Black and White Printer

[Bryan5145]

Im in the market for a new black and white digital machine. We do an average of 200,000 a month with some months being 450,000 and some 40,000. I currently have a Xerox 4127. The main problems I have with that unit is feeding. We are a commercial printer and run all types of stock on it from NCR to 80# Cover. We also run a lot of preprinted shells. I believe my next machine should be vacuum feed to eliminate this problem. Right now I have narrowed it down to the following machines and wanted to get your guys opinion on it.

Oce VarioPrint DP 120 (with vacuum fed external trays)
"Demo Model" Konica Bizhub 1200 (with vacuum fed external trays)

Both are within about $100 of each other with the lease payment with the Konica product being the cheapest. My only issue is the Konica is a demo model which worries me a little bit since we are hard on machines and this will be a 5 year lease. Both have service centers near our plant so service shouldnt be a problem. Let me know what your thoughts are.

 

[MailGuru]

I can only speak to the KM Pro 1200. We put one in last summer and have been running the daylights out of it. It's a good machine, and, we like it. We had a few issues with installation, but, all got worked out within 30-days. If your buying a demo model that's been running already, you probably won't have any installation issues. BTW I am not affilliated with or connected with Konica Minolta in any way.

 

[Bryan5145]

Have you had any problems with preprinted stock? I know with us we try to use as little press powder as possible but your always going to have some.

 

[MailGuru]

That's all we run - Preprinted stock. No problems. The stock we run though it doesn't have any drying powder. But, ANY printer will give you problems while running preprinted stock with an excessive amount of drying powder. The KM 1200 is vacuum-feed trays, so, unlike friction roller feeds, the powder doesn't have as much effect. But, we control it by specifying either no, or a minimal amount of powder on the forms.