RICOH C7100x or XEROX Versant 80 - few questions

[PR Media]

Hello,
I'm going to buy the RICOH C7100x or XEROX Versant 80.
I would like to know the weaknesses of these devices. Positive aspects devices each dealers quickly replace.
I would like to read about yours problems and experiences with these devices.
What to look for when testing these devices.

Whether in the case of the RICOH often do you use the option 5th color (clear/white) or long print?

Thank you for your help,
Regards!

 

[dabob]

We are in the same boat . . . looking at both of them . . . the versant looked really good price to value before we added the performance package (it upped the monthly by about 600-700 bucks) so the Ricoh moved into the competition going to look at a demo next week will let yall know what we think . . .

 

[PR Media]

What in your opinion are the pros and cons of both devices.

For me:

Versant:
+ Purchase price
+ I have Xerox, service is ok.
- More expensive click

Ricoh:
+ Printing long paper (700mm)
+ Faster printing
+ 5th color (clear / white)
- I've never had Ricoh

 

[dabob]

Yep . . . Xerox a known quantity - we have a 770 and the service has been good -
Ricoh - service an unknown but a friend of mine used to sell them and he vouched for the quality of the machines

As to pricing - the only reason we are looking at the Ricoh is that the Xerox production package made the pricing for the Ricoh much more competitive, longer sheet is interesting (but heard - not confirmed that the 660 mm option was introduced into Canada recently), not looking at the fifth color, speed not a deciding issue but with the production package the Xerox doesn't slow down on thick stock - will let you know

 

[thebluesdude]

Hey guys, was with Xerox for 10 years and although I used to slag them off for things their service was second to none, you dont realise until you move......... We purchased a Ricoh 7110 six months ago and the machine is great, fantastic in fact print quality wise from our Xerox DC5000 and DC260. The service is very hit and miss, the communication, accounts and everything else about Ricoh here in the UK has been terrible. Four months for a refund for Clear toner that our sales email had stated was £250 per bottle had gone up to £360 in three months!! Three months waiting for a part. And a registration problem that couldnt be solved. They washed their hands of it as they said it was within spec, 2mm out of square. Same paper same job on our Xerox which is still here sat next to the Ricoh, perfect registration.
BUT I must stress that however much grief it has caused us in the setting up and the long bedding in stage, we rarely see engineers as it runs and runs. We have 700K on it and the quality now is as good as it went in. If only the clear were stronger, the white wasnt so thin it looked like silver and it didnt run sheets so badly out of square this would be without doubt a digital press to kill the rest of the market. We have actually won litho jobs with this machine the quality can be that good.

 

[PR Media]

Thanks for the reply, Ricoh are good print in grayscale?. As prints tonal gradations with full aples. My Xerox are cut off the bright colors. You printed on metallic paper? On our Xerox when print metallic paper too late registration paper. Do you often have paper jam paper in Ricoh?

 

[thebluesdude]

Originally lots of paper jams, and I mean lots.... now everything is settled down not too many. The main problem is that the sheets jam across a unit and the stupid twiddly things you turn that are meant to clear the gap so you can open the tray to get the paper out do not work so in the end you end up tearing sheets leaving bits inside you have to reach in for. The worst is if it jams on 350 / 400gsm it nearly breaks the feed tray....grayscale is very good compared to Xerox they dont look as grainy, it prints great on metallic. It doesnt suffer from stepped gradients at all they are lovley and smooth

 

[Brunswick]

We have had our Ricoh for 8 months.
After initial bedding in issues it has been great. Better quality and speed than our old Xerox 700 but that was to be expected in a newer machine.

We use the spot gloss on certain jobs white not at all yet.

Long sheet is a great feature and we have improved but not perfected the long sheet registration.
SRA3 sheets fly out all day long in perfect register I can honestly say I would not go back to Xerox now...

Service times are faster, consumables arrive when we want them. All in it is a better package all round for us.

 

[halmac]

What about the Konica Minolta 1060? I tested all three and found the KM to have superior quality than the other two. The only drawback with the KM is UV coating issues.

 

[Shawnd]

We have two Ricoh 7110sx's, both have been going strong since install, very fast production machines. Service for us has been very good, they are usually here same day. So far we have no regrets switching from Xerox to Ricoh.

We have 1 machine setup with white and the other with clear and one has the banner option installed, we haven't used the banner option yet but we have used the White and Clear, we are still working on finding a market to sell 5color too but it works. If you have fine art clients I can see the white being a good seller, since a majority of what we print goes to the Post Office we haven't pushed the white, the clear has more promise for us for postcards.

 

[rainman23]

we have been a Xerox shop for last last 8 years, currently with 3 machines, we looked at the Versant 2100 and Ricoh C7100 last year and after much deliberation jumped ship for the first time and bought the Ricoh. Its now been in 7 months and we done 600k clicks and we are over the moon with the machine. Yes of course we have had a few minor issues, but they are minor, paper jamming is a pain in the arse to start with but once you get use to the way to remove the paper its fine. we have had good service in our area and consumables come on time.

I would say personally I think Ricoh have had a few issues purely done to selling so many of these machines and keeping up with the demand. our registration is fantastic, from to back over a long run is excellent. the long sheet reg is about +/- 1mm which is pretty good in my mind, especially when we run a 225mm x 640mm sheet.

this doesn't mean I have walked away from Xerox as I still love my J75 which has now done over 2 million clicks and is as good as the day it was installed. Again Xerox service in our area is 1st class, the way I look at it now is we have two very good machine manufacturers and service engineers so we are covered for breakdowns and different substrates work better on one machine or the other.

One final note, the final tick in the box for me was if Heidelberg are prepared to re-badge Ricoh machine they must be good as I can't see Heidelberg wanting to damage their long standing brand with a third party machine unless they were VERY happy with Ricoh and the machines.

 

[PR Media]

There was someone on the tests Ricoh? And can share your opinion?

 

[Print Pro]

Hi all,
We have recently bought a 7100 and 9100 and both machines are performing extremely well. These have replaced Xerox machines with 6million clicks. Overall we really rate the Ricohs. Quality on textured and metalic stocks are stunning.

 

[scotrinaf]

We installed the Ricoh C7100 about 6 weeks ago... We researched MANY different machines and settled on this one. We chose not to add the 5th unit for now since we can expand to that later, but we did get the optional BY5010 Multi Bypass Tray which allows us to print a 13" x 49" sheet. I can tell you that printing that large of a sheet prints flawlessly and even on large solids it does a fantastic job. If we get calls for Spot Gloss Varnish, we either do it on press or send it to a trade printer.

So far we've been VERY impressed with the quality, in just over 6 weeks we've put over 100,000 impressions on it (all 12x18 clicks), we are looking at adding another Ricoh black & white unit this summer. We are primarily a commercial offset printer, but I introduced our company to the digital world back in 2007-2008 and we've really increased our sales. We replaced a Ricoh C900 that had nearly 5 million impressions on it, glad to be rid of the fuser oil, and the new fuser design of the c7100 is about 1/3 the size and a LOT lighter...

By the way, we are in the process of doing away with our Epson proofing machines and using the Ricoh 7100 since it matches the press more accurately than the Epsons. (Epson is about a 95% match, Ricoh C7100 is about a 98% match).

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

 

[PR Media]

Thanks for the answer!
As regards the question .. I have a few question
1. How often is a paper jam? (for example in the downloading paper and module duplex)
2. Are there any colors / designs that make problem with a Ricoh?
3. What do you think about duplex in Ricoh?

 

[hojoclan]

Hi Print Pro

How long have you been running your 9100.
Have you got the latest firmware update, and have you discovered some interesting issues.

 

[scotrinaf]

Thanks for the answer!
As regards the question .. I have a few question
1. How often is a paper jam? (for example in the downloading paper and module duplex)
2. Are there any colors / designs that make problem with a Ricoh?
3. What do you think about duplex in Ricoh?

So far jams are almost non-existant unless it's the last sheet out of the tray, then it tends to jam occasionally. The key is making sure your paper size is dead on (We cut all our papers), and making sure you select the appropriate finish & thickness.
We've found that the color is more accurate to our press than our Epson color proofers, we love the color, and large solids are no problem.
Duplexing has a few quirks that we are working out, but registration is quite tight front to back.

 

[pacart]

Originally lots of paper jams, and I mean lots.... now everything is settled down not too many. The main problem is that the sheets jam across a unit and the stupid twiddly things you turn that are meant to clear the gap so you can open the tray to get the paper out do not work so in the end you end up tearing sheets leaving bits inside you have to reach in for. The worst is if it jams on 350 / 400gsm it nearly breaks the feed tray....grayscale is very good compared to Xerox they dont look as grainy, it prints great on metallic. It doesnt suffer from stepped gradients at all they are lovley and smooth

You do realise that the Ricoh is only rated unto 360gsm, however, I say if it'll run why not, that's why we have service contracts.

 

[pacart]

What about the Konica Minolta 1060? I tested all three and found the KM to have superior quality than the other two. The only drawback with the KM is UV coating issues.

The KM1060 is slower and doesn't go upto 360gsm paper, doesn't have the really good registration, the km1085 has the comparable technology for registration.

 

[pacart]

So we are currently cross shopping the Ricoh 7110x and km1085, after seeing the machines running and the print samples and all the good things i've read, I think we are moving in the direction of the Ricoh. It doesn't hurt that the Ricoh is cheaper as well.