Looking for new(er) small format press

[NGA]

Hi all, we are going to be in the market in the next couple of months to replace our 2 aging 665 hamada's. We are currently a heidelberg shop and i would love to replace the 2 hamada's we have with 1 quickmaster 46-2, but a few a few concerns as right now we have no economic solution for printing 4color envelopes on a short run basis, its just too expensive to print and convert on our sm74's. concern for the QM is will it regrister well enough to put through twice? The common blanket doesn't scare me much. I'm also looking at a Astro AMC2000 feeder for it which i have heard great things about. My other route would be a ryobi 3302 which i have heard good things about but no experience personnaly working with ryobi. Our budget is around 15k, but then again you get what you pay for so if you all suggest we wait and get "X" which will be nicer in the long run i'm open for suggestions.

 

[Ret Heidelberg Instructor]

Ret Heidelberg Instructor

Ret Heidelberg Instructor

You won't get much for 15K that will do envelopes. You could probably find a used Quickmaster 2 col, but don't expect it to print tight register. They used to market these as being able to do 4 col process and I used to see good results from our demo guys. However if you didn't expect a lot and can sell the product then you could do well with the format. Envelopes are tricky to run and labor intensive. My suggestion to you would be to find a press that your thinking of buying and get the seller to print a tight register envelope job. Try before you buy and don't let the seller off easy.

 

[NGA]

what would you suggest is a decent envelope press.

 

[Dan Roll]

Consider a Jet press for your envelope printing.
Look at Jet Technology rebuilds/remanufactures Halm Jet and Super Jet Presses for some availability and pricing (I do not know or necessarily recommend these guys)
Once you run a jet press, you will wonder why anyone prints multicolor envelopes on a duplicator.

 

[Ret Heidelberg Instructor]

Ret Heidelberg Instructor

Ret Heidelberg Instructor

The previous post about a dedicated envelope printer may be the way to go. You could look at 2 col used GTO's, but that might be overkill. Heidelberg markets their presses to print almost anything and in some cases they are right but change overs from job to job can be labor intensive. I did see on printer that used a DI 46-4 Plus Model (same feeder as the Quickmaster) press and attached a stackable envelope feeder and conveyer delivery and was printing 4col envelopes. There are several options available to you but you must decide which ones suit your business and budget.