When you are considering a digital press, you must consider several factors:
- impression count per day
- impression count for month (monthly cycle rating)
- toner vs liquid ink
- paper type and weight
- print only or multifunction
- environment machine will be in
- finishing (including bulk output)
- service
- per click or consumables charge
In the past I have operated many toner based production machines, and I can tell you it's possible to get the pape count you are looking for from a number of manufacturers, the question is how will service be. When you are printing that high of a page count you will burn through a fused in a week, transfer belt ever couple of weeks, etc... So you need to consider your service options.
All major manufacturers make digital presses that can handle that sort of speed ( atleast 50ppm ) and load rating per month. You need to decide if you need a single function printer or a multifunction. If you don't forsee the need to do much scanning from the glass, you don't really need to spend the extra on it. You also need to consider how to load and unload all the paper. You will want the largest capacity paper cassette you can get, as well as a large finisher to be able to unload it. About 3,000 sheets for a finisher is the normal max. That means at 100 ppm you'll need to load and empty paper every 30 minutes.
When talking about toner vs liquid ink, I am of course referring to the HP Indigo. These are very expensive machines, but will hit the output quantity you are looking for very easily, and have good paper handling for large runs.
Are you looking at one large run, or many smaller runs?
I would recommend you call all the different equipment reps in your area, Xerox, Cannon, Ricoh, etc... and get an analysis of what they think you need, including a service contract. Without knowing more about what exactly you are printing this is all I can say. In this range you are looking at anywhere from $25,000 for a Xerox 7760 with finisher to half a million dollars for an iGen, Indigo, or Xeiken.
