Presstek DI-X & Konica Minolta Bundle

[jtwanabe]

I am looking very seriously at this bundle. It would meet my color needs and bring my offset area up to speed to meet a market I already have. My numbers say I can do this for what it would cost to upgrade my color copier.

All that said anybody have any opinions.

 

[[email protected]]

Presstek DI

Presstek DI

Since a DI cannot do VDP I think that is why they bundle it. Why not just buy a nice copier that does both?
A DI is just a waterless offset press designed to compete with toner copiers. Plus the supplies and service are proprietary from Presstek.
Do your homework and ask the cost of service contract, rollers every year. It may sound like a good thing but I stress look at all your options.

 

[DIBOB]

I have been reading everyone’s comment on the DI and would like to say that the plate cost concern is a mood point, the savings with this press because of less time for make-ready & less than 20 sheets on paper far out weighs the cost of plates

I have had a Presstek DI now for almost 3 years and have seen my sales grow every year with this press and yes even last year sales were up 12%. With the Presstek DI the plate cost is all forgotten with the extremely fast make ready and almost no waste in set up. The 1st sheet off the press is in perfect registration the 20th sheet off the press is up to color. With the addition of waterless printing, drying time is almost nothing.

For Example I can print 5000 5.5 x 8.5 4/4 post cards in less 30 min and cut & deliver in an hour using 300dpi or stochastic imaging. Don't know of many printers in my area that can do this.

My customer loves my turnaround time and quality.

Here is the most amazing thing about this press. Since I have had this press I have NOT had one reprint, do to quality! AMAZING

This press by far can do things a copier cannot do, in fact because it is waterless, I can run on synthetic papers a copier cannot do that. I can run any kind of paper and also run carbonless and my customers love it.

Yes, it’s correct it does not do VDP but buy both and you bury the competition

If you would like to know more call the folks at Presstek and have them give you my number. I am in Kennesaw GA

One last thing in regards to roller cost. We all know that if it has moving parts and moves paper through it, it will cost to keep it maintained. Nothing in our enviroment runs without having to replace the parts that move everyday.

 

[Randall@CSU]

Presstek DI

Presstek DI

We upgraded last year to a Presstek 34DI, and are thrilled with the results. We are an in house University Print shop, and our customers need high quality, quick turnaround on glossy and coated stocks and the DI allows us to meet and exceed those demands. We just topped a million impressions in just under eight months since installation.
We also have a need for VDP, and no, the DI doesn't offer that, but many color copier options are available for VDP. We do a lot of 4 up post cards, and we are looking at copier options that will take our printed pieces from the DI, feed it through the copier for addressing,personalizing, etc using the VDP software. My point is, those options are out there as well.
In my opinion, the DI is not competing with toner based copiers...quality and options FAR exceed any copier we've seen on the market with none of the down time associated with copiers. This is true digital, full color, offset printing...you can call a copier a digital press if you want, but to me, if it uses toner, its a copier!
When researching our options prior to the purchase of the DI, I talked with several other University print shops and small commercial printers. We were convinced by their feedback that the Presstek DI was our best option, and we were right.
You know what your needs are better than anyone else, but I would suggest that you strongly consider the DI. We have had several printers from the Southeastern states come by to see our operation and see the DI, and they all come away impressed. If I can answer any specific questions about our experience with the DI or with Presstek, feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]

 

[Cory Smith]

We had our Quickmaster DI a few years back and found that the plate costs coupled with the need to re-image plates due to bad registration or scratching cut into the profit on the majority of our jobs.

The imaging time to image a set of plates at 175LPI was something like 15 minutes. Don't forget to add that to your makeready time and it's not looking like such a huge gain.

a conventional press with automatic plate hangers can mount and get sheets off pretty dang quick with minimal sheets.

I'm sure the DI press makes sense for some shops, just not for us at the time.

I have been reading everyone’s comment on the DI and would like to say that the plate cost concern is a mood point, the savings with this press because of less time for make-ready & less than 20 sheets on paper far out weighs the cost of plates

 

[Randall@CSU]

I don't know the difference with a Quickmaster DI, and maybe older models had this problem, but the registration on the Presstek DI is perfect registration EVERY time. It is full automated, digitally imaged...there is not even an adjustment for registration. In all the jobs we've run over the past 8 months, not a single job had to be re-imaged due to a registration problem.
Our make ready time is about 10 minutes for the plates to image, but since that is fully automated, the press operator can pull paper, do other things, or go grab a cup of coffee, and when he comes back, he is ready to go.
i can respect the problems you had a few years ago, but those problems are non-existent with the new Presstek DI.
Within 10-15 minutes from the time the job is ripped, we are up to color, registered and printing...we used conventional presses to do our process printing prior to this purchase, and there is a world of difference. We start printing in a fraction of the time, our setup and waste is a few sheets per job instead of the sometimes hundreds of sheets wasted on a convention press getting the plates to register and up to color. Our press operators would quit before they went back to a convention press running process!

 

[Randall@CSU]

As far as cost...our cost is about $40 for a set of four plates, or roughly $10 per plate. We have printed as many as 25-30M impressions without having to re-image.

 

[lfelton]

As far as cost...our cost is about $40 for a set of four plates, or roughly $10 per plate. We have printed as many as 25-30M impressions without having to re-image.

Ouch! That's not much less than we CHARGE customers for a set of B3 plates. I guess that illustrates that the DI solution has it's own market place, but is not a good fit for many commercial printers, where we live and die by the profit margin that we can achieve when selling at _market_ rates. At your prices my company would be paying somewhere near a quarter of a million bucks a year in plates!

I've absolutely no doubt we (and everyone else with a modern automated B2 or B3) could makeready at least as fast as a DI. Our fit (with CTP plate punching & semi-auto plate loading) is bang on 95%+ of the time, so really no difference there.

The sheet wastage is a valid point, 20 sheets makeready is awesome and we could really do with that! I guess the de-inking programs would help us, but we don't have that option installed.

The other major issue with the DI is that there's no way to seal in line. Because so many jobs require a seal on silk/matt papers, that immediately eliminates a DI from consideration.

Oh, and they're too slow too

Modern highly automated CTP & press vs DI? There's no doubt a niche for both of them, but the vast majority of commercial printers choose the former.

 

[Craig]

Since a DI cannot do VDP I think that is why they bundle it. Why not just buy a nice copier that does both?
A DI is just a waterless offset press designed to compete with toner copiers. Plus the supplies and service are proprietary from Presstek.
Do your homework and ask the cost of service contract, rollers every year. It may sound like a good thing but I stress look at all your options.

Agree, that's why I have an 8000AP and not a Presstek DI.

Also make sure the numbers are your numbers, not the Excel file Presstek gives... with their numbers.