Inline or offline?

[gregbatch]

When it comes to punching for spiral, comb, etc., what are the pros and cons of inline vs offline? Same question for booklet making. Obviously, offline is another step added to the process, but are there issues with inline that make offline a better choice despite the extra step?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

I would never go inline for punching color jobs. You can buy top-of-the-line equipment for the same price. I run gobs of full color spiral presentations two-up on 11 x 17, and it would make my run costs go through the roof if I had to do 250 qty 150 page presentations only one-up to save some time. Also, If the presentations are ever full bleed, you are boned and need the extra equipment to cut and then punch. I used to have a hard-on for getting the inline punch for our J75, but after realizing I actually run all of my presentations two up, it just would never add up to a cost savings.

But, if you are looking at adding it to a model like a D135 or a Nuvera, you might be right. We don't deal with too much B&W anymore, but it seems to me that running 2 up for B&W booklets or presentations would be counter-intuitive at the fractional click costs.

Also, when your digital press goes bye-bye, you don't have to worry about buying all of the punching equipment again.

 

[gregbatch]

Well, the GBC Advanced Punch Pro is a 2-up punch. Street price under $10K. Our offlne punch was way more than that and needs someone to keep it fed and unload, so the inline is attractive. Straight from the machines to the Koilmatic. No extra step. But the grass is always greener so feedback from those who have done inline is wise. But yes we do a huge amount of spiral books on the D136 as well as the J75. I don't think they offered the pro when we got the J75.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Thank you for informing me! I had no idea there was a 2-up punch capability.

 

[DennisC.]

We're looking VERY seriously at the GBC inline punch. The "Pro" version (that has 2-up punching) is ONLY compatible with the Versant and the Nuvera series of printers.
the non-pro version is compatible with several Xerox machines...including the 4110/4112, 700, D120/125, etc.
Here's the link to the Pro Spec Sheet from Xerox: https://www.xerox.com/digital-print...ine-finishers/gbc-advancedpunch-pro/enus.html

Hope that helps ... Dennis

 

[buckeyewta]

Looks like it doesn't do 13x19 sheets. That would be a must for us. We do thousands of 9x12 calendars every year that are printed on 13x19

 

[gregbatch]

We're looking VERY seriously at the GBC inline punch. The "Pro" version (that has 2-up punching) is ONLY compatible with the Versant and the Nuvera series of printers.
the non-pro version is compatible with several Xerox machines...including the 4110/4112, 700, D120/125, etc.
Here's the link to the Pro Spec Sheet from Xerox: https://www.xerox.com/digital-print...ine-finishers/gbc-advancedpunch-pro/enus.html

Hope that helps ... Dennis

I will double check that today at a show. We were told the Pro was available on the D136, but only the 136, not the other D series machines.

 

[gregbatch]

The Pro is definitely no offered on the D136. The new surprise is that the Pro does not offer 2-up punching on the Versant, only Nuvera. So, that's out.

 

[msaeger]

Thank you for informing me! I had no idea there was a 2-up punch capability.

That was added on the most recent GBC so it hasn't been around very long. You can also punch many sizes and tabs the old one would only do letter portrait.

 

[gregbatch]

Looks like we're refocusing on Ricoh 7110X and 8120 rather than the V80 and D136. Both offer 2-up punching, plus they offer the oval die for coil. Very important if using an automatic coil inserter. The V80 did not perform well on textured tock. The 7110 seems to handle it well. 5th color bonus.

 

[namelessentity]

We have a GBC in-line punch on our Varioprint 4120 and it might be the worst piece of equipment I have ever used. I actually refuse to use it anymore because it's so incredibly unreliable. I can run and punch books by hand faster since I'm not clearing jams every 3 minutes.
When I worked at Kinko's we had a similar punch on a Canon Imagerunner 7110 and it was equally terrible. I would personally avoid in-line GBC punches.

 

[gregbatch]

How old is that? I think GBC is on their 3rd generation now. Paper up to 300gsm and much longer die life. Another shop nearby has a 9110 and runs punching all day long with no issues.

 

[namelessentity]

We got it in 2012 I believe. We print a lot of ~200 double sided manuals with 5 80#C inserts. If it wasn't constantly jamming it was mis-punching most of the books. Most of the jams actually seem to happen on 24# bond. I've had it escalated several times with temporary fixes, but it always goes back to being awful within a month or so.
They have a higher end punch called the power punch, but some of the techs have said it's not much better. I really miss our old Heidelberg punch on our digimaster. That thing was a damned tank.

 

[buckeyewta]

Looks like we're refocusing on Ricoh 7110X and 8120 rather than the V80 and D136. Both offer 2-up punching, plus they offer the oval die for coil. Very important if using an automatic coil inserter. The V80 did not perform well on textured tock. The 7110 seems to handle it well. 5th color bonus.

The Versant 80 does pretty good on textured stocks if you take the time to properly set up the profiles. I have not had any stock that we were unable to print.

 

[gregbatch]

The technician was present at the demo and could not get the papers to print correctly. They were purposly very challenging. If we are going full digital I need a machine that can handle a variety of stocks. The Ricoh did very well. All Xerox would commit to was linen stock. Not much of a texture. Classic Columns and felt stock are stocks in regular use by some of our customers.