Any opinions on the Xeikon 8800

[chads]

We recently were looking at the Xeikon 8800 at Graph Expo. Is there anybody out there that has any personal experience with this press? If so, what are the pro's and con's of the press. Thanks in advance.

 

[chads]

How about the Xeikon 3500? Anybody have any opinions that they can offer on this press?

 

[druk68]

Hi
having worked on these presses for the last 12 years the quality is great with good uptime.
You need good operators to run these as they need lots of cleaning and maintenance, no green buttons :-}
The only downside is small jobs on different stocks due to the reel changes involved, overall a great press which keeps on getting better.
Regards

 

[chads]

Druk68... Could you go into details and explain what you meant by lots of cleaning and maintenance? What would this consist of? Daily, weekly, monthy? We are new to digital printing, we currently have 6 large offset presses in our shop. So, needless to say, this is all new for us. Thanks again!

 

[druk68]

Hi Chads
Your offset guys will find this press easy to learn, its the closest in terms of control, densities registration etc to an offset press but is done with a mouse click whilst the press is running.
The cleaning and maintenance are important for quality reasons, i used to spend perhaps a hour in a 12 hour shift cleaning and vacuuming.
The scorotrons, Teds and cleaning units can be swapped out for a clean set on a reel change, if you get the jumbo unwinder your reels will last about 8 hours giving you lots of time to keep up with the maintenance.
Also the rip is amazing with lots of options, and is very stable and fast.
You need anymore info drop me an email.
Regards

 

[chads]

Druk68,

Thank you so much for the info. We just came back from Dscoop and have been comparing the HP products with Xeikon. I totally understand your comment about how the Xeikon being easy for my offset guys to understand. We were looking at the HP6600 (which is HP's web press). We are looking at the Xeikon because of its 20" wide web, which is critical for us. The HP web width is 13". We need the press to be able to print 18pt. Xeikon says they can do it, although they deal in gsm. Any more feedback and/or leads for info that you can give me I would greatly appreciate. Thanks. Chad