Best envelope printer?

QTab

Active member
I’ve had great success running envelopes on our Canon C710. The envelope attachment for the paper deck is incredible at feeding. However, the smaller A envelopes don’t work.

we just got an Xante Enpress, and I haven’t been wowed yet. The only thing is I can load a box of 500 instead of 250 on the canon. But canon is faster….
Farmer Dave,
Please get in touch with me, I would love to see your setup. I bought an envelope feeder with my 910. Doesn't run worth a damn. I'd like to know who your service provider is and what they have done differently than mine.
Thanks
Dan
 

willvp2408

Well-known member
I have the NXT. Printhead is $800.00, ink cartridges are now $383.00 per cartride.
How many impressions can you get out of a printhead?
 

synjosh

Member
I wish I had known about this dip switch setting…as someone who has pushed 10k envelopes through our 6085 this week (yay holidays and our vendors not being able to meet our deadlines).

It works okay but I agree the big limit is the input and the output…requires a ton of babysitting. Honestly the “dedicated envelope fuser” feels a bit smoke and mirrors to me, I would rather have a spare general purpose fuser to swap, because envelopes will run fine through the regular fuser if you disable the double feed detection on your paper profile and if you aren’t running large enough quantities to generate a wear line.
Disabling the double feed detection. This is interesting. Something to for us to consider since we just run a handful envelopes once in a while. May be no need to invest on the dedicated fusing unit to just sit there and collect dust.
 

kslight

Well-known member
Disabling the double feed detection. This is interesting. Something to for us to consider since we just run a handful envelopes once in a while. May be no need to invest on the dedicated fusing unit to just sit there and collect dust.
The envelope fuser felt like smoke and mirrors to me…yes you need a dedicated fuser to avoid the wear lines but it is an expensive unnecessary accessory for most. 10/10 times I would have preferred having a spare fuser that I could use for anything.

We don’t have the KM anymore, we have a Ricoh 7210x. I have so far put about 2000 envelopes through it. After making some paper profile tweaks to the feeding, it runs like a champ. I can increase the interval of fuser belt smoothing into my paper profile to avoid wear lines also. Caveat is you have to open the flaps…but sometimes I had to do this anyway on the KM. Some trial and error no matter what when it comes to pushing envelopes through these machines…if you do a ton of envelopes definitely a better idea to have a dedicated machine designed for that.
 

gregbatch

Well-known member
The envelope fuser felt like smoke and mirrors to me…yes you need a dedicated fuser to avoid the wear lines but it is an expensive unnecessary accessory for most. 10/10 times I would have preferred having a spare fuser that I could use for anything.

We don’t have the KM anymore, we have a Ricoh 7210x. I have so far put about 2000 envelopes through it. After making some paper profile tweaks to the feeding, it runs like a champ. I can increase the interval of fuser belt smoothing into my paper profile to avoid wear lines also. Caveat is you have to open the flaps…but sometimes I had to do this anyway on the KM. Some trial and error no matter what when it comes to pushing envelopes through these machines…if you do a ton of envelopes definitely a better idea to have a dedicated machine designed for that.
I had to run open flap on the 9100. I wondered if an envelope would run through the machine short edge feed. On the 9100 the tray guides would not go narrow enough for an envelope to run short edge feed, and we had the long sheet tray rather than a bypass feeder, so I wasn't able to try. I was stuck with long edge feed and open flaps. I've seen 1 video of envelopes being run short edge from the tray of a 7210. I would love to try a small stream feeder on the bypass feeder of a 7210. I can stream feed a Xerox D125 all day long. You need to shim the fuser so it doesn't wrinkle the envelopes.
 

gregbatch

Well-known member
So, the ASTRO M1 has been around a long time now. Better known as the ijet color, (brand here) Mach 6, or Colormax 7. Does anyone know if there have been changes to software or firmware, or mechanical issues that would make it impractical to get a used machine up to 10 years old? I think there's still some out there with low impressions.
 

discountprinting

Active member
While we are running an Oki for color envelopes we still are running our Ryobi 2800 for black envelopes of 500 or more. We will run 1 or 2 spot colors for the right quantity on it as well. We use metal plates so there is about 15 minutes to get a plate ready to go on press. It's not ideal in today's digital world but it works and the Ryobi is a work horse. The inkjets are just to expensive to me for the troubles I have heard from other printers. I am waiting for someone to retrofit a Ryobi 2800 with Memjet heads in place of the plate & blanket cylinder. That would be the beast we are all waiting for. One can dream right?
 

Craig

Well-known member
While we are running an Oki for color envelopes we still are running our Ryobi 2800 for black envelopes of 500 or more. We will run 1 or 2 spot colors for the right quantity on it as well. We use metal plates so there is about 15 minutes to get a plate ready to go on press. It's not ideal in today's digital world but it works and the Ryobi is a work horse. The inkjets are just to expensive to me for the troubles I have heard from other printers. I am waiting for someone to retrofit a Ryobi 2800 with Memjet heads in place of the plate & blanket cylinder. That would be the beast we are all waiting for. One can dream right?
 

gregbatch

Well-known member
That I do not know. But If I had to guess they do. Lord knows the computer chip be can programmed to do whatever they want.
That is my concern. Are they chipping for their machine only so they can charge $385 for a $225 cartridge? Has anyone tried aftermarket ink?
 

keb1019

Member
We have always run envelopes on the offset press, however, we have decided it is now time to bite the bullet and move away from the press and have been tirelessly researching our options. We have been impressed with the quality of toner vs ink (Xante Enpress or the SP1360.) but the reviews for the Xante seem pretty discouraging and no clear advantage to the 1360/OKI machine. We then looked into the Quadient Mach6, Colordyne1800S and Rapidcolor 1170 for ink but again, haven't gotten a clear view of reviews.
The colors seem to POP more with the toner machines, but we want something that is going to be reliable and also last with quality output. Do we need to sacrifice quality for reliability???

Any advice and review is greatly appreciated.
 

gregbatch

Well-known member
I favor the HP engine (Rapidcolor 1170, iJetColor 1175 Pro) over the memjet engine (MachX, Colordyne, Astro, iJetColor NXT). I think the HP colors are more saturated than the memjet. The HP is more economical than the memjet.
 

keb1019

Member
Thank you!!! Does this mean you would choose the ink option over the toner?? Do you have any experience or thoughts on the Xante? I have not been able to find any positive reviews but Xante is pushing hard for us to buy from them.
 

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