Best digital press today?

[koloriten]

Re: Best digital press today?

Do any of you have any experience from this machine?
http://mgi.celeonet.fr/v2/fiche_meteorDP60PRO-preuve-us.html
we are considering to buy it, but first we're gonna take a look at it at Drupa 2008
regards

 

[smatros]

Do any of you have any experience from this machine?
MGI impression numérique
we are considering to buy it, but first we're gonna take a look at it at Drupa 2008
regards

Did you buy it? I also looked at it but is still considering it and would love some user input.

 

[PineyBob]

This was one I wasn't even going to touch as it often starts a battle.

The best digital press is the one that best suits your job mix, volume, projected volume, etc

has the best budgeted hourly rate for the above factors.

The device must generate a profit and only the individual print shop owner can make the determination of which is best FOR THEM

 

[Makk]

Wow - I'm Impressesd (pun intended)

Wow - I'm Impressesd (pun intended)

It also depends if you like the dull muddy look of toner or waterless ink. VDP to me is a waste of time. It is aimed at junk mail. If I receive a political add in my mailbox with my name on it?so what. Even GATF is sending out brochures with my name on it and I prefer they not do that. With identity theft as rampant as it is I do not need a company sending me a printed piece with my name and address and email contact thru the mail. I just received a post card form Ptek with all my contact info in plain view inviting me to logon to my PURL site and see how great the 52DI and VDP can work together, How dare they use my name and address to push their products. They must have used a database to secure my info. Where did they buy it?
It [VDP} is just another way to sell database names and sniff our identity. Printing is to share the beauty of a printed piece not to harvest names for VDP and PURL?s.
Another question, if you research Web2Print sites they seem to demand you host on their servers. Do they harvest your printing customers also?
IMHO

Will the owners of printing companies continue to buy into the new hype of VDP? It is junk mail guys not Lithography.

As somenone who has been involved in book printing and manufacturing for over 20 years, and for most of that time loved printing, thank you for your comments. I have recently taken a job at a digital printer to try and learn about it and to see if I really want to stay in printing. Anyway it's nice to hear from a pro.

 

[Craig]

This was one I wasn't even going to touch as it often starts a battle.

The best digital press is the one that best suits your job mix, volume, projected volume, etc

has the best budgeted hourly rate for the above factors.

The device must generate a profit and only the individual print shop owner can make the determination of which is best FOR THEM

One of the best answers for this question yet!

 

[lfelton]

@Smatros - to reply to your actual question, we had print samples done a few months ago on this machine and they were not impressive. Whether that's just down to the lack of experience with the people who sell this kit in the UK I don't know, but IMO it would take an outstandingly brave person to choose one of these over a Canon/K-M/Xerox unless they needed the substrate flexibility (which is very cool, if it works as advertised).

 

[smatros]

it would take an outstandingly brave person to choose one of these over a Canon/K-M/Xerox unless they needed the substrate flexibility (which is very cool, if it works as advertised).

This is whay we have not decided, as besides the words from manufacturer we have seen none user side comments + the support from manufacturer seemed questionable. Otherwise the machine looked impressive - it had tight registration, possibility to print on paper or plastic, option to print on surfaced materials, etc...

Would still love to hear any user comments + actual cost of printing and maintainance.

 

[PeterA]

In the UK - unless you have and Indigo you are going to have to defend the quality - it doesnt seen to matter that other suppliers may sometine be better - if you have an Indigo quality is taken as read

 

[Bondmaster]

From a laminator/finisher point of view Indigo, Presstek, NexPress are a breeze compared to an IGen. The output looks more natural and at least you can stick to them with conventional laminates, UV coatings and foils. Witless "big boy" suppliers to the laminating trade say there is an answer to Xerox but in fact that is twice the material cost at one tenth of the speed for the xerox output.Depends if end market is aimed partly at offset traditional ground I guess.

 

[dgraves8rd]

Fuji Film is coming out with a new digital press in the next year....will wait and see....
I am sure it will be very expensive. "JetPress 720 images at 1,200 dpi with 4 gray levels on a sheet up to 720 x 520 mm (28.35 x 20.47 ins) in size.This is twice the size of any other sheetfed digital color press allowing up to four A4 pages in one pass in four colours. Fujifilm claim that the 1,200 dpi with 4 gray levels will give offet quality of printing. This is a higher resolution than all the new inkjet continuous feed presses being launched at drupa. The speed of the press is stated to be 2,700 B2 format sheets per hour. This works out at 180 A4 sheets/minute. The new inkjet printhead technology was developed by FUJIFILM Dimatix (FDMX) a leading company for industrial inkjet printheads, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujifilm."

