Konica Minolta Accurio C14000

[Ynot_UK]

I thought the IQ-501 was mandatory on the C14000. It is according to the configurator, certainly the EU version.

 

[Charlieapps]

I thought the IQ-501 was mandatory on the C14000. It is according to the configurator, certainly the EU version.

 

[Charlieapps]

Ok. Not sure it’s mandatory but if you have, don’t use it for paper profiling or profile calibration.

 

[Charlieapps]

Man, I really wish I could recommend the c14000, but ours has had nothing but issues since its install last month. I say this as a happy KM user who traded in a c6100 and c4080 for a c14000 and c7100.

No matter what our techs tweak or replace and no matter how we calibrate, linearize, or profile the device, the output gamut is absolutely terrible on it. As another user pointed out, reds are orange. Every flavor of rich black comes out gray. The output is significantly less crisp than our c6100 on the same paper and files. Absolutely terrible banding on solid colors. What's funny is that even with the weak red output, calibrating from the IQ-501 somehow makes everything have a severe magenta cast compared to using our ES-3000.

Insult to injury is that the c7100 we installed alongside it has a SIGNIFICANTLY better gamut at the tradeoff of a few other quality issues.

I really want to say we're in the minority and just have a bad install, but our techs have worked miracles on our previous devices and I'm finding it hard to believe they'd have this many issues on the newer generations of machines.

I'll definitely update this post if anything changes, but I'd be lying if I could recommend the c14000.

Hi. Have you made any progress with your orangey red ?

 

[criccidisk]

Hi. Have you made any progress with your orangey red ?

Hi Charlie! So KM is actually coming out next week to completely rebuild the inside of our c14000, so I'm withholding judgment until they finish up that portion of the process. I have been able to force out a more true red of the machine with our current configuration, but density as a whole is still problematic, especially on uncoated paper. I'm hoping whatever retrofit parts they toss into the unit bring it up to its true potential!

 

[Charlieapps]

Hi Charlie! So KM is actually coming out next week to completely rebuild the inside of our c14000, so I'm withholding judgment until they finish up that portion of the process. I have been able to force out a more true red of the machine with our current configuration, but density as a whole is still problematic, especially on uncoated paper. I'm hoping whatever retrofit parts they toss into the unit bring it up to its true potential!

Did you see my rather long winded explanation about how to print a red red ? You’ll possibly find your using (unknowingly) default Japanese colour targets that are nowhere near what’s required.

 

[criccidisk]

Did you see my rather long winded explanation about how to print a red red ? You’ll possibly find your using (unknowingly) default Japanese colour targets that are nowhere near what’s required.

I did! Thank you so much for your explanation. I'll definitely be following this information once we get all the internal bugs worked out of the engine next week.

 

[Charlieapps]

I did! Thank you so much for your explanation. I'll definitely be following this information once we get all the internal bugs worked out of the engine next week.

In the meantime you could try this slimmed down version

Create colour targets

Use 200 gsm Silk
Adjustment
Quality adjustment
Colour density control
Each paper type color adj
Click on an empty row. Click print mode and call your colour targets whatever you like
Select 200 Silk and press start
1 sheet of CMYK will be printed – that’s the colour targets created

Important - You must assign the newly created colour targets to each stock and paper size – Unfortunately this can only be done individually (I think)
Reg/Del paper set
Choose stock
Add/edit
Colour density
Registered adj data
Choose the name of your newly created colour targets – Do this for all stocks and sizes
OK
Overwrite
Close
This assigns the new colour target to the stock

Test this new target on a job you've been struggling with the red on.

 

[criccidisk]

Sooooo, I promised I'd update folks on our shop's c14000 adventures. The great news is that we've made incredibly great progress on making this device reproduce truer to our c6100. And honestly, one week after its repair from Konica-Minolta's higher-ups, it's doing pretty darn good.

In case anyone else with a problematic c14000 is out there, here are some of the repairs we made:

• As @cqb1988 mentioned, the first lot of c14000's utilize older internal components. In our situation, this lead to incredibly jarring streaking and banding, especially in the solid regions of prints. There is a retrofit kit newly available from Konica-Minolta that swaps out a bunch of motors and other internal gadgets to help correct this problem.
• As @Charlieapps mentioned, the default color density data inside the device is garbage. This was leading to all of our prints being washed out, ESPECIALLY on "Plain"/uncoated stock. Plus the totally-trademarkable "tomato soup red" appearance on prints. There was a recent service bulletin published by KM that technicians can follow to help rectify this. In our situation (and very similar to Charlieapps' previous advice), from the service end, we set up a house coated gloss text stock (100lb Explorer gloss text) as our reference point. The target maximum densities we programmed for all other linearizations are: 1.14y / 1.61m / 1.69c / 1.99k
• The user-side of the machine's Package Color Adjust can calibrate the default KM Coated/KM Uncoated color output profiles inside the Fiery, but apparently there is a glitch in some models of the c14000 that prevents the Fiery output profiles from properly registering the maximum density data to the profile. To correct that, we were instructed by KM to avoid using the Fiery KM Coated/Uncoated profiles and instead create our own calibrations/output profiles using Color Profiler Suite. We then rely on the Package Color Adjustments inside the KM engine to only linearize the device without controller calibrations.

I'm sure there are other fixes that found their way into the unit outside of these three bullet points, but after their implementation, we're having a night and day difference in our output quality. To correct my answer to the initial question: if the above steps are followed, I would recommend the KM c14000 to prospective digital press purchasers. I would just recommend printing out some sample prints from your existing devices to hold as a gold standard next to the output from the c14000 when it's being set up.

P.S. And @jwheeler , there is a firmware update coming in several months to correct the color misregistration and color shifting we've both experienced on the c7100. Why this is a problem to begin with...I'm not sure, but hey at least they're trying.