Large output digital press

[W Devon]

I work for an art publisher and we want to start printing more of our posters in-house. Is there a digital press that can accommodate paper that is 36"x24". Manufactures such as HP and Xerox do not have anything at this size. So far, I have found nothing, can anyone shed some light on this. Thanks.

 

[Keith]

There might be some obscure manufacturer out there that makes a digital press that can handle that size but I don't know of any. And by digital press, I assume you mean electrophotographic printing? I do know there are plenty of inkjet wide format machines that can easily handle that size. Like my Canon w8400. Or Epson. Mutoh. Mimaki. HP. The list goes on. I think there is a machine called a Kip that uses toner. And I think Ricoh has some toner-based wide format machines.

 

[W Devon]

Currently we are running everything on 4 Epson Surecolor 70 and GS6000 inkjets. We find on large runs, it's too slow and not cost efficient.

 

[arossetti]

You might want to look into the Canon/Oce ColorWave or the KIP 800 color series.

 

[MailGuru]

Look at MGI Meteor DP8700. They might have something like what you're lookiing for.

-MailGuru

 

[Baldbug]

One of the devices we are looking at is a Vortex 4200. I'm getting sample prints done at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OohuEuRO_I

As mentioned on this site there are banding and streaking issues but supposedly then new units have all these bugs sorted.

 

[Baldbug]

Hopefully not! Long live offset....

To me Offset is like Letterpress. It's another phase in evolution of printing. Whether we like it or not Digital is the next phase. They are talking 5 - 10 years and all the operators of printing presses will be Robotic.

Here is a better clip on how Memjet is taking over from Offset. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WpfZfIAd98

 

[W Devon]

I watched the promos on Oce Colorwave, Vortex, MGI Meteor and KIP800 on YouTube. They all look impressive in terms of speed and output size, but how does the overall color quality compare to an offset image?

 

[Puch]

Take a look at HP PageWide XL printer series. There is 1200 dpi native resolution, on-the-fly noozle checking and substitution, and if you use a treated 'inkjet' paper (or a ColorLok certified one) the results will be something comparable to an entry-level offset.

 

[kansasquaker]

To me Offset is like Letterpress. It's another phase in evolution of printing. Whether we like it or not Digital is the next phase. They are talking 5 - 10 years and all the operators of printing presses will be Robotic.

I don't think people have a good grasp of the scale of offset printing. You hear about digital all the time, but it is a tiny tiny fraction of total production capacity. It's like the people who think a car wreck is more likely to kill them than a heart attack because that's all they hear about in the news.

Here's a great graphic that compares Sheefed, Heatset Web, Coldset web, digital and inkjet. Digital and inkjet barely register on the same scale as any of these. And of course, offset printing is the sum of sheetfed and web.
http://www.myprintresource.com/article/11093572/offset-printing-trends

 

[PrintIT]

I don't think people have a good grasp of the scale of offset printing. You hear about digital all the time, but it is a tiny tiny fraction of total production capacity. It's like the people who think a car wreck is more likely to kill them than a heart attack because that's all they hear about in the news.

Here's a great graphic that compares Sheefed, Heatset Web, Coldset web, digital and inkjet. Digital and inkjet barely register on the same scale as any of these. And of course, offset printing is the sum of sheetfed and web.
http://www.myprintresource.com/article/11093572/offset-printing-trends

According to that article (from 2013, and using 2008 numbers) it was around 18% of the total. I don't know if I'd call that "barely registering". And the article says it will be 50% of the market by 2018. I'd be interested in seeing some current numbers to see if this prediction is on track.

 

[kansasquaker]

According to that article (from 2013, and using 2008 numbers) it was around 18% of the total. I don't know if I'd call that "barely registering". And the article says it will be 50% of the market by 2018. I'd be interested in seeing some current numbers to see if this prediction is on track.

Well, we're way off topic, but I don't think you read that graphic correctly. The forecast is that by 2018 digital will account for about 11% of revenue and less than 2% of total printed pages. I was speaking mostly to the printed pages aspect. The physical output of digital is still, and will be for quite some time, a tiny fraction (<2%) of the output of offset. And 11% of revenue isn't exactly replacing offset, more like taking a small bite.

 

[arossetti]

Well, we're way off topic, but I don't think you read that graphic correctly. The forecast is that by 2018 digital will account for about 11% of revenue and less than 2% of total printed pages. I was speaking mostly to the printed pages aspect. The physical output of digital is still, and will be for quite some time, a tiny fraction (<2%) of the output of offset. And 11% of revenue isn't exactly replacing offset, more like taking a small bite.

Wonder how much of the offset work is being produced in developing nations? I would be interested in the stats of digital as a percent of printed work produced in the US. If globally 11% of revenue is digital I wouldn't be surprised if that was closer to 20% in the US.

 

[Windward]

There are two devices you might check: The Konica Minolta KIP C7800 is a 36-inch, roll-fed laser toner device. Output quality is very good and it is very fast. It's available with an EFI Fiery controller for color management. Cost is about $65k in the US. The other device I've see is the Xerox IJP 2000 which is a roll-fed inkjet machine; also very fast. I believe the output would only be suitable for use indoors. I think US cost is about $100k.

 

[syedrana]

We are going to install digital press at our college to replace current SOLNA Offset Press, currently we have to options 1[SUP]st[/SUP] one is Xerox Versant 2100 and 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] one is Ricoh Pro C7110, Kindly give some recommendation as per your experience.

 

[kinni88]

A few suggestions for the MGI Digital fuser-based printers. They are over priced Konica Minolta OEM engines. 'Difficult to get service from their U.S. office as well. You can't argue about the service of Xerox, Ricoh or KM