AstroJet M1 Colour Inkjet printer or something else?

[printmail]

Hi all

I am currently looking at getting a machine that can print onto plain envelopes and am looking at the AstroJet M1 Colour Inkjet printer with Memjet technology.

Purpose of printer, to print Variable addressing, Postal Indicia, senders address details and colour imaging in one pass.

My question is, has anyone had any experience with this printer good or/and bad I would love to hear from you? Or have you experience or knowledge of a different machine that I could look at?

thanks

 

[PrintTriks]

There are a couple of us here that have the mach 5 version. It's a love hate relationship for me, when it runs right it is great, lots of little bugs they are working through, stuff like firmware updates, guides, covers etc. If you are getting one of the latest versions you will undoubtedly have a better experience. For what you want to do it should be fine, and I firmly believe as this technology matures it will be the best on the market for it's niche. I have not used mine for variable data, mostly just run envelopes and invitations through it.

 

[Joe Duffy]

Love the Memjet technology and speed, hate the fact the ink runs when it gets wet.
If you plan on doing color envelopes, I hope the color control is better than it was last year. Envelopes printed on one day did not match those printed the next.

 

[PrintTriks]

My color matching has not been bad at all, mind you it took me a bit to get the hang of it. The ink does run but for the most part I dont worry about that as most people figure it's not a good idea to wet paper. I really wish they would include Pantone matching in the drivers though as trying to match colors can be a pain.

 

[Joe Duffy]

...The ink does run but for the most part I dont worry about that as most people figure it's not a good idea to wet paper. I really wish they would include Pantone matching in the drivers though as trying to match colors can be a pain.

Tell that to the Post Office when you print 4c envelopes for someone!
Color control is not the best and hope that RIP vendors get on board, after the market share grows.

 

[PrintTriks]

Has not been an issue, we are a contract Post Office so I deal with them daily, it's not normal operating procedure to allow mail to get wet. Now when a carrier is delivering in pouring rain well there is only so much that can be done. My problems have all come from mechanical issues that do not show up in the lab but show up in practical use. I would love to see ink that did not run but pantone color matching would be higher on my list.

 

[printmail]

Love the Memjet technology and speed, hate the fact the ink runs when it gets wet.
If you plan on doing color envelopes, I hope the color control is better than it was last year. Envelopes printed on one day did not match those printed the next.

Hi, I had the machine onsite for a couple of hours and the quality was quite reasonable, but the printer slowed down hugely when I put some variable graphics in to the data. This was using flexmail software. How are you guys sending down your data to the printer to keep it running at rated speed?

We normally use PreS but the Astrojet doesn't seem to like this.