Rena Mach5 to replace my offset press?

[csudman]

Well, I did my demo today. Long story short. Its ready for direct mail work. I don't think its ready for print for pay work as a press replacement. As others have mentioned, I had issues with red. It does look like an inkjet (at home) print. Its not that bad and I could sell some of it. But spot colors are not gonna happen without file manipulation for every job.

I'll keep looking though.

 

[Roback]

I have no issues with the print quality. I have shown the output to 2 other shops in my area and they are sending me their color envelopes to print and agree with me that its very close to offset quality. Its equal to duplicator (Multi) quality but much more consistent as every envelope looks the same. I've been running Multis for 40 years and there is no way that an envelope order of 5000 will have every envelope be exactly the same. I have 2 jobs to do for them now. I'm printing an envelope today that has black and 3 spot colors. One is 185 red. Its very close to offset output in the red IF you use the 1600 x 1600 setting. The 1200 x 1600 setting gives a very flat red. The other colors were fine in either setting. The only difference I see with the 2 resolutions is the brightness of color work. The service man was just here and they think they have my issues with speed fixed. We'll see.

 

[Roback]

I designed a 4/color logo for myself. I printed one on my OKI 9650 and one on the Mach 5. I would be happy to send you a sample to show there's no difference in general appearance (color and brightness). If you examine with a loop, you can see that the image is not as sharp, but its not apparent to the average print buyer. Offset is also not near as sharp as the OKI. At 5 times the speed and 1/5 the cost, its a no brainer when you give a customer the price for each. No one yet has insisted on the OKI .

 

[kristianeyman]

is anyone using this for small run (500-1000) club flyers or the likes of? using a 8.5x11 piece of paper? thanks, kristian!

 

[Roback]

I plan to but I haven't yet. Still got the feeding issues. That was actually the part I had the most confidence in since they have used it on their mailing equipment for years.

 

[kristianeyman]

roback,

looking at the riso hc5000 model. what advice could you give me about these unit, i would like to maily use for club flyer (135-350gsm) and various offset (type) jobs. i have read about not being able to replicate offset toe to toe but as a fast turn around solution......?

 

[csudman]

I designed a 4/color logo for myself. I printed one on my OKI 9650 and one on the Mach 5. I would be happy to send you a sample to show there's no difference in general appearance (color and brightness). If you examine with a loop, you can see that the image is not as sharp, but its not apparent to the average print buyer. Offset is also not near as sharp as the OKI. At 5 times the speed and 1/5 the cost, its a no brainer when you give a customer the price for each. No one yet has insisted on the OKI .

Could I send you a few files? Have you print a couple samples and send them to me? The rep I met with didn't seem to know much about managing the color. Maybe it was a bad demo then?

Thanks
CJ

 

[Roback]

csudman, yes send them to [email protected]. send a vector file if possible but if not a PDF will work. You're right about the reps, if mine is any indication, they don't know anything about these machines. I having a lot of issues with the machine slowing down or constantly stopping, not the output quality. I'm getting ready to tell them to fix it, pick it up, or pay the lease payments until they get it fixed. I really hope they can fix it because if we can get this thing to produce all the time like it will in short spurts now, its a money maker. I've ran 3 jobs, lost money on all because of the time we spend trying to keep it producing.

 

[Roback]

Kristianeyman, I really don't know much about the H 5500 Riso except that all the concerns people have about the appearance of work on the Mach 5 are worse on the Riso. Even the Riso salesman (former) conceded that point. But I think its a good machine if the quality suits you but I didn't think I could sell it as printing. They're kind of pricey too. But I'm sure at this point in time its a much more reliable machine just because its been around so long.

 

[damfino]

Mach5 Feeder

Mach5 Feeder

There is nothing to be fixed about the feeder - it is what it is: problematic by design. You can try different combinations of the 4 sheet separators, but you'll waste a lot of time.

 

[Roback]

I really don't think its the feeder itself. They have used that feeder for years in mailing equipment. what happens is it'll run 120 per minute until the first time it self cleans the heads (after about 125 impressions) and then it restarts at about 60 per minute and doesn't speed back up. You can shut if off and restart and the cycle starts all over again. Occasionally, you get an error message that is not correct to the situation and the machine shuts down. It seems software or firmware related to me rather than hardware.

 

[damfino]

Hesitant Feeding

Hesitant Feeding

That issue has been around for several months - surprised they still haven't been able to correct it.

Monitor your ink/head costs closely. Curious to know if you come close to the stated claims. I've got my Oki costs down to $23.00 per M

 

[Roback]

I've got them coming back today. I'm getting pretty short with them. I haven't bought any toner for my OKI 9650 yet. Are you buying the OKI brand or the stuff thats about 1/3 the cost? If so, how does it work?

 

[damfino]

Toner: After extensive experimentation with off-brands and recharging the cartridges myself, I gave up and went back to Oki brand. Major issues: background toning and poor adhesion. (Because yellow toning is not visible, I am experimenting with using recharged cartridges for this color only.)

Drums: Tested two Chinese brands with lousy results, mainly short useful life.

 

[Roback]

You got your costs down $23/1000 with OKI toner and drums?

 

[damfino]

Yes - toner, drums, fuser, and belt. Based on 100M impressions for fuser and belt, and 65-70M for the toner and drums.

If I were running flat sheets, drums would not last as long.

 

[Roback]

Still having problems with the Memjet. Repairman from PHS has been here a week, literally. New software, new firmware, new board and about 100 other shots in the dark haven't resolved the problem. I'm now insisting on a new machine. They swear this is the only one they have sold that has these issues. I still love the output as we've painfully coaxed 4 jobs through it.

 

[damfino]

Bail Now

Bail Now

This technology has major bugs to work out - bleeding edge. A new unit isn't going to help.

They may finally get it right, but it's going to be some time before that happens.

 

[Roback]

I may end up going that route. But for now I'm going to give them a little more time. I've had nothing but good responses from my customers, trade and direct on the output. Of the 4 jobs I've ran, 3 were for the trade. Its a real money maker if they can get it to perform at anywhere close to as advertised. I've got 4 jobs lined up right now and haven't even tried to sell it yet. They told me where another one is that they claim is running great. I think I'll just give them a call to see if they're having these problems.

 

[Roback]

I called the other shop. Its about 100 miles from me. They just installed their machine last week and have only ran 1 job so far for 500 envelopes. They did not have any issues like I'm having. He too, is impressed with the output. He said he recently re-quoted a customer on a job and was able to quote it at a savings of $100 per thousand. Not a real test but it is somewhat encouraging.