Printing unattended

[patrick.mendyka]

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[Fatboysmart]

LET ME - LET ME - My guess it's a full variable data run with barcodes. You're off by 1/8" and -BAM- the job is rejected by the good 'ol USPS. Been there, done that.

That's because the USPS is still living in the fifties and will always do so since they have no competition...

 

[Alith7]

Interesting topic. So the digital people let the machine run while they go home or whatever? Do these machines output variable data that may contain social security numbers and other information ID thieves can use? What if they break in and steal the job on the copier? While you are home but proudly making money?

What if your insurance company knows you are leaving a machine running unattended? I am just floored by the fact that no one here has mentioned SECURITY to protect the variable data you may be producing.

If you accept a job for a customer they deserve it to be done properly and in a secure manner. That means from start to finish.

to add to other's comments, 99.999% of the time, variable data merges are basic info, like name, address, maybe birthday, it's usually public record type stuff. When it is "secure" information it is handled accordingly. At least in our shop. We do have a couple of customers that have us merge and send financial statements and such, those are handled carefully, and all misfeeds are shredded, or sometimes even returned to the customer for disposal. If someone is sending you sensitive information like that, they generally make sure that all your processes are in place to maintain their security. And no, the jobs are not run unattended. As Patrick said...common sense.

 

[patrick.mendyka]

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[Alith7]

Just seems like an 'offset nazi' being mad at digital....

That is sad...
You have to shift with the tech or fall behind.

 

[patrick.mendyka]

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[kdw75]

I have a really hard time walking out the door with anything still running when no one will be in the building. Though when I was younger I did run up the block to get a refreshment while my press was running. Though there was always other people around that could handle some emergency. I just made sure it had ink and water and it was automated enough to shut down on mis-feeds or jams for the most part.

 

[Craig]

I can understand that one...But if it's say...1,700 sheets of a 4/4 80# gloss text coupon... I'm not hanging around for 4 hours twiddling my thumbs.

Your saying 1,700 4/4 sheets would take 4 hours to print? Your output is 7 sheets per minute? No wonder you would put it on a press!! 2 hours and the job is printed, cut and boxed up.

I love to hear people who are caught up on click charges whine. Take all your press charges INCLUDING labor from pre-press to pressman on that 1,700 sheet run and see what it cost per sheet to print. Don't forget to factor in dry time between W/T and cutting. I would be curious to see the number!

 

[MailGuru]

LET ME - LET ME - My guess it's a full variable data run with barcodes. You're off by 1/8" and -BAM- the job is rejected by the good 'ol USPS. Been there, done that.

Yes, you're correct CathieHarris. When it comes to post cards, especially in larger volumes, all we run is variable data and variable image, both sides. While it might be nice to offset the post cards and then address it on one of our high-speed ink-jets, you can't do variable images on the cards. Also, damned-near impossible to personalize both sides on the ink jet

 

[JoeatData]

I think many of us have "cheated death" by leaving things unattended. I know I have done it varies times. Whether it was leaving a copier running or a Dolov 400 or 800 plotting and dropping films to be processed in the morning.

It's worked many times, but it's not foolproof. Sure sucks when you find an error and then have to go back and do it all over again.

I've left a copier operating to attend a meeting to come back and find that the document duplexer had somehow inversed the page order, wasting hundreds if not thousands sheets of paper.

We recently had a job here where we were printing a covers on a konica 6501. The GM gave the go-ahead to run it over night so it could be trimmed to size first thing in the morning. After everyone left for the evening the owner walking through the building saw that the copier was running unattended and killed the job. You win some. You lose some.

 

[MailGuru]

I love to hear people who are caught up on click charges whine. Take all your press charges INCLUDING labor from pre-press to pressman on that 1,700 sheet run and see what it cost per sheet to print. Don't forget to factor in dry time between W/T and cutting. I would be curious to see the number!

I Agree with Craig. And, BTW, while you're tallying up the "actual" cost of offset when compared to digital, don't forget to add in the amortized cost of the equipment. A decent mid-range digital color production press will run somewhere between $100k to $200k. Decent offset presses are going to run you between $1 million to $2 million. What's that work out to per sheet?

