Digital press recommendation for printing tabs

[bcr]

Hi all,

Currently looking for a (light?) digital press to be used for 1) general law firm printing and 2) larger runs of documents printed with custom printed tabs inserted.

This is currently done (badly) across thee KM c754e machines with both km and fiery controllers installed (and jobmaster).

These machines only print onto a4 tabs from the bypass tray hence limited capacity, and they take ages to feed and print onto a tab in between documents (about 30 seconds)

i would like a machine that can:

1) print onto tabs from a large paper draw
2) print much faster (less buffering and slowdown when inserting a tab)
3) if possible also print onto a5 tabs
4) have a workflow solution for auto creating tabs (at least as functional as fiery jobmaster but hopefully better)

.
Our dealer has recommended a KM 3070 L or 3070 press. This will do the printing onto tabs from a draw but not a5.

Thoughts on the above machine and other options gratefully received. As i understand it to do a5 tabs from KM we would be looking at a 1085 or 6085, which i suspect? will be a lot more expensive than the 3070.
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UPDATE: the slowdown issue when inserting a tab appears to be because of the difference in fuser temperature between the two paper types. Setting the normal paper type to Thick stops this slowdown entirely - but then the printer prints those pages at a much slower speed because it thinks it is thicker.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

If you search this forum, the question has been answered more than a few times in the last year.

 

[bcr]

I can't find much relevant (re machines suited to tabs) believe me, I've searched and searched!

 

[msaeger]

The in house print shops / mail rooms I go to that run a lot of tabs have the Ricoh 7110 size machines which would be similar to the Konica 1085/6085.

​​As far as slowing down on the tabs have you tried just setting both trays to the same type and weight?

 

[BobRym]

We use a Ricoh Pro7100X and it works great on tabs. On the Ricoh - if you don't want slow downs - you have to set both trays to same type and weight otherwise the fuser has to change temperatures when it pulls from each drawer. Suspect the Konica would work similarily. You will get some slow down anyway as you are switching the feed sources but don't see how you would get around that on any of these machines.

 

[bcr]

thanks all for the feedback. does anyone have any experience in auto-creating tabs? Jobmaster autotabs is good but I'd prefer to not have to compile everything into a single PDF.

Another way I thought might work is to use a script to extract all filenames from files in a folder. Then copy that into excel/word and then find a macro or other way to have those automatically populate into the tabs on a tab template. Might be more difficult than I imagine though. Ideally I would find a fully automated solution from a manufacturer...

 

[[email protected]]

thanks all for the feedback. does anyone have any experience in auto-creating tabs? Jobmaster autotabs is good but I'd prefer to not have to compile everything into a single PDF.

Another way I thought might work is to use a script to extract all filenames from files in a folder. Then copy that into excel/word and then find a macro or other way to have those automatically populate into the tabs on a tab template. Might be more difficult than I imagine though. Ideally I would find a fully automated solution from a manufacturer...

Not an expert but I would look into Enfocus Pitstop for Acrobat. The software does a lot and by using customizable action lists you might be able to automate combining pdf's and creating tab pages based on bookmarks. The combining thing is certainly do-able and then you could direct the output file to a Fiery Hot Folder that's already associated with an Impose/JM template? I dunno, just throwing it out there.

 

[bcr]

Not an expert but I would look into Enfocus Pitstop for Acrobat. The software does a lot and by using customizable action lists you might be able to automate combining pdf's and creating tab pages based on bookmarks. The combining thing is certainly do-able and then you could direct the output file to a Fiery Hot Folder that's already associated with an Impose/JM template? I dunno, just throwing it out there.

Thanks! The problem with bookmarks is that they can go wrong somehow when combining multiple PDF's, which means manual checking to see that each bookmark falls on the correct page, otherwise the tab gets inserted in the middle of the wrong document (instead of infront of the next document). That happens a lot to me when combining multiple PDF's. If there are over 60 tabs this then takes quite a bit of time. Also the PDF's compiling (when hundreds of pages) also take a long time, and then having a huge PDF of hundreds of pages then presents a big RIP load to the printer which then buffers for ages too.

So I'm trying to get towards a solution that will just insert the filename of a document into a tab inserted as a front cover. If that can't be automated, then I will just try to find an efficient way to create the tabs from the filenames, print the tabs first, and then insert the printed tabs before each document as a front cover.

I'm still playing with an Avery 1-5 tab template. By using bookmarks in MS Word it would seem that I can copy and paste the filenames into a table in that template and then have the tabs auto-update to display the text in the table/bookmarks. That seems to work - the problem I have is extending the tab template so that it has (for example) 20 sets of 1-5 tabs. Then I can insert a big table of 100 filenames and quickly produce the tabs. For some reason the formatting in Word is not playing ball when I try to extend the document beyond one set... Fun and games!!

 

[bcr]

We use a Ricoh Pro7100X and it works great on tabs. On the Ricoh - if you don't want slow downs - you have to set both trays to same type and weight otherwise the fuser has to change temperatures when it pulls from each drawer. Suspect the Konica would work similarily. You will get some slow down anyway as you are switching the feed sources but don't see how you would get around that on any of these machines.

Hi Bob,

Have tried out adjusting the paper types this morning. Adjusting the paper to one of the "Thick" settings stops the slowdown when inserting tabs and there are no jamming issues apparent. However, that then means that the pages print at 38PPM instead of 60 or 70ppm.

Do you reckon this is something that a KM technician could alter in the service settings to give a custom paper type? I.e. the same settings as plain paper but with the same fuser temperature as thick paper? That way the pages would hopefully print at full speed i.e. 60/70ppm depending on B/W or Colour, but without the fuser temp adjust slowdown when inserting the tabs?

 

[BobRym]

Don't think you will be able to speed it up - if your tech can change the settings you are still going to be dealing with the increased fuser temp/time for the thicker stock. If you set it for lighter stock - you might find that the toner is not adhering properly. Your tech should be able to advise and with some experimenting you might be able to get the speed up but I would doubt you'd get full speed on any of the thicker stock settings (which is really about the fuser speed/temperature if I understand all this techie stuff properly!)

 

[bcr]

Don't think you will be able to speed it up - if your tech can change the settings you are still going to be dealing with the increased fuser temp/time for the thicker stock. If you set it for lighter stock - you might find that the toner is not adhering properly. Your tech should be able to advise and with some experimenting you might be able to get the speed up but I would doubt you'd get full speed on any of the thicker stock settings (which is really about the fuser speed/temperature if I understand all this techie stuff properly!)

thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, Bob. I'll see if I can get a tech to look at it next time they are here. It's frustrating as I've spent the entire contract period trying to get the machine to reach its potential. Less than a year to go but think I'm finally close to doing so! It has been a real learning curve.