HP Indigo Presses Info and Thoughts please!

[kevinphila]

Hi Everyone

I have heard good things about the HP Indigo line of presses are they are a viable replacement for a 2 color Ryobi 3302M and a color copier? Right now I have a Xerox 6115, Xerox DC252, Xerox 4112 and a Ricoh HQ9000 in the copier end and it they are my workhorses.

I am starting to get requests for full color letterhead and you guys know you cant sell a customer a color copy and have them run it through their laser printer.

I want to work something out with HP to see if they can buyout the lease on the AB Dick 9985 out and just run all of our offset stuff on the Indigo, with the exception of envelopes.

I wanted to get a refurbished one color direct feed press something like a Ryobi 3200 just for envelopes.

I requested info from HP and a for a salesperson to call me but, they will say anything. I trust my friends here to give me the real scoop.

Whats the HP Indigo 3550 going for on a 60 month lease? Ballpark with 2 trays

What are the consumables like?

Do you pay click charges with the supplies and maintenance included like I do with the Xerox machines or are they separate ?

Are they reliable ?

I work in Philadelphia in the city, so I imagine maintenance response cant be that bad.

My black and white volume has dropped so I was thinking juggle some money around next time the leases are up to get lower volume black and white copiers and a lower volume color copier to justify the expense of the HP Indigo.

It would give me the opportunity to boast my color volume my providing my customers with a sellable sheet I can have them put though a laser printer and secondly make the turnaround time quicker on offset jobs, because right now with one pressman its slow. I manage the shop and do all the prepress stuff as well as the copier production, so I think I can manage to run an Indigo if I was trained well.

Any thoughts and guidance would be appreciated!

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend

Kevin

 

[Rikkie]

Be very careful of people selling the Indigo as a letterhead machine. we tried it on our 5500, but found the Indigo ink pulling off in the fuser of the printer. It's all about fusing temp in the printer which will overprint the indigo-produced letterhead. The moment that temp exceeds 150ºC, you're in the danger zone.

 

[kristianeyman]

I would like to hear from indigo owners that also might have digital presses. Whether they be more office orientated (240 series) or production based.

 

[OutSourceD]

Anyone who does their due dilligence will not buy into the Indigo hype. If you've heard good things about Indigo, you've been talking to the wrong people. Consider the KM BizHub Series.

 

[Rikkie]

Having said those nasty things about Indigo and letterheads, I have to say that it is a wonderful machine on appropriate work. Print quality on our 4 KM6500's approaches that of the Indigo, but it's really not quite there yet. The Indigo runs cheaper per click than the Bizhubs, but that's largely a function of how our (KM) contract is structured.

I don't believe that the two machines are to be directly compared, but they do complement one another beautifully.

 

[kevinphila]

Thanks Guys

I just spoke to the HP Rep and the letterhead issue he was very honest about. He said you are going to have the same issues as you would have with a color laser copier with the toner coming off when you place the Indigo printed material back into a laser printer

So much for that idea. He sent me samples of the quality and it was def impressive over what Xerox DC252 could do, but thats a totally different animal.

I wish there was an easy solution to this issue, so I can make us some money!

Thanks everyone for the input

~Kevin

 

[meddington]

Indigo = lots of maintenance + skilled operator (often performing maintenance)

 

[Craig]

The only solution is a platemaker and a press or a DI press, OR inkjet.

 

[kevinphila]

Yes the DI Presses are $$$$$. I saw the copy quality on a high speed Riso HC 5500 and the quality was crap. I wouldnt be able to sell that. Are there any other high volume- high quality inkjet options out there?

 

[kristianeyman]

You an source a use di anywhere from 12-40k. I have heard that the ryobi is a much better press to run, but have never had a chance at one. The heidy's can be a bit cantankerous, but I have heard the same with the indigos. I guess coming from a digital only background it stands to reason that the indigo would be similar to digital machines. With the di, I think you could be trained in a couple of weeks and off to printing and have a broader scope of clents, and higher roi. I have a di, but its been problematic, could bethat i dont have it under heidy servixe and i kive in mexico where parts, service, consumables are sketchy at best. Just my .02 worth.