New to owning a machine km 6501 pro

Hey all

Been checking the site and was actually referred to this site by my younger brother and now production manager (since the machine came in) and wanted to ask quite a few questions actually but never been getting the time to get down to typing.

Where do i begin....well i've been running this company for the last 5 years, we started out on screen printing stickers and tshirts and outsourcing everything else from offset work, large format, vehicle branding, embroidery and everything "print & design" oriented. We were two designers by profession, one's left about 2 years ago. two years into the business we bought an old gestetner 211 machine to start doing small offset simple jobs in house (sold this only this year to help with the financing of the company - new machine and all) Along with that i've been in the design & print industry since 2000 and worked in large format, screen printing and offset print companies together with starting a company and closing down as well 2 years before we started this one.

And now i moved into owning my own Machine....now a lot of people here i think will criticise why i went for this machine for various reasons.....from the price i paid to "you should have started on a smaller machine and worked up or gone on lease" etc etc.

Reason i bought this machine was purely to be ahead of the game on quality and price. i am able to charge lesser than the medium and upper scale size printers and offer one of the best qualities seen in town.

i have no major complaints on this machine, however, i do have some questions, which unfortunately the vendor who sold me the machine cannot either answer the question or doesn't have the time to come and go through the questions that i have.....personally i think he's overwhelmed by the number of people he has to deal with so i'm just another customer.

So randomly, some things i'd like to know (and sorry i don't know these things and own a machine):

1. What's a click charge?
2. How can i determine the costing for a print based on the percentage of toner / developer / drum etc....currently i just asked what my vendor would charge, what my competition would be charging and charged slightly lower than the competition but higher than my vendor. Is there a software that can do this?
3. Imposition is currently being done manually, meaning i open illustrator, and for example set up my SR-A3 page, copy in my business card and set and repeat it to how many ups and put in my double cuts and trim marks (manually drawn on illustrator) and then send to the machine to print. Where can i get an imposition software that is not expensive and doesn't need me to buy a dongle....someone told me i can get an extension for quark xpress or indesign for imposition?
4. Duplex printing i know is possible, but for the life of me, i don't know where to start, what software i should be using before i send to the machine, how my file should be set up, what do i do the screen interface to start duplex print set ups and so on? What are we doing so far? Well were actually sending the file twice one side prints then we flip the paper and print the back, we adjust the register on the illustrator print interfaces x and y positions, usually moves about an mm or so.
5. Just today, my production guy couldn't print because he had software issues (we concluded) since the tech guy arrived and tested with his achine and it prints okay, while this is happening my manager tells me he tried updating the software from v.1 to v.3 and he checked online and "people" say that it shouldn't affect anything, having said that, easiest thing would be to uninstall what he has and reinstall the old software...guess what, we don't have it, its one of the things i've been asking my vendor for so i can install this on all the machines in the design and print computers...so...does anyone know where i can download a good version of this, mac version osx?


There's so much more, but, these answered would help me on my way to solving some of my issues, next up....numbering software for serializing printed material(someone called it variable data printing)...

Thanks in advance guys n gals!
 
1. A click charge is a fixed amount you pay your vendor (the one who maintains your machine) for every single print you make on the machine. Usually fixed to one size (usually the larger one), and different for b/w and color.
2. If you pay a click charge, you're on a FSMA contract, and do not have to worry about the cost of drums, toner, etc.
3. You forgot to name the most important part of your setup, namely the RIP. Better RIPs (Creo and the full version of Fiery) offer built-in imposition tools. There are also plug-in application side solutions, check the forum, its been a topic.
4. Duplex printing is just something you turn on in your software interface, and the machine does the rest (in theory, and providing you stay within specified limits of duplexing your machine supports). The file setup is normal: odd pages are the front, even ones the back.
5. See first line of answer no. 3.
 
5. ...guess what, we don't have it, its one of the things i've been asking my vendor for so i can install this on all the machines in the design and print computers...so...does anyone know where i can download a good version of this, mac version osx?[/B]

There's so much more, but, these answered would help me on my way to solving some of my issues, next up....numbering software for serializing printed material(someone called it variable data printing)...

AMER answered most of these, but the 5th one is bothersome. If your dealer did not even leave your software installation disks on site, that is a serious issue. We will not allow installs/upgrades without a copy being left on site for just this reason. Rarely will you ever have a major install/upgrade without a few bugs. If your dealer won't respond, go up the chain of command to someone who will.

As for numbering, you can use anything as basic as Word or Publisher to do this using simple merge functions. Once you get requests for more robust needs - like swapping images or doing a lot of data insertion - then look at software.
 
Hey all


There's so much more, but, these answered would help me on my way to solving some of my issues, next up....numbering software for serializing printed material(someone called it variable data printing)...

Thanks in advance guys n gals!

Jet Letter's PageBuilder VDP application includes automated numbering functionality. This application supports leading zeros, alpha numeric strings and random number generation. This is addition to a very robust feature set.
 
3. Imposition is currently being done manually, meaning i open illustrator, and for example set up my SR-A3 page, copy in my business card and set and repeat it to how many ups and put in my double cuts and trim marks (manually drawn on illustrator) and then send to the machine to print. Where can i get an imposition software that is not expensive and doesn't need me to buy a dongle....someone told me i can get an extension for quark xpress or indesign for imposition?

....numbering software for serializing printed material(someone called it variable data printing)...

I use InDesign for impositions, CS2 can still use the old "Imposer Pro" and I haven't really looked at newer solutions as it still works just fine for me, actually my workflow entails outputting everything from InDesign.

For cards I use a script to put the crop marks and then copy/drag the cards down and across the SRA3 and use the distribute tool to space them evenly, takes about 30 seconds.

As for numbering, again InDesign. Automatic page numbering and then imposing those and printing. Use different master pages if you need for instance 3 digits like "003", "034" etc.
 
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Thanks Guys, i'll go one at a time....

So click charges don't apply to me since i bought the machine, no lease or anything of the sort....
 
from Amer:

"3. You forgot to name the most important part of your setup, namely the RIP. Better RIPs (Creo and the full version of Fiery) offer built-in imposition tools. There are also plug-in application side solutions, check the forum, its been a topic."

The RIP we have is the EFI Fiery, version and so on, i'll have to check we managed to get software IC 408, by the way the vendor sent me the link of where to download it FINALLY! but it still didn't work! hahaha my bro (production guy) got it off i think KM's Australia website or something and testing it today, we got another older version and the print set up is different from the one we had before (but thankfully were online and printing), i think its v.1 and the one we had before was v.2 and now i think he downloaded v.3 lol once i talk to him i'll let y'all know....:)

i will check the forum for the side applications and so on.

one thing i want to clariffy, maybe some of you have already noticed, i'm confused about what people are calling "fiery" is it the software (printer driver) or is it the ripping station (hardware) attached to the side of my machine or both meaning you can't have the hardware without the driver....lol and im just mixing myself up with names and terms?

Now i read somewhere about a CREO, is this a fiery alternative...
 
Thanks Guys, i'll go one at a time....

So click charges don't apply to me since i bought the machine, no lease or anything of the sort....

Whether you bought the machine or you're leasing it is nothing to do with the click charges, it's whether or not you have a Full Service Maintenance Agreement. In short, if you are buying your own consumables and paying for your spare parts then you are not on a click charge arrangement.
 
4. Duplex printing is just something you turn on in your software interface, and the machine does the rest (in theory, and providing you stay within specified limits of duplexing your machine supports). The file setup is normal: odd pages are the front, even ones the back.

ok i've seen that on the interface, but what software is god to use to send the artworks from...reason im asking is because....since we couldnt do the duplex thing i separated the files, for example a double sided flier - i would impose manually on illustrator the front side on one file and use the same x and y positions on illustrator and do the back on another file, flip the paper and open the back file and print again adjusting the illustartors print x and y axis accordingly to register with the front.

Now from what i've read from the replies i can send from indesign so i'm going to try that, any other application? as in is it limitless? can i send from any software that allows multiple pages like indesign, acrobat, word???
 
Whether you bought the machine or you're leasing it is nothing to do with the click charges, it's whether or not you have a Full Service Maintenance Agreement. In short, if you are buying your own consumables and paying for your spare parts then you are not on a click charge arrangement.

Ok, so i'm buying all the consumables, toners, my developers are almost out, so they sent me a quote...so i'm assuming i'm not on an FSMA.....is it advisable to get one?
 
one thing i want to clariffy, maybe some of you have already noticed, i'm confused about what people are calling "fiery" is it the software (printer driver) or is it the ripping station (hardware) attached to the side of my machine or both meaning you can't have the hardware without the driver....

The RIP is both, it's the bit that controls the printer and is software running on proprietary hardware. EFI is a brand that makes Fiery RIPs which usually come in two levels, the basic Fiery (what it sounds like you have) sits attached to your printer and is controlled vial Command Workstation from a computer on your network, the Fiery also comes in an advanced version that is a separate computer with screen keyboard etc and is more powerful and has more features (plus you can add features). Then there is CREO which is a different brand of RIP and which is always (afaik) separate and which IMHO gives a superior print to the Fiery and I also find it easier to use.

Hope this helps you understand about RIPs
 
Ok, so i'm buying all the consumables, toners, my developers are almost out, so they sent me a quote...so i'm assuming i'm not on an FSMA.....is it advisable to get one?

Generally it is advisable to have one but it also depends on where you are. On my market the vendors mostly looking at making a deal today so they can retire tomorrow and as such the click charges I'm being offered are 2-3 times more than I can run the machine for myself. In more competitive environment it is the other way around.

Where are you?
 
OK, i'll check what my vendor / dealer offers me on the FSMA, and i'm in Nairobi Kenya

I guess you're dealing with Express Automation then, here in Kampala they don't offer an FSMA at all, at least they didn't. I'm not dealing with them anymore.
 
I guess you're dealing with Express Automation then, here in Kampala they don't offer an FSMA at all, at least they didn't. I'm not dealing with them anymore.

Yup thats them, well i guess there ok, problem i have is, i was never advised about all these payment options! Click charges, FSMA and so on....only thing i was told is you can take the machine on lease or buy it...
 
Hello I want to go for similar machine as on my side in Dar es Salaam they don't lease they sell and the price which i was offered for a Bookletmaker, print engine and the Creo rip is 65,000usd. (C6501)

Is this worth? While from India i can see the new KM C6000/7000 they are selling for 70,000usd.

Anyone with the suggestion? Please mail me on [email protected]

Thanks to all good people of PRINT PLANET
 

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