Bizhub 951 PRO - problems feeding 300 gram board

[liam hughes]

We have recently purchased a Konica Minolta Bizhub 951 pro Black and white production printer with PF706 air assisted feeder. On the brochure it stated that coated and uncoated board up to 300 gram could be printed from This feeder and in fact 350 gram could be printed from tray 4 which has a straight through path. Works fine with board that is not coated on the inside which is where the rubber rollers grip the board. But the rollers cannot grip the 2 side coated board. For the future we will only order one side coated but unfortunately we have large stocks of 2 sided coated board. Has anyone experienced this problem and found a solution. We are resigned to accepting that we will not be able to print our existing stock and will get a local printer to print with a litho press. We personalise greeting cards with verses and wording on the inside of the cards in black - pages 2 & 3. Page 1 is printed in 4 colour litho with gold or silver foil highlights and wording and page 4 is printed in black with price code and barcode information - these are suppled to us by a printer in Italy who own the artwork that we use on the front. Also would be grateful for greeting card board recommendations - weight 265 - 300 gram fairly stiff and white. Coated one side.

 

[luv2sled]

the 951 is not spec'd to run coated stocks.

 

[liam hughes]

Many thanks for your reply. I would very grateful if you could let me know where I could get the specs that says this printer will not run coated stock. On our bruchures it say that printer will work with paper/board up to 300 gram and 350 gram through PF706 feeder. The company that supplied printer - it was their production - sales manager who told us that coated paper/board to this weight would run no problem. In fairness to him we tested 3/400 samples of 240 gram coated board and these printed no problem. When we purchased machine and ran some of our other cards through which we throught were 240 gram and they would not go through - we checked with card supplier and discovered that some were 285 gram and some were 300 gram. All these cards are coated 2 sides. Can I assume that if we only use 1 side coated it will be no problem up to 300 gram.
Again many thanks for your reply.

Liam Hughes

 

[luv2sled]

It states it in the pod manual as well as other places. That said the machine will run up to 350gsm paper it just doesn't state "coated" . You will most likely have success running coated stocks by adjusting the air assist for the c2s stock.

 

[liam hughes]

Again many thanks. We have tried the air assist on auto - off - and on but cards will still not feeding. I am not sure if there is a setting were the amount of air can be controlled. We have a morgana folder and on heavier stock we can easily change the air setting and it it is a big help. If we could do this on the 951 it may be a solution. I will check the manuals.

Liam Hughes

 

[chrisg42]

We have a 1051, which uses the same feeder and I beleve is the same, or very similar, engine. We certainly run 300gsm coated, but there is 300gsm and there is 300gsm. How thick is this board? If it is C2S graphical board then it is likely to be much thicker than a standard 300gsm art. Also does the original printer apply any additional coatings to the face? Machine seal, varnish?

We run shells which have been pre-printed 4-col process & seal on 300gsm silk art and overprint the backs in black with no problems. I've just run one of these jobs which was 500 SRA3, without the feed missing a beat.

We print lots of greetings cards on Trucard 1-sided 300gsm. Occasionally in black on the 1051, but more usually in colour on a KM6500 and now on our 8000. Very rare to have any problems, other than perhaps curl on the first side making it difficult to feed a second time.

 

[liam hughes]

This is very interesting. The board we use is Freelife Satin 300 grms it is coated on both sides - we are going to check with supplier if any additional finish was applied. Seemingly this board is fully coated bleached paperboard with white back/light coating. We measured this board and it is .30 mm thick - we have put thicker board through but it had a matt finish. We have used trucard but the above board is far whiter which our customers prefer. The other board we have which prints through the 951 with no problem is SMRA 250 grms 2 side coated - unfoutunately our customers think this is to light. Our cards are 230 mm wide- when open and 170 mm high but I think you are correct in suggesting the Freelife Satin may have an additional coating. We will check. Again many thanks.

 

[liam hughes]

As a follow up to recent post Chrisg42 mentioned using a Bizhub 1051 with similar feeder. On checking this model it uses different feeders PF-702 AND PF-703. The PF-703 uses air suction/vacumn feed which I think would be a far superior method and certainly would be a big advantage with coated board. Would be grateful if you could let me know which feeder you have.

 

[chrisg42]

You're quite right: our 1051 has a PF-703. I tend to glaze over when it comes to unit part numbers. Our 8000 has a PF-705, which will feed up to 350gsm and certainly handles Trucard 300gsm C1S with no problems at all. We also used to run this on our 6500 which had the friction-feed PF-701. Where your PF-706 fits in amongst all these feeders is a mystery to me (as is why there are so many different versions).

I don't think it is thickness of the board that is the issue, as Trucard 300gsm C1S is around 380 microns. I would be inclined to run some trials first with unprinted samples of the Freelife board.

 

[liam hughes]

We have now been informed by supplier of 300 grm board that it did not have any additional finishes - varnish - seal etc. We have now requested various sample boards with only one side coated. It is becoming more obvious that a friction feed system is problematic with board that is coated on 2 sides. We have tried some one sided board and it works fine but we only had a small amount so we will wait for new samples ( we have requested 2-300 of each) this should be a better test. Again many thanks for advice.