How do they do it?

[DefiantSon]

What's up guys!

Curiosity is getting the best of me. I have been looking at digital label presses for quite sometime now and what I find interesting is that some companies are creating entry level digital presses out of high end laser printers. There is an infeed, the printer, then a rewinder controlled by a RIP to enable the operator to print roll to roll. I'm extremely curious to know how these presses work software wise, it's quite fascinating. Most RIP's either only support large format printers and/or very very few desktop printers. Are the press manufacturers wiping the factory print drivers and replacing them with custom drivers so the RIP recognizes the desktop printer?

One company is offering a press that consists of an Okidata c711 printer controlled by Wasatch's Softrip. The operator takes either an EPS or PDF opens it in softrip, adds it to a layout and prints thousands of labels with no limitations from print drivers like a store bought oki. Does anyone know how this works?

To Mods: please move this to the proper section if necessary, apologies in advance.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

[OkiTech]

Hi, your request should be moved to a different forum, not different section as most of the members are professional printers rather than printer techs, event printer techs may not be much of help, you need a forun with software & hardware engineers. If you looking for the guidance on how to convert a store purchased printer in to roll to roll label press, this is a question for R&D department of a maker of that printer but let me assure you that buying 1 roll to roll converted device will be hundreds of times less expensive than buying their "know how". Generally, besides roll to roll handling hardware add-ons, changes have to be made in to programming code of the printer to make it not to expect end of precut sheet in all of registration sensors, device must be added that tells the system about the lengh of the media that already went trough the machine, most likely a slitting device must be added to cut the media at the end of the run... If you are asking about this because you want to make it at home, might as well start your own company and capitalize on your invention, once you make it all work that is. The easieast way is to reverse engineer it but than we would have to go to the beginning and start with buying one that already converted....

 

[michaelejahn]

or, you can buy a solution from a developer who has built one using the OKI engine...

Express Label Print-Features & Benefits

 

[OkiTech]

My point exactly. What I am not, generally, agree on is the pricing politics.
Sure I may have a different point of view if I would invent something and try to commercialize on it but lets look at what is going on:
The Envelope feeder for OKI XANTE INTEC, etc. $9000??? really? I understand it adds a convenience and took some R&D to make or just adopt to the unit (as it is a big questionmark if whole thing was made by them) but attachment that is 3-4 times simpler than the unit itself is twice more expensive! really?
Same as label printers, I do not exactly know how much is the OKI based one but I saw one made out of POS Lexmark for like $22K! which is what? - 3 time the price of the printer itself.
Take MGI - they take a KM C6000 or C7000, add a press like registration unit and sell it for $150K so adding a good regiter section now makes the whole unit twice as much....

 

[michaelejahn]

@ UnlimitedBT...

I think you might be missing a difference between what OKI might sell;

OKI | pro511dw

and what an OKI OEM might sell:

APEX 1290 Tag and Label Printer

Same engine, similar "engine" - but a lot of code / burn tables / materials testing ...

so, same engine ( and same toner ), but different production speed, different RIP, different features ...

 

[DefiantSon]

I definitely agree with Unlimited on the pricing aspect. I think that the concepts are great shops that want to accommodate short run digital jobs but charging 3x the money for simple add ons and recoding some software is narly. I found another company in korea that uses an oki engine and it costs almost $30K for the printer and a print base for unwind/rewind. I just don't see how that makes sense.

 

[Toweri]

It is the expertise and engineering knowledge of the system integrator, that you are paying for. Not small pieces of metal and plastic.

If you can achieve that same functionality with a fraction of the price, please feel free to set up a competing OEM manufacturer. It is called "free market economy..."

 

[OkiTech]

It is the expertise and engineering knowledge of the system integrator, that you are paying for. Not small pieces of metal and plastic.

If you can achieve that same functionality with a fraction of the price, please feel free to set up a competing OEM manufacturer. It is called "free market economy..."

Hi, you are missing the point... By all means I am not saying that the effort, the idea, the knowledge should not be compensated. What I am saying that take a look at the printer itself, it took a lot more of time, R&D, effort and talent to create and master it, it is hell of a lot more complicated than all those add-ons and yet it is just $6000 or near. There is no way I will believe that It took longer, greater mind or more R&D to re-work somebody's creation than create original unit. Besides, it is not like Oki did follow general idea of a print engine on this one.... The straight pass, LED arrays instead of laser, basically everything in this unit has it's own motor so no complex gear trains.... I am a trained and certified tech on these, take my word-it is complex and unique in so many ways! Those add ons are may not be simple and easy to create but not even close to the printer itself and yet for $6Gs you get the printer, all the supplies, warranty etc.

 

[arossetti]

What I am saying that take a look at the printer itself, it took a lot more of time, R&D, effort and talent to create and master it, it is hell of a lot more complicated than all those add-ons and yet it is just $6000 or near. There is no way I will believe that It took longer, greater mind or more R&D to re-work somebody's creation than create original unit.

To go back to the OKI example. That machine has been in service for years sold to every office building know to man. In every Uline/Staples/Office Depot catalog from here to Texas. I'm not going to try and guess how many units of the OKI C9000 series has sold, but if it cost 1 million to develop if you sold 500,000 units then only $2/unit has to cover the R&D. If you sell 10,000 envelope feeders and it cost you $100,000 to develop that is $10/unit in R&D.

Obviously these are simple numbers but you get the idea. Only a small niche of companies need an envelope feeder for the C9000. Virtually any company could be in the market for a C9000.

Same thing with the KM 6500 vs MGI. How many people need the added features of the MGI over the KM6500. You are paying a larger piece of the R&D pie the more specialized you get.