Flawless BW production printer

[Shredder]

Is there such a thing as BW production printer that can print day and night and not need a service technician, just toner and replenishment of wearable parts? I imagine with one toner/fuser less can go wrong. Looking for something that is least headache but prints forever using cheap toner. I think i once heard KM 1250 last forever.

 

[AP90]

Is there such a thing as BW production printer that can print day and night and not need a service technician, just toner and replenishment of wearable parts? I imagine with one toner/fuser less can go wrong. Looking for something that is least headache but prints forever using cheap toner. I think i once heard KM 1250 last forever.

The only printer you’ll find that won’t need servicing is a machine that has never printed a sheet. And even then that’s a stretch.

 

[prepressdork]

We had a KM 1200 and 1250 and they required frequent service.

pd

 

[SoggyWinter]

Get a press with a monthly volume well beyond your projected needs or buy two presses for redundancy.

 

[namelessentity]

You're asking for a unicorn. It's like asking for a car that doesn't need oil changes or tire rotations.

That said, if you're gonna run the hell out of something, the Varioprint 6000 line will run 24/7 with very little service requirements.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

You're asking for a unicorn. It's like asking for a car that doesn't need oil changes or tire rotations.

That said, if you're gonna run the hell out of something, the Varioprint 6000 line will run 24/7 with very little service requirements.

I have also heard that these machines are the iGen/Indigos of the B&W world.

 

[Puch]

I think i once heard KM 1250 last forever.

We had a Konica 1250P (sold it just today). Apart from regular cleaning there wasn't any issues with it over 5 years of time. All the problems we've encountered was eventually caused by paper dust. A real workhorse.

 

[Shredder]

Puch, how much did it go for?

 

[thg]

Oce Varioprint 6000 series is the answer to your question. We run two 6250 since 2009, the counters are close to 1 BILLION pages (BILLION)
No jams, 24/7 - end of story.

 

[Stickman42]

Oce Varioprint 6000 series is the answer to your question. We run two 6250 since 2009, the counters are close to 1 BILLION pages (BILLION)
No jams, 24/7 - end of story.

If this is true, you and your equipment are to be commended

 

[namelessentity]

If this is true, you and your equipment are to be commended

Truly, that is some massive volume. We severely under run ours, but my boss has said he has no plans to ever replace it, so he didn't care that we'd have to grow into it.
We're only at 33million on ours.
My tech said they have a few at different sites with 500 million that run just as well as when they were new. The tech in them is so simple it hardly needs anything done to it.

 

[jwheeler]

Is there such a thing as BW production printer that can print day and night and not need a service technician, just toner and replenishment of wearable parts? I imagine with one toner/fuser less can go wrong. Looking for something that is least headache but prints forever using cheap toner. I think i once heard KM 1250 last forever.

Our shop just upgraded from 3 Konica Minolta 1250's after 6 years, to the newer 6136 model. We printed an average of 100,000 per month on each unit. This is not even close to what they are capable of. Lots of larger shops, mainly school district inplants in our area do 500K+ per month. We do more specialty work since we are a county inplant. Lots of perfect bound books, 3-hole punch binders with tabs and mixed color media, and coil bound books. We only had a service call maybe every 2-3 months for routine maintenance or wearable parts. But I know shops doing 500k+ need quite a bit more service as is to be expected. KM offers an ORU program (Operator replaceable units) where they give you a pallet full of the most common replacement parts (spare fuser, drums, etc) so you can keep it going on your own.

I also used to sell KM production gear so I got to hear from customers who had other gear when I visited their shops. The unit that seemed to be the most rock solid and customers told me the only needed a service call maybe once per year are the big Oce production printers as stated by @thg . Oce is now owned by Canon and they are bring rebranded under the Canon name.

The other units that I saw in heavy volume shops were the Xerox Nuveras, mostly because they are so fast when you get to the 2XX and 3XX series, but they seemed to require regular visits by techs.

 

[halmac]

We have a Canon VarioPrint 135 and it runs like a top. Ours has 19,000,000 letter clicks. It is 5 years old. Make sure you get the continuous stacker.

 

[Shredder]

Oce Varioprint 6000 series is the answer to your question. We run two 6250 since 2009, the counters are close to 1 BILLION pages (BILLION)
No jams, 24/7 - end of story.

Where can I get one of these on the used market? I plan to get perfect binder.

 

[k_graham]

We have a Canon VarioPrint 135 and it runs like a top. Ours has 19,000,000 letter clicks. It is 5 years old. Make sure you get the continuous stacker.

How is it or the VarioPrints on digital Carbonless papers?

We have a Xerox 108 and 125 both old and around 10,000,000 impressions each. They tend to have issues on heavier stocks, 240 gsm max but I don't recommend, and carbonless seems to cause the rubber rollers in delivery to separate from the shaft. We had a older Xerox tech that would actually put new rollers in and duct tape rubber to shafts because he said if he did not he would need to be back every 3 weeks to replace them. Alas he died and the young techs seem to prefer visits.

So do the Varioprints use a drum or a belt for toner and fuser?

Based on color machines it seems belts are needed for variety of stocks like cards and envelopes and if I buy something new I want it to run economically for a decade with a variety of stocks.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[jwheeler]

digital Carbonless papers?

We run about 200,000 sheets of NCR per month, and have found digital duplicators to be the best for this since they don't use heat. We have used both Duplo and Ricoh duplicators, and both work great. The only downside to duplicators is the resolution isn't the best. So when we have screens or detailed logos to run, we will run it through our Konica Minolta 6136's. Duplicators are very low cost machines (usually $4,000-6,000), very small footprint and power, and they are lower cost per print than any toner based unit when you are doing high volumes.

 

[kev_24]

VarioPrint 6000 TITAN has an impressive print quality with high quality printing

 

[Mr Production Print]

The Océ 6000 mono range is the Rolls-Royce of monochrome printing. But be mindful that the CopyPress/Direct Imaging won't do over-printing of litho-shells (a big achilles heal in mono printing). It's made for short run book production due to the cool fusing process enabling a perfectly flat sheet (no curl or ripple).
The Ricoh 8300 or KM offer a cheaper alternative that will run over-printing applications. Mono is on the decline, save your money.

 

[Shredder]

What are litho-shells?

 

[bill kahny]

I loved our Varioprint but replaced it due to 1 not over printing preprinted (litho-shells) and we had issue of toner smear (offset) through our folders on certain stocks. I also felt it was a greyer black solid than our other digital (canon color) printers so the color covers and black text on them didn't match the insides for boolets finised on the Varioprint.