Ricoh C900

[SirPrintsAlot]

Let me guess Deckm.. You are going to tell me that I can't duplex 100lb cover either huh? Because I can send you the samples that I did duplexed on Friday on it.

 

[GregNac19]

Let me guess Deckm.. You are going to tell me that I can't duplex 100lb cover either huh? Because I can send you the samples that I did duplexed on Friday on it.

Are you sure you printed on the Ricoh 900? Might have been a Xerox 5000!

 

[SirPrintsAlot]

Yep Im sure it was done on the C900. I am not here to talk bad about other machines. Just make sure that people are comparing apples to apples. If you doubt me on what it can do then all I can say is go get a demo on it and run some of your jobs on it. If I wanted to get in a fight I would go wear a SD Charger jersey to a Raider game. You don't buy a car without a test drive so go do one if you are looking for a machine.

 

[SirPrintsAlot]

This is straight out of Printweek.com.

I am not making it up.

The C900 runs at its rated speed of 90 A4 ppm across the entire range of stocks both coated and uncoated, at all sizes, including 2up on SRA3 and on its entire rated stock range of 60-300gsm. Before we started development we asked printers about their pain points and included the feedback in the specification, says Moloney. One of the biggest gripes was the speed reduction of other digital presses on coated, duplexed and heavy stocks. The C900 is 90ppm whatever you throw at it, he says. One of the biggest headaches printers identified with machines that slow down was in trying to schedule and plan around variable speeds.

In the past three years Ricoh has expanded on its roots in office imaging, adding production print products with the acquisition of Hitachi’s printer business and the distribution company Infotec. It has also taken a stake in Infoprint Solutions, IBM’s high-volume print division, which Ricoh will eventually wholly own.

 

[UberTech]

I do know my specs. What % coverage are you talking about with those specs? What kind of paper type are you using? Coated, uncoated? Thick1, Thick 2, Thick 3, Thin? All these have to answered to get the exact speed. For those that don't believe I am telling you to go down and check one out. I am not trying to sell anyone on here anything. Why do you buy a nice car? Because of its top speed or because if its reliability? Its easy of use? The Price? The added features? There is more to life than speeds and feeds. I have a question for the product manager. Where can I get paper tested and put on the approved paper list?

Coverage governs print speed? Wow keep em coming printsalot, your doing wonders for the rest of us.

 

[UberTech]

Wow after all that, thats all you can say to defend KM? So if coverage doesn't change anything then why should a sheet size? You also probably think that if you drop two objects of different size off a building that the larger object falls faster.

This is a piss take right? Seriously come on who is this? Is this some xerox rep trying undermine Ricoh or something?

 

[X33]

Coverage governs print speed? Wow keep em coming printsalot, your doing wonders for the rest of us.

that's a good one !

this guy (sirprintsalot) just doesn't get it.

 

[CSimpson]

The coverage comment has me lost

However, the specs he gave on the Ricoh are very close to what I witnessed at a demo if not exact. The machine is fast, that said the demo runs I got had toner flaking problems and streak marks that look like they were from rollers about a .5" from the top and bottom edge of the sheet. Could have probably been somthing easliy fixed, but it doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence when someone gives you sample that have real noticable issues.

 

[UberTech]

The coverage comment has me lost

However, the specs he gave on the Ricoh are very close to what I witnessed at a demo if not exact. The machine is fast, that said the demo runs I got had toner flaking problems and streak marks that look like they were from rollers about a .5" from the top and bottom edge of the sheet. Could have probably been somthing easliy fixed, but it doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence when someone gives you sample that have real noticable issues.

I concur with this. They were handing out samples with pride at Pacprint (Aussie trade show) that were streaky, blurry, jagged text and basically abismal. How can a tech fix something he can't see or understand.

 

[GregNac19]

I concur with this. They were handing out samples with pride at Pacprint (Aussie trade show) that were streaky, blurry, jagged text and basically abismal. How can a tech fix something he can't see or understand.

I am happily going to agree with Uber on this one. There were samples at Drupa this year and the samples of the Red in Ricoh were drifting over a few pages. Also, the color text looked jagged.
Great speeds and feeds from a company that does not have any "production experience".

 

[msaeger]

The toner not adhering problems I have witnessed have been fixed by changing paper type settings. There are a ton of different settings which vary the fusing temp, speed, and nip pressure.

Ricoh purchased Hitachi's production printing division several years ago and the c900 contains technology developed by both them and Ricoh.

 

[[email protected]]

First of all it'll auto-duplex up to 220gsm using the Thick2 setting. That said, many C900 users are running heavier weight stocks auto-duplexed at thick2 that would normally only run at thick3 (non auto-duplex) and getting away with it with no detrimental effects to the machine or quality.

The toner flaking issues have been dealt with and can almost always be eliminated by adjusting fuser temps and pressure, a simple process.

Color consistancy is awesome now compared to the earlier pre-release models seen at some of the shows last year. Pantone matching is great from the get-go with no adjustments (but the Fiery server has tons of color tuning features).

Roller marks and fuser streaking is now a non-issue as well thanks to some changes the Japanese engineers have made and is being cut into production as well as existing boxes right now.

I would agree though with one thing with SirPrintsAlot says, beauty (and value) is in the eye of the beholder. Go check it out for yourselves and see. Ricoh would be more than happy to run actual customer or test files vs. canned demo files and run your stock as well.

 

[nedmondson]

Physcial size of the main print unit

Physcial size of the main print unit

Great thread.

I am interested in placing this in my in-plant print department. The brochure states the main print unit size as (W D H) 49.2 x 43.3 x 56.7 inches. My question is; the depth of 43.3 does that take in consideration the rip attached to the back of the copier? Will this machine fit through a standard 35" wide door? I do not have baydoors here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[msaeger]

Great thread.

I am interested in placing this in my in-plant print department. The brochure states the main print unit size as (W D H) 49.2 x 43.3 x 56.7 inches. My question is; the depth of 43.3 does that take in consideration the rip attached to the back of the copier? Will this machine fit through a standard 35" wide door? I do not have baydoors here.

Thanks in advance.

Those dimensions include the fiery, the fiery is inside the back panel of the machine not just strapped to the back. The rear section of the machine can be removed if needed to get through a narrow door.

 

[[email protected]]

Specs

Specs

Great thread.

I am interested in placing this in my in-plant print department. The brochure states the main print unit size as (W D H) 49.2 x 43.3 x 56.7 inches. My question is; the depth of 43.3 does that take in consideration the rip attached to the back of the copier? Will this machine fit through a standard 35" wide door? I do not have baydoors here.

Thanks in advance.

That is correct, 43.3 includes the Fiery. The doorway/passageway needs to be at least 43.3". If not, the rear unit can be removed onsite by a tech - reducing the depth of the unit to 29.5". Or, just the Fiery can be removed, reducing it to 38.8".

Your local Ricoh tech or SE can provide you with more details. If you want to contact me I'd be happy to hook you up.

 

[sccball22]

Ricoh vs Canon

Ricoh vs Canon

I am new to this forum, and need some info. I have a client looking to lease a new color digital printer. They are looking to go with the Ricoh C900, or the Canon Imagepress C6000. This company comes to me for support in their larger acquistions, and I help them do a little research. So far my client likes the color quality on the Canon better than the Ricoh, but the Ricoh is cheaper. If anyone can give me the good bad and the ugly that would be great. If the Canon quaility is truely better, I don't want them to settle for the Ricoh just because of the price.

 

[CMCRhonda]

We have had the C900 for a couple months now. Like all our previous digital units (Canon and Konika's mostly) we have had some issues with the hype matching the machine.

Overall I am satisfied - but we got a heck of a deal on our unit.

Issues that we have:

Paper feeding jams - even with the air assist, it struggles to feed heavier stocks consistently.

Greasy/oily look on glossy stock - depends on colors used in the print, but some jobs look really bad on glossy (especially jobs with black/gray tones). Yes, we used the approved paper and settings.

Roller marks - even though we mostly run 12x18, we get a lot of roller marks/scracthes on heavier coverage items. techs have to come and service fairly often for that.

Stock choices - even using the "approved" list of stocks, we struggle to find stocks that will perform consistently with our heavy coverages. Commom issue is blothes in the print. Techs blame it on humidity and say there's nothing we can do about it.

Registration - some stocks register well, others terrible. Tech says it's from paper stretching - basically, we have to manually try to line up each job.

VDP - we have PlanetPress and sending a 4 up, 2 sided, 4 color postcard job with address that runs about 6 ppm. Sending the job as FreeForm speeds it up slightly - about 12 ppm. We can't send the images directly to the printer - PP reports there is no memory. All vendors involved want to blame eachother and get more money to troubleshoot.

Free Form 2 won't work - Ricoh was sent info and sample files - no progress reports for weeks.

We got some additional capabilities compared to our Konika 500, but there's a lot of tweaks to go...

We do have the small booklet maker/stitcher - after about 25 books the output tray fills and the machine stops - so you have to babysit those jobs.

 

[BackLight Production]

The Canon will without a doubt give you the best color and quality, end of story on those issues. How good is the service in your clients area, a big factor to look at. Canon has been deploying their technology for apx. 3 years and they want the lite-production market. Make no mistake neither the Canon or the Ricoh is a "production" machine, in the printing industry. Good luck, remember to check on service in your clients area.

 

[sccball22]

I believe both companies have decent service. Both sides have customers who love them, and I am sure they have some that hate them. I have some other things I have heard about the Ricoh that I would like to know if they are true. I have been told locally that the Ricoh C900 is Ricohs old black and white machine with color capabilities. I guess this means instead of building this machine from the ground up, they just threw some color technology in a exsisting machine. Thanks for all of your help guys.

 

[msaeger]

I believe both companies have decent service. Both sides have customers who love them, and I am sure they have some that hate them. I have some other things I have heard about the Ricoh that I would like to know if they are true. I have been told locally that the Ricoh C900 is Ricohs old black and white machine with color capabilities. I guess this means instead of building this machine from the ground up, they just threw some color technology in a exsisting machine. Thanks for all of your help guys.

The c900 is a totally new engine. There are like any other machine some things that are similar to other models but it is not an old B&W with color added whatever that would mean anyway. Ask they guy saying that what old B&W it's based on . Like the internal trays are similar to some other models.

If you are interested in a canon 6000 or a ricoh c900 just demo them both and see what you like better make those sales people work for it. When you demo make sure it does what you want and what you wanna do is within the specs of the machine. There is nothing worse for me than having to service someplace for 5 years with a machine they don't like.