Printing letterheads on Xerox DC2xx series

[GusG]

Hi All,

I've been printing letterheads on my K-M Bizhubs for years without ever having a complaint. When I got my DC2060 I printed one ream of letterheads on that and it was thrown back in my face the very next day, ghosting all over it from the laser printer that the letterheads had been through afterwards.

I would like to know your experiences with doing letterheads on the DC2xx series. Since the DC2xx doesn't use fuser oil (just like the Bizhubs) I would imagine it's possible but I don't know for sure.

 

[lfelton]

Hi All,

I've been printing letterheads on my K-M Bizhubs for years without ever having a complaint. When I got my DC2060 I printed one ream of letterheads on that and it was thrown back in my face the very next day, ghosting all over it from the laser printer that the letterheads had been through afterwards.

I would like to know your experiences with doing letterheads on the DC2xx series. Since the DC2xx doesn't use fuser oil (just like the Bizhubs) I would imagine it's possible but I don't know for sure.

Well this is a difficult one to answer (because you're not going to like the answer).

Whatever fuses on (i.e. toner) can fuse right back off again, which gives your ghosting. This depends on the fuser temperature of the laser printer your customer uses. The 260 uses a "low melt" toner (I'm sure that Xerox has a better sounding marketing name for this), which means that a higher percentage of laser printers are going to melt the toner, causing ghosting.

In a perfect world, digitally printed letterheads are not a commercially sellable product due to the uncertainty over whether you will "get away" with overprinting them. In reality many copy shops do sell them as such, but the sensible approach is always to give the customer a few samples to try before accepting the order.

I don't know of any digital printers (including Indigos) where you can 100% guarantee that the letterheads will print OK on any laser printer.

4c litho printed letterheads are so cheap these days that it really makes sense to also find a *good* trade print partner and resell for any quantities above 200 or so. Your other issue is that the difference in quality between the digital and litho print is very great, most especially with fine tints, gradients and areas of solids. However, this is an opportunity to up-sell to your customer.

Hope that helps.

 

[GusG]

This depends on the fuser temperature of the laser printer your customer uses. The 260 uses a "low melt" toner (I'm sure that Xerox has a better sounding marketing name for this), which means that a higher percentage of laser printers are going to melt the toner, causing ghosting.Hope that helps.

Thanks Ifelton. The odd thing though is that I've not had a problem on the Bizhubs yet they fuse at a lower temperature than the DC2060 (I assume), if I am correct there must be more factors at play. I think forthwith I'll be handing out samples before doing the whole job.

We are actually trying to get more of these small jobs off of offset so that we make the money and not our sub contractor (we don't do offset printing, though we do pre-press).

 

[Craig]

Letterhead printed with a toner device intended to be run through another toner device is just asking for trouble. I would NEVER sell digitally printed letterhead regardless of what device it is being imaged from, it only takes 1 time for you to have to replace a customers fuser unit because you supplied them the letterhead.

 

[GusG]

Letterhead printed with a toner device intended to be run through another toner device is just asking for trouble. I would NEVER sell digitally printed letterhead regardless of what device it is being imaged from, it only takes 1 time for you to have to replace a customers fuser unit because you supplied them the letterhead.

I think I'm getting the general picture now