Digital Press / Printer for samples?

[Ddeems78]

I'm not sure if someone can help point me in the right direction.

I have a web design / graphic design / marketing type business. We currently produce all of our graphics in house in illustrator and then send them out to be printed. Typical media that we would handle on a regular basis would be business cards, letter head, vinyl decals, magnets, and some packaging.

I have hit a wall when it comes to samples. In some cases, I can get away without a sample for clients. But the bigger the business grows, the more I'm finding that I need / want to produce a very short run or need to turn some things around in 24 hrs for trade shows, etc.

Mostly I'm looking at a runs of under 100 sheets or so - everything over that I outsource. The more important thing is that I can't ALWAYS outsource the job without producing a small amount of samples first. There is no local press that is cost effective at this point.

I've been searching for a "small" digital press, but there doesn't seem to be such a thing. I'd like to keep it to 5k-10k, and I'm only seeing prices of 100k plus out there.

Is there a small digital press market, or some other stop gap printer that I can use?

Thanks.
Denise

 

[odiseas]

check out the okidata printer.. can do what you need

 

[tshark]

Xante has an oki engined press that has a feed table that can hold quite a few sheets as well.

 

[Craig]

Just an idea, why not become "friends" with someone locally who already has a production device, feed them a few jobs once in a while and see how much they would charge you for the sample prints.

 

[X33]

I've been searching for a "small" digital press, but there doesn't seem to be such a thing. I'd like to keep it to 5k-10k, and I'm only seeing prices of 100k plus out there.

I think you need to increase your budget to get something reliable to do this kind of things, specially if you are experiencing growth.

On the Xerox product line, a DocuColor 252 would be the smallest unit that can do these jobs. Pricing probably starts around $30k, but don't buy it, lease it (if you are in the U.S.).

 

[Ddeems78]

Thanks for the hint on leasing. I would love to get a slightly larger press for growth and more in house capacity - but I was thinking I would need to buy outright.

 

[RafalWM]

try the OKI range. Depending on where you are located, you should be able to find an affordable OKI C9600. If you're going for a used one, be sure to test it out first before buying. New ones aren't that expensive and the quality should be good enough for samples. The price per print is a bit high, but if these are samples and not short runs (as in hundreds at one time), then you should be ok. There are always refills you can use, but then the quality tends to drop a bit.
Good luck

 

[RafalWM]

one more thing. If you're going for the OKI, don't bother getting the more expensive ones. I have a C9800 and it prints the same as my c9650. There are more options in the C9800, but you won't really need them. The finisher isn't worth buying and you probably won't need the additional trays. The regular unit should get you through nicely.