 

[Bondmaster]

Let's hope we can stick to it

 

[smatros]

Fuji Film is coming out with a new digital press in the next year....will wait and see....
I am sure it will be very expensive. "JetPress 720 images at 1,200 dpi with 4 gray levels on a sheet up to 720 x 520 mm (28.35 x 20.47 ins) in size.This is twice the size of any other sheetfed digital color press allowing up to four A4 pages in one pass in four colours.

If I understand right this is BW only press.
Another digital color press which prints to b2 format (around 50x70 cm) has been introduced at Drupa, but I lost the link to the manufacturer, if anyone recalls the name I would appreciate it.

 

[ASM]

New digital sheetfed presses

New digital sheetfed presses

Samtros - the companies that announced 4-up (B2) digital inkjet presses at drupa were Fujifilm and Dainippon Screen. Curious as these two companies are very close. Screen makes FF's CTP machines.

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

Screen has been in the inkjet business for years. Fuji's press was 18 months away at Drupa from placing Beta sites. Both have inline coaters before the inkjetheads to give better image quality on more substrates. I know the Fuji press uses the Dimatix Samba head.

http://www.dimatix.com/files/FUJIFILM_SAMBA_Technology_A4.pdf

There is probably no way either of these machines are going to be much under the $1,000,000 price range, and quite possibly might be over that based on the comparable webfed inkjet machines of today.

 

[smatros]

there was another machine. i'll try to find my brochure / website. As a demo they were printing old style world map. Cost of unit was around 250k $ and supposedly very moderate print cost.

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

I was going to mention it but didn't want to get too off topic. The QPress is a 5 color toner based B2 machine. 20 ppm B2, 44 A3 ppm 1200 dpi. The machine is built in China but engineered in Japan if I remember correctly. They said the machine is available for purchase now at Drupa, not sure who would service this in the US or other countries though.

QPress - design for printer

 

[benwarn]

indigo kicks but really in my experience, scratching is a small issue if you do lots of mailed work, but just coat it on a litho press. Personally after going from xerox to hp i'd never go back

 

[smatros]

internal got it right, this is the machine I was talking about.

 

[jetzerm]

It also depends if you like the dull muddy look of toner or waterless ink. VDP to me is a waste of time. It is aimed at junk mail. If I receive a political add in my mailbox with my name on it�so what. Even GATF is sending out brochures with my name on it and I prefer they not do that. With identity theft as rampant as it is I do not need a company sending me a printed piece with my name and address and email contact thru the mail. I just received a post card form Ptek with all my contact info in plain view inviting me to logon to my PURL site and see how great the 52DI and VDP can work together, How dare they use my name and address to push their products. They must have used a database to secure my info. Where did they buy it?
It [VDP} is just another way to sell database names and sniff our identity. Printing is to share the beauty of a printed piece not to harvest names for VDP and PURL�s.
Another question, if you research Web2Print sites they seem to demand you host on their servers. Do they harvest your printing customers also?
IMHO

Will the owners of printing companies continue to buy into the new hype of VDP? It is junk mail guys not Lithography.

I've met you before. You did Typesetting and 4/c Stripping in a past life. Not all VDP printing is Junk Mail and not all is dull/muddy looking. Ignoring VDP and Digital printing is the same as all those who scoffed at Macs/imagesetters/Desktop apps 10-15 years ago. It's about what the customer wants/needs and with pay for. I love the look and feel of a nice letterhead on linen stock printed on a letterpress. It's a thing of beauty and elegance. But not many are willing to pay for that, move to the future or be pushed aside.

This is a business. In business you make money, to make money you make what the customer wants/needs.

We have a Kodak Nexpress. It's very nice and we print some very high end pieces on it. Short run version of jobs that normally go on our 5/c M600 or 6/c Speedmaster. When I say high end I mean Health and Beauty Products and Fashion Models.

 

[Macboy9999]

Offset Guy, everything is driven by the customers ROI and response rate. VDP is a valuable way to market to a customer’s needs. If the product is not relevant to the end user it is then truly “junk mail” however if it is relevant, and not just addressing and placing a name on the piece, and it’s content is focused on the consumer’s buying habits, is then valued by both the consumer and marketer. PURL's attached to these pieces will give a direct ROI on that program. You can't get that with a standard offset shell and imprinting. It is our customer’s, customer and the wave of technology that is driving print in this direction. Let's be happy we have this (VDP) because the wireless cell phone technology is next. And if we want to stay in business we must diversity our product and marketing offerings!