Plockmatic Experience...

kdw75

Well-known member
We have had our Plockmatic 350 for 5 months. It replaced our Xerox booklet maker and square fold trimmer. On the plus side it is much faster and trims more accurately as well as trimming all 3-sides of books, but it hasn't been as reliable, which surprises me. Maybe we have just had bad luck, but so far it has been down 7 times. The first time was an mistake at installation, which I understand. Then it was constantly jamming because of a set screw backing off, which caused the side gates not to open wide enough. Then the same thing happened a second time and locktite was used. Then we had a stapler head fail, then we had a problem with the cover feeder requiring new rollers and double pad. Then the RCT needed the rollers sanded to feed light gloss paper. Finally we had one of the cutter motors gear boxes strip the gear. We have run about 25K books in this time period. During the previous 5 years on our light duty Xerox bookletmaker and square fold trimmer, it had a total of 3 repairs. A circuit board, a belt and a motor.

I was under the impression that the Plockmatic was a machine designed for higher volumes, but I am thinking we have just been unlucky or they aren't as robust as I thought. Several times now we have missed deadlines and had to go back to using our slower Xerox bookletmaker and square fold trimmer, just to get the job out.

I would love to hear others experience with Plocks.
 
Bad luck. Ours ran thousands with no problems at all. My understanding is the square fold and trim unit on the Xerox is actually a Plock.
 
Just checked the counter on the Morgana BM500 (Plockmatic) stapler and it reads 625,176 cycles. Very few issues that are not maintenance related. It was installed September 2015 and we upgraded the feeder from friction to vacuum 2 years ago.
 
Just checked the counter on the Morgana BM500 (Plockmatic) stapler and it reads 625,176 cycles. Very few issues that are not maintenance related. It was installed September 2015 and we upgraded the feeder from friction to vacuum 2 years ago.
The cover feeder?
 
kdw75 I just noticed that you are doing side trim as well. Sorry I missed that. We did not get the side trim as it cost as much as the whole rest of the setup. Doing square fold and face trim only was very reliable. Since it comes out nice and flat, doing the top and bottom trim on the cutter is quick and easy.
 
Can you upgrade the cover feeder on the plock? We run a lot of booklets on the press and then use the cover feeder to feed the collated sets.
 
Can you upgrade the cover feeder on the plock? We run a lot of booklets on the press and then use the cover feeder to feed the collated sets.
I'm pretty sure you can upgrade TO a cover feeder if you don't have one, at least on the most recent generations of Plockmatics, such as the PBM350/500 series, but there is no upgrade to an existing one. We always recommend adding the cover feeder to the mix as it is more productive to pre-print and feed than to wait for the fuser to heat up-cool down all the time. But since it holds just 200 sheets of 80gsm (less of thicker) if the booklets are thin you have to feed the feeder more often. They also offer the HCI3500 High Capacity Interposer that has two drawers with a total of 1,750 sheets (20lb bond) and runs inline, at least on the Ricohs.
 
We've had our Plockmatic BM50 for a couple of years now. Originally it was purchased to run in line with a Sharpe Printer. The Sharpe would not print the quality we need so we replaced it with a Ricoh - which did not interface wit the Plock. We use the Plock as a stand alone machine and have had no problems with it other that the fold being slightly off of square. I have not figured out how to adjust it.
Overall very happy with the Plock BM50
 
Hello all! my printshop is interested in getting a Plock to replace our canon booklet maker. Would any of you be willing, able to share what types of books you have printed? sizes and paper stocks.
 

PressWise

A 30-day Fix for Managed Chaos

As any print professional knows, printing can be managed chaos. Software that solves multiple problems and provides measurable and monetizable value has a direct impact on the bottom-line.

“We reduced order entry costs by about 40%.” Significant savings in a shop that turns about 500 jobs a month.


Learn how…….

   
Back
Top