Ricoh B/W Digital Presses

[jwheeler]

Looking specifically for feedback on b/w units from Ricoh. There's lots of feedback on PrintPlanet about Ricoh's color units, but people don't post much regarding the monochrome units.

Especially looking for the following feedback:

• if you switched from KM, are the Ricoh's better/worse/same?
• if you use their in-line perfect binder?
• if you print a decent amount of manuals/binders with divider tabs? How well does it run the tabs?
• how well do they duplex cardstock such as 100# cover?
• how well do they handle NCR?

(Keywords: RICOH Pro 8310s/ 8310/ 8320s/ 8320, 8210s/Pro 8220s/8210/8220)

 

[SoggyWinter]

Thanks for asking. I've been using a 2012 Xerox C75 for my carbonless machine and was mulling an 83xx if I can find a source for parts and a service manual.

 

[Robohopar]

I don't have one personally but a buddy has one with 20m+ clicks and would run both NCR and 20lb text only. He just got a newer bw machine with the plotmatic square binder with trim unit and I saw what he was running and looked pretty good. He has about 1.5m clicks on it so far and he's happy. Not sure on model numbers. Sorry not much help but giving what feedback I got from him.

 

[cqb1988]

I have Konica 6136 and Ricoh 8200, 8300 is almost the same as the 8200, just with a larger screen and an easier to rebuild fuser.

Ricoh has better image quality, almost as good as color machines, it is designed like a color machine, but with one drum. output is much flatter and lower static, better for finishing.


I don't recommend running NCR on ricoh bw machines, they will ruin the 2nd transfer unit, the adhesive will react with the wax bar, leave heavy residue, and damage the blade and brush. also, both of my Ricoh color and BW machines have difficulty centering the color paper, image will shift up and down, which can be a nightmare when running NCR.

 

[jwheeler]

both of my Ricoh color and BW machines have difficulty centering the color paper, image will shift up and down, which can be a nightmare when running NCR.

This is concerning. We run cases of colored 20# bond at a time (mostly pastel blue and green from Domtar). Positioning isn't super critical, but they can't be jumping all over the page.

Aside from image quality, how is the reliability between the two? We've been happy with the image quality of our KM 6136's, however, reliability has been an issue. Seems like we have a tech out every other week to replace the cleaning blade, refresh the developer, and/or repair one of the rollers in the fuser after it starts breaking apart.

 

[cqb1988]

This is concerning. We run cases of colored 20# bond at a time (mostly pastel blue and green from Domtar). Positioning isn't super critical, but they can't be jumping all over the page.

Aside from image quality, how is the reliability between the two? We've been happy with the image quality of our KM 6136's, however, reliability has been an issue. Seems like we have a tech out every other week to replace the cleaning blade, refresh the developer, and/or repair one of the rollers in the fuser after it starts breaking apart.

My 6136 seems very reliable, one PM can last at least 1 million( maintenance counter) without any service. I have owned the machine for 2 years with 2 million clicks, only replaced the fuser roller once... we clean the toner residue on the fuser claw every day, and never run anything above 70lb text. mostly 50lb 60lb offset and NCR. might be a different story if you do lots of covers and tabs


Ricoh has 3 wax bars that need to be changed regularly, machine will not run if the wax bar is low. so a lot more service calls than km. All of them can be user replaceable if you don't want to see tech every 2 weeks. the 2nd transfer roller has been an issue for us, it will not run NCR, and some office bond paper has wax coating.

 

[Craig]

We have a 6136 with about 13 million on it and the service between PM's is getting closer and more frequent. Image quality takes a dump fast and the pressure rollers tend to delaminate quick. We have an 8200 that has about 4.5 million and it has about 1/2 the service calls and we run a lot of NCR through it without issues. When you run NCR through the 6136 it will kill the drum in about 5000 sheets. (unless you just print black text)

I would stay away from as much "inline" finishing as you can. By going off line you are not tied to a single print engine and the offline equipment will last a lot longer making it a better investment. The copier sales monkey will say differently but they want to sell you new every 3 to 5 years.

 

[jwheeler]

Good info, thanks @Craig It's great to know you're having success with NCR. The latest video released by Ricoh for the new 8300 series specifically highlights that it's well suited to run 2-sided NCR.

And we are strongly considering taking perfect binding off-line. We currently have two of our KM 6136's setup with perfect binders since we do so much and need redundancy. It sure is nice to have them come out completed, and we are limited on space and power supply to have a stand-alone unit. But they are expensive units to just switch out every 5 years and there have been times they've taken the whole printer down even if we just want to print flat sheet work.

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

I got two new Ricoh's in January 2024...been a Xerox shop for a decade prior.
I have the C7200X (color) and the Pro 8320 (bw). I have the inline perfect binder on our color.
I hate the damn thing. Fussy, glue is way too expensive, and it is SLOOOOOW. I am fighting to have it removed and replaced with a Plockmatic booklet maker instead.
As far as the BW quality is concerned, so far it is fantastic...but we only have a few hundred thousand clicks through it so far. No issues with NCR, tabs, colored paper, or registration...at least not yet.
It is noticeably slower than the Xerox Nuvera 144 it replaced. We tend to do a ton of duplex 20#, so a weekly job with 80k clicks that used to take 8 hours now takes 9. Not the end of the world, but not exactly an upgrade either.

So far pretty happy with the machine, but we're still in the honeymoon phase I'm sure.

 

[bill kahny]

I have an 8100 and the the registration for colored paper locks in if you name the color in the paper catalog. I run NCR fine from the large capacity unit but I name it as pink for 3 part and yellow when its 2 part.

 

[jwheeler]

I got two new Ricoh's in January 2024...been a Xerox shop for a decade prior.
I have the C7200X (color) and the Pro 8320 (bw). I have the inline perfect binder on our color.
I hate the damn thing. Fussy, glue is way too expensive, and it is SLOOOOOW. I am fighting to have it removed and replaced with a Plockmatic booklet maker instead.
As far as the BW quality is concerned, so far it is fantastic...but we only have a few hundred thousand clicks through it so far. No issues with NCR, tabs, colored paper, or registration...at least not yet.
It is noticeably slower than the Xerox Nuvera 144 it replaced. We tend to do a ton of duplex 20#, so a weekly job with 80k clicks that used to take 8 hours now takes 9. Not the end of the world, but not exactly an upgrade either.

So far pretty happy with the machine, but we're still in the honeymoon phase I'm sure.

This is great feedback on the PB, NCR, and quality thank you! One of my other concerns for Ricoh's PB vs Konica's PB is the limited output capacity of the drawer. It looks like it will only hold ~4 inches worth books whereas our KM holds two stacks of 10 inches each...plus we can empty the books while it runs so it's nearly limitless. Unfortunately we can't switch to making squareback books. Much of our material goes to inmates in jails and they don't allow staples. Everything has to be PB or glue-padded.

As for the speed...our machines are currently 136ppm and the Ricoh is 136ppm so I'm assuming it should be about the same. In your case, you went from 144ppm to 136ppm, so I would expect it to be slower over the course of 80k impressions. (That's an awesome weekly job to have!)

 

[bcr]

I had a very quick demo of a Ricoh 83xx?? in 2020 and it was inserting pre printed tabs which was all then being in-line punched by a GBC stream punch.

It was extremely fast with almost no delays inserting them. I want to say that I also tested it with them printing in line but I can't find a video of that on my phone, whereas for the preprinted one I do have a video of it.

Anyway - based on that at least it seemed very good. If only my colour machines were that fast with tabs :0