-Best

MailGuru

 

[Alith7]

Your saying 1,700 4/4 sheets would take 4 hours to print? Your output is 7 sheets per minute? No wonder you would put it on a press!! 2 hours and the job is printed, cut and boxed up.

I love to hear people who are caught up on click charges whine. Take all your press charges INCLUDING labor from pre-press to pressman on that 1,700 sheet run and see what it cost per sheet to print. Don't forget to factor in dry time between W/T and cutting. I would be curious to see the number!

ok, first, I was just pulling numbers out of the air. in reality, 1,700 sheets (3,400 clicks) would take about an hour and a half, we're only running a Xerox 700i here, it's not a speed demon, but the quality is good. at our copy centers they have KM 7000's and it would run much faster there, but the quality isn't as good.

Second, if it was just a straight 1,700 pieces, yes, I'd just through it on press, we have a little Ryobi 520. but sometimes, when you have a 60 page book, for 50 sets, no, I'm not putting that on press, so it's a higher click count. it is a balance between when to put it on press, and when to run it digital, sometimes it's even and you run where you have room in the schedule.

Who's whining? And how did a discussion about whether or not you leave your digital machine run when your not there turn into this?
In the end it still comes down to common sense and how much you trust your machine.

 

[Possumgal]

Murphy's Printing Law says that the minute you leave the building with the machine running...

You fill in the rest. So many delightful possibilities.

 

[patrick.mendyka]

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[CathieHarris]

In our shop the other day, while we were watching, we were running a 2-up 4/4 flyer on 12x18 gloss text. Right in the middle of the run, all the pages turned into flooded cyan, both sides. It was a large run and the operator was able to stop the job with only about 10 sheets screwed.

That's a machine we count on. What if we'd left that running when we left? We'd have come back to a big loss.

I tend to think that on black only machines, it's a lot easier to leave while they're printing books or flyers. So much can go wrong with color digital - like the cyan flood, or paper fusing together after so much time because of heat - the variable problems that can arise on a color machine far outweighs the problems that can happen on a black only workhorse. I've never had major problems on the KM1050 other than jamming.

So there. Another 2 cents spent.

 

[patrick.mendyka]

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[MailGuru]

....you come back to a completed job
....you come back to a jam
....you come back to a machine that coded out
....you come back to a machine out of paper

You forgot this one.......... Xerox iGen3 Drupa 2008 FIRE - YouTube

 

[arossetti]

....you come back to a completed job
....you come back to a jam
....you come back to a machine that coded out
....you come back to a machine out of paper

You come back to find your transfer belt cleaner failed mid-run and now have 2 cases of printed material that is bad.

With that said, we closed our 3rd shift so we will sometimes load up the machines and let it run. We have hi-cap feeders and finishers so it can be a costly gamble but tends to work out.

 

[Alith7]

You come back to find your transfer belt cleaner failed mid-run and now have 2 cases of printed material that is bad.

With that said, we closed our 3rd shift so we will sometimes load up the machines and let it run. We have hi-cap feeders and finishers so it can be a costly gamble but tends to work out.

I guess that makes a difference too... at the absolute worst, I can only go through about 1,500 sheets.

 

[smalloffsetpressexperts]

I am happy to see my post has sparked such a great discussion and to see all the different views the community has.

As always certain people have to hit below the belt and show how they are so far more advanced as others in the forum. I think one Curmudgeon even referred to me as an Offset NAZI. I consider that a Racist comment and to be compared to the Nazi Party and what they did to so many people for me questioning the practice of leaving a machine run unattended just shows how they probably treat their customers also.

As my name implies I am an expert at what I do, that is what I do to support my family. But I am also involved in Digital as well and Mailing/ Pre Press equipment and I embraced that work flow many years ago. I have updated bar code/ line readers and the software they require also. I see the documents these machines stuff into envelopes and all the data they contain, much of which is sensitive if you catch my drift. This information should never be left unattended. We as printers owe that much to help safe guard such information. Not just go home while it is running and count the dollar signs.

Thankfully the companies I deal with are secure and they have met certain guidelines that are far beyond common sense, lol. I think any state or federal bid for mailing services requires that. Maybe some people are too small to know that.
I am also very well versed in the Linux/Windows operating systems and a current beta tester for Adobe products, including the cloud.