Envelope Printing - Oki, Xante, Ricoh?!

[Yroc]

So I've read every post about all these envelope solutions. Ended up deciding on an Oki C911dn with a straight shooter and ordered it all up. After it was all ordered I was able to get some sample envelopes (my envelopes) off a Xante, I'm assuming it was an Impressia, but I'm not 100%. All I know is that there was NO EMBOSSING on my envelopes, they look great!! I started to regret my decision on the Oki. Well the seller for the Oki contacted me today (2 weeks after placing the order) and said that they can't get the printer and are cancelling my order....

So now I'm looking at the Impressia, but at $9K, I'm not into it and don't know if it will work with the straight shooter?? The Impressia looks like it uses the Ricoh C831dn, but a can't find a single post or anything about anyone using the Ricoh for envelopes. Does anyone on here know anything about this printer? I would love to pick that up for envelopes and not have the embossing issue.

Also, out of curiosity, is the only difference between the Oki 911 and 931 a Fiery front end on the 931? I'm pretty sure, but haven't been able to totally confirm it.

Thanks all for any insight!

 

[Fatboysmart]

Just FYI, I run two Xante Ilumina's (not Impressia), and they work great with envelopes, but they DO emboss them... Could be that the Impressia doesn't., can't help you there. I'm thinking they might have tweaked a fuser for demonstration purposes. I have heard you can reduce the tension of the fuser rollers so that they don't emboss the envelopes as much.

 

[Yroc]

Both the Impressia and the Ricoh say that they only have a min feed of 5.8, so #10's would have to be sent short edge first and so would my A2's. But this video on youtube shows otherwise. You can also see the screen at one point and the correct size is displayed there.....Can anyone confirm that the impressia will feed shorter envelopes?

Xante Impressia

 

[Craig]

Wrong, we feed long edge first on the Xante Impressia all day long. We just fed church offering envelopes which are barely larger than a dollar bill long edge first.

As far as your samples from the Impressia, do a scratch test and see how well they fused it. I bet you can remove the image. We have found that running on the setting Envelope Medium will stop that, but you do get some embossing, so don't be fooled.

 

[Yroc]

Just got off the phone with Xante and the Impressia will not work with my Straight Shooter. So back to the Oki C911dn, which was the original plan.

 

[JustinB]

The Oki C931dn DOES NOT come with a fiery front end. You have to pay more to get that.

931 seems to have longer lasting consumables than the 911

I've got the straight shooter feeder and the 931dn and if I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't. I'm not sure there's anything better though.

I can't pin point it to one exact thing, but I was hoping for a "set and forget" process... send 1,000 envelopes, and come back when they're done. It's nothing like that at all. I have to babysit the feeder and that's annoying.

We have kluge die cutters in house already, so I'm actively looking for the rest of the equipment to convert short run envelopes

 

[slush11]

Hey I'm not in the envelope printing department of my work so excuse my ignorance but why is embossing such a big deal?

 

[Yroc]

Businesses probably don't mind it, but brides do!! and if it's on a $.50 envelope, you better believe they do!

 

[slush11]

By embossing, do you mean like how the print creates a bit of an impression or...?

 

[Yroc]

yeah, it embosses the flap and other lines were the envelopes are folded and glued.

 

[slush11]

OHHHHHH I gotcha now. Thanks!
Seems like such a trivial thing to worry about considering it just ends up in the garbage. #firstworldproblems

 

[Yroc]

The Oki C931dn DOES NOT come with a fiery front end. You have to pay more to get that.

931 seems to have longer lasting consumables than the 911

All the drums and toner are the same part numbers, what consumables are you talking about?

Online chat with oki says the only difference is that you can 'add' the Fiery to the 931, and it cannot be added to the 911

 

[Yroc]

...it just ends up in the garbage. #firstworldproblems

ain't that the truth!

 

[msaeger]

If you are looking at the Ricoh printers specs that may be misleading I know xante has modified some things on the printer like I know they did some stuff to the fuser and the pickup on the bypass.

 

[Yroc]

If you are looking at the Ricoh printers specs that may be misleading I know xante has modified some things on the printer like I know they did some stuff to the fuser and the pickup on the bypass.

I realize that, but the printed specs for both were the same, so that's why I asked.

 

[damfino]

If you purchase a 911 you will quickly pay the $1600. (USD) 931 price difference in toner costs alone. All other consumables are the same, but the toner for the 931 not only increases your yield by 40%, but at a much lower cost per-unit.

Having said that, this new Oki engine uses the most expensive imaging drums I have ever come across, averaging $430. each. Be advised that if you use this printer for very short runs the rated life of the drums will plummet, to as low as 20M impressions.

If you need to run 300 - 400 gsm cover weights, you will be forced to use the bypass tray. Note that the bypass try has been rigged by Oki so you can not continuously feed stock as you could on the older 9800/3641 models. Any attempt to add additional paper will cause the printer to stop. Every time the printer stops it will go through drum cleaning cycle further degrading the life of the drums.

Lot's of gotchas.

 

[damfino]

Justin,

I would recommend cleaning the Straightshooter belts with both alcohol and warm soapy water once or twice a daily. Coat all other contact points on the feeder with DuPont Teflon Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant (don't use silicon spray). Use the non aerosol version for better control and a thicker application:

Amazon.com : DuPont Teflon Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant Squeeze Bottle, 4 Oz. : Bike Oils : Sports & Outdoors

 

[Yroc]

If you purchase a 911 you will quickly pay the $1600. (USD) 931 price difference in toner costs alone. All other consumables are the same, but the toner for the 931 not only increases your yield by 40%, but at a much lower cost per-unit.

Having said that, this new Oki engine uses the most expensive imaging drums I have ever come across, averaging $430. each. Be advised that if you use this printer for very short runs the rated life of the drums will plummet, to as low as 20M impressions.

If you need to run 300 - 400 gsm cover weights, you will be forced to use the bypass tray. Note that the bypass try has been rigged by Oki so you can not continuously feed stock as you could on the older 9800/3641 models. Any attempt to add additional paper will cause the printer to stop. Every time the printer stops it will go through drum cleaning cycle further degrading the life of the drums.

Lot's of gotchas.

So would it be a better move to get the C9650DN as it has lower drum costs and a drum reset chip is available. I already have a straight shooter as I wanted to build my own envelope 'press'. I have also found a good deal on a Xante Impressia, but am told by Xante that it will not work with the SS. Xante seems to have very low consumable prices, at least for the Impressia.

I'm only using it for envelopes. The reason I need an envelope printer is that I just bought a Xerox 1000 so I can't do them on that and I need to sell all my old machines that this is replacing, 242, 560, 700.

 

[Yroc]

damfino,
All the toner I find says that it works for both the 911 and 931

Amazon Toner

How does the 931 have a better yield? What am I missing here?

 

[Yroc]

Okay, I see the toner on the oki website is different. And the toner for the 9650 is really expensive!