to be to keep em running) we weren't very happy with the machines. As for the service for Ricoh, a lot just depends on the service area you are in. In my experience, the service and support is only as good as the service manager.

 

[Digits]

That's good to hear. We keep reading about banding issues with the Ricoh's so I am happy to hear you are producing high volumes and are satisfied with print quality.

 

[Captain Kirk]

The only banding issues I have heard about are with the C651 and the C751. That has since been resolved...from what I hear. I went and checked out a C651 machine that was in a production environment and the operator stated he had no problems with this. Guess we'll find out, we're getting a C751 in about 6 weeks to replace our current color copier.

 

[[email protected]]

The only banding issues I have heard about are with the C651 and the C751. That has since been resolved...from what I hear. I went and checked out a C651 machine that was in a production environment and the operator stated he had no problems with this. Guess we'll find out, we're getting a C751 in about 6 weeks to replace our current color copier.

You're gonna love it (disclaimer, I work for them)

 

[Digits]

If you work for them can you comment on the banding issues and what has been done to fix this problem?

 

[msaeger]

If you work for them can you comment on the banding issues and what has been done to fix this problem?

New development units. Some people had issues with banding on some jobs new development units were released that fixed it.

 

[msaeger]

We have been running Ricoh machines exclusively for several years, having just awarded a new 3 year bid this week. We run 4 - 1107's and 2 907's. We put over 25mil on the six machines per year. VERY happy with the quality and service we receive. We used Canon and Oce prior to switching to Ricoh, and other than good service (had to be to keep em running) we weren't very happy with the machines. As for the service for Ricoh, a lot just depends on the service area you are in. In my experience, the service and support is only as good as the service manager.

That's a lot of black and white!

 

[jl1783]

Im selling a canon ipf 6350 only been use min of 10 times $2,700 or best offer. [email protected]

 

[shinghaiponglai]

New development units. Some people had issues with banding on some jobs new development units were released that fixed it.

Agree with that. =)

 

[Captain Kirk]

That's a lot of black and white!

Fairly large School District

 

[msaeger]

Fairly large School District

That will do it I think schools run the most black and white. Do you foresee volume going down as schools get tablets or something similar for students? We have seen some that get tablets but still print as much.

 

[crossroads]

I have also been looking for a light production machine to do 200-250k a year of mostly color. Quality is important as we sell the product. We also need to be able to duplex on cardstock and coated stocks. Leasing company suggested we demo the savin c5100s as a newer alternative to the km c6000. Has anyone worked on on the c5100s yet? I would like to hear how it has been treating people as it is not around for long at all. Is there another machine in that price range anyone would recommend?
All input is welcome.
Thank you.

 

[msaeger]

I have also been looking for a light production machine to do 200-250k a year of mostly color. Quality is important as we sell the product. We also need to be able to duplex on cardstock and coated stocks. Leasing company suggested we demo the savin c5100s as a newer alternative to the km c6000. Has anyone worked on on the c5100s yet? I would like to hear how it has been treating people as it is not around for long at all. Is there another machine in that price range anyone would recommend?
All input is welcome.
Thank you.

The c5100 is just coming out you can order one now but they are set to be delivered in August. There are some on demo floors so you may be able to check it out.

 

[crossroads]

Do you think that means the first six months i would be the guinea pig while ricoh finds the flaws and the techs learn to work on them?

 

[msaeger]

I can't say for sure but I can tell you that the image creation part of the machine is very similar to the c751 which has been out for years. The paper feed part is taken from other machines also so while it is a new machine it is similar to existing machines so it's not going to be like the tech is starting at zero.