Ricoh C9110 recommendations

[_socket]

Hi all,

We are in the market for a new digital printer and the C9110 has some very attractive options. I was hoping to get some input from real world users. I would like to hear how users find this printer holds up against prior machines and what it's up time and image quality are. I have a few concerns because the press does not have inline on sheet color cal. I have run it at my service companies demo room and love the speed, but did see some marking on one occasion which went away after the tech cleaned/replaced second transfer cleaning blade. I'm worried these issues are more prevalent than they want to let on?

 

[InvisSoul]

We don't have a C9110, but we have the C7110 which I believe is pretty similar. We've had out Ricoh for almost 2yrs now and we love it. Previously we had a Konica C8000 which was a nightmare compared to this machine. Things I really like are the speed, the registration from front to back is way better than the Konica, not that it's always perfect but I think it's very good for a digital machine. I really like the fact that we can run sheets up to 27.5" from the extended feed tray. The techs in our area are good and pretty responsive and helpful. I do like the user-replaceable parts, which means less downtime.

As with any toner based machine I dislike the glossy look uncoated sheets get, but thats the nature of toner based machines.

I don't really have many complaints about the machine at all. I'd definitely recommend a Ricoh production printer to others as it's been a really good machine to us.

 

[_socket]

From what I’ve heard the 7110 and 9110 are not related. I’m surprised by your rave review but it might be machine based. We have several shop here with very bad reports on the 7110. I think the issues were paper feed problems. We currently run Konica’s newer line and love the registration, but a lot has changed since the 8000 line. Inline color calibration is also very nice! How do you handle color calibration ? Do you use a Fiery print out/hand scan?

 

[tpmar]

Hi all,

We are in the market for a new digital printer and the C9110 has some very attractive options. I was hoping to get some input from real world users. I would like to hear how users find this printer holds up against prior machines and what it's up time and image quality are. I have a few concerns because the press does not have inline on sheet color cal. I have run it at my service companies demo room and love the speed, but did see some marking on one occasion which went away after the tech cleaned/replaced second transfer cleaning blade. I'm worried these issues are more prevalent than they want to let on?

InvisSoul really nailed it. Been with my Ricoh 9100 since last November after 10 years with series 2 Indigo. The Ricoh is faster, cheaper, and print quality on coated stocks is better than the Indigo. A knock on this machine and probably all toner based machines is their look on uncoated stocks, definitely has a waxy look. This thing is fast, very low maintenance (about 1000% less maintenance and calibrations than the Indigo) and it's neat and quiet. The banner sheet is a nice option although still no one here has any idea how to sell them! Color to color registration is good and the tech service is exceptional. My tech will literally be here in no more than 4 hours and so far it's always been less than that. And you get a whole lot of spare parts, everything is a module and very easy to replace. If something needs replaced, grab it off the shelf and install it, let your tech know and in a few days he'll stop by and rebuild the part I put on the shelf and I'm ready to go again. We looked at Kodak as well as Konica Minolta and of course series 3 Indigo but based on all this the Ricoh was the way to go. I also had a similar marking problem like you mention, and by far it was the biggest problem I've had so far, mine ended up being fixed by replacing a potential sensor that reads the magenta drum. I use the Fiery color profiler suite in demo mode and an external iSis 2 photospectometer. I calibrate on 3 papers twice a week and so far color has been very consistent. Also in our deal is some Gracol training for me, I believe 4 days a year once per quarter, haven't had any of them yet. I just got my RCOP training a few days ago and my trainer told me that because I know the 9100 I could also work on a 7110 because they are so similar. My only bias might be that our salesguy gave me a nice Eagles/Ricoh hat and my team is the Eagles! Nervous as heck about the Super Bowl!!!!!

 

[_socket]

tpmar,

Can you give me an idea of monthly click volume you are running (Letter clicks). Do you run a wide range of stocks? Any jams?

 

[Manafaith]

We installed a 9100 in July after I did demos on the big 3. I went to Chicago and looked at everything Fuji/xerox had and then went to two different Konica locations and then Ricoh. We have had both Xerox and KM machines over the past 15 years and I just wanted to take a fresh look at everything out there. My intention was to look at the 7110 from Ricoh but at the Demo center it failed miserably for my needs and they stepped me up to the 9110. IT BLEW ME AWAY IMMEDIATELY. (even my Fuji rep was blown away when I showed him the samples) As far as print quality, speed and the variety of stocks it will run I could not find anything close. There has not been anything it has not chewed up and spit out the other side. I have ran everything from 20# bond up to 32 Point C1S without a hiccup. I think it would easily go heavier but I cant find anything to try. It is quite an impressive machine with VERY impressive capabilities. Now.... with that all being said, IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO SERVICE.... PERIOD. Your equipment is only as good as the service team behind it. If the techs in your region are terrible, then your machine in turn will wind up being terrible for you. If they have a great support staff behind you, then this machine is absolutely amazing. Like any other new install there are bugs to work out but as you get to know what the big girl likes and dislikes .... the more capable she becomes. On a side note we have one particular customer who prints a MASSIVE amount on 100# Cougar Cover or Accent and one of the main reasons we picked Ricoh was that the glossy appearance on the un-coated sheet is