DC250 front to back registration etc

[GusG]

I hear a lot about the front to back registration of the DC250 (and its ilk), some say it's appalling and others that it's acceptable. My questions are:

1) Is the misregistration consistent so one can adjust the artwork or is it random
2) I have some DC12s and all have different front to back registration (printing on SRA3 from the bypass, coated stock or not) but since it's consistent on each machine I can compensate. Would the DC250 be on line with/better/worse than a DC12.
3) Does the DC250 perform better with front to back registration (even if it's manual duplexing) on SRA3 from the optional high capacity tray or is that irrelevant for the registration
4) Does the DC250 have issues with 300 gsm coated stock? Our most common heavy stock on our DC12s is 300 gsm SRA3 art matte board (I know I'm not supposed to do that but it works)

Any feedbacks on this will be highly appreciated as I'm hoping to get a DC250

 

[jotterpinky]

I can't speak to all your questions but we've found the registration to be adequate on ours. What we usually do is prior to a longer run we adjust the document using Pitstop (shifting the image slightly). After it's lined up it seems fairly consistent (within 1mm front and back). However we've found for anything heavier than paper we always run it through the bypass tray and we are very particular about how square the sheet sets in the tray to ensure it's not operator error due to a slightly askew sheet.

Ours runs 300 gsm reliably as long as it's through the bypass tray. We've found that our 240 with a simple offset catch tray is better for the thick stock since our 250 with the finisher tends to jam heavier stock more often in the finisher. We run virtually all our business cards on a 120# coated sheet (Futura) and it runs very well.

Unfortunately I've never used a DC12 to be able to compare it's registration and we don't have a high cap tray. I would mention that I believe the registration is better from the bypass than the trays under the engine but I attribute that to how squarely and uniformly the paper is loaded.

 

[easiprint]

Agree with jotterpinky.

We run both a DC250 and a DC12. Registration is fairly consistant up to 300gsm on our DC250. We have to apply an image shift often to get it to line up with either manual or auto duplex, but once the job is running it is pretty good. Certainly as good as the DC12 is, I would say better. The only trouble we get with registration is if we run 350gsm, where there is no consistancy between sheets, but at the end of the day, we are not supposed to run 350gsm, as the machine is only spec'ed to 300gsm. Overall, very happy with our DC250. If you like the DC12, the 250 will not dissapoint.

BTW - how on earth do you get a DC12 to run 300gsm. My DC12 struggles with 200gsm coated, and would never run 300gsm.

 

[GusG]

BTW - how on earth do you get a DC12 to run 300gsm. My DC12 struggles with 200gsm coated, and would never run 300gsm.

I have 3 DC12s and they will all take 300gsm from the bypass, I can even usually back it. The first one had an issue with the bypass so I was even running 250gsm through the trays. Where does yours jam? We have the occasional jam in the bypass itself but cleaning the rollers normally sorts that, when we've had issues in the fuser a nip adjustment has normally done the trick there.