PrintingGirl1013
Active member
I have posted before about equipment and here I am again. We need to make a decision sooner than later on what to do with our current equipment and my mind is going in a number of different directions. We have a KM 1250 B/W with 15 million impressions on it, low click charge (around .005) but quality is not the best anymore and reliability is going downhill, a KM 1070 which has an insanely high click charge but is great in emergencies when our other press is down or on a long run and also does great with envelopes (we don't have a dedicated envelope press since we used to run offset equipment and would outsource the rest), and then we have our main color press which is a KM 1100. The click charge is not the best compared to the rates I'm seeing nowadays (4.5 cents color), the quality is totally inconsistent, registration sucks, codes out all the time and service is there at least once or twice a week working on it. It also has a decent booklet maker on it (no square bind but does face trim) and we use it for most of the booklets we print.
Here's what our thoughts WERE: Replace the 1070 because it has the highest click charges (.07 color and .02 b/w!!!) and that'll buy us time in replacing the other 2. Our volume has been going up pretty steadily since last summer (thankfully since we were hit hard from covid like everyone else) and with the amount of time our 1100 is down - which is probably over a week or more each month) we are realizing that we need to replace that machine sooner than later as well. The problem is... what do we get? Do we purchase outright (which we have done with all our other equipment) or lease? Should we be bracing ourselves for a recession and therefore try to be conservative? Do we invest in a machine that'll allow us to grow and expand into more high value printing (go big or go home)? Do we purchase 1 "big" high volume press and then a much smaller overflow machine like a Versant 280 with hardly any finishing on it? Or two medium volume machines?
- We have seen the Ricoh 7210x in a demo and weren't entirely impressed. It didn't seem much faster (maybe even slower) than our 1100 though quality and registration were better. Pretty sure it goes up to 350 gsm which is the same as our 1100 which limits us. The idea of the 5th color does interest us because I could see a number of clients being interested but I've heard its a pain to use on the 7210.
- Our KM rep pitched us on the 7200 I think it was but I have the worst taste in my mouth from our lemon of an 1100 and the quality of service we're getting lately that we aren't even considering it.
- I've heard Canon toner can look "glossy" and that won't work for us so we aren't considering Canon either.
- Xerox pitched us on the 4100 which seemed like an upgrade from our 1100 for sure, but they got us way more excited about the Iridesse... until we heard the price. Had a meeting today with Xerox and the lease payment would be roughly $5k per month (including Fiery, booklet maker, GBC punch, XLS feeder, 2 metallic colors, Freeflow Core) but click charges were much better than what we are getting now (around 3 cents for color). But coming from having ZERO lease payments that was a tough pill to swallow.
I'm concerned because we have a wish list of other equipment as well - Duplo 618, envelope press, new engineering copier to replace our KIP, possibly offline booklet maker with squareback/ability to handle landscape books - so this is starting to sound like a lot of money to be shelling out, especially with the way the economy seems to be heading.
I know this was a lot, but I've gotten really helpful advice in the past from this forum so I'm just looking for any opinions you may have. We really don't want to make a bad decision. TIA!
Here's what our thoughts WERE: Replace the 1070 because it has the highest click charges (.07 color and .02 b/w!!!) and that'll buy us time in replacing the other 2. Our volume has been going up pretty steadily since last summer (thankfully since we were hit hard from covid like everyone else) and with the amount of time our 1100 is down - which is probably over a week or more each month) we are realizing that we need to replace that machine sooner than later as well. The problem is... what do we get? Do we purchase outright (which we have done with all our other equipment) or lease? Should we be bracing ourselves for a recession and therefore try to be conservative? Do we invest in a machine that'll allow us to grow and expand into more high value printing (go big or go home)? Do we purchase 1 "big" high volume press and then a much smaller overflow machine like a Versant 280 with hardly any finishing on it? Or two medium volume machines?
- We have seen the Ricoh 7210x in a demo and weren't entirely impressed. It didn't seem much faster (maybe even slower) than our 1100 though quality and registration were better. Pretty sure it goes up to 350 gsm which is the same as our 1100 which limits us. The idea of the 5th color does interest us because I could see a number of clients being interested but I've heard its a pain to use on the 7210.
- Our KM rep pitched us on the 7200 I think it was but I have the worst taste in my mouth from our lemon of an 1100 and the quality of service we're getting lately that we aren't even considering it.
- I've heard Canon toner can look "glossy" and that won't work for us so we aren't considering Canon either.
- Xerox pitched us on the 4100 which seemed like an upgrade from our 1100 for sure, but they got us way more excited about the Iridesse... until we heard the price. Had a meeting today with Xerox and the lease payment would be roughly $5k per month (including Fiery, booklet maker, GBC punch, XLS feeder, 2 metallic colors, Freeflow Core) but click charges were much better than what we are getting now (around 3 cents for color). But coming from having ZERO lease payments that was a tough pill to swallow.
I'm concerned because we have a wish list of other equipment as well - Duplo 618, envelope press, new engineering copier to replace our KIP, possibly offline booklet maker with squareback/ability to handle landscape books - so this is starting to sound like a lot of money to be shelling out, especially with the way the economy seems to be heading.
I know this was a lot, but I've gotten really helpful advice in the past from this forum so I'm just looking for any opinions you may have. We really don't want to make a bad decision. TIA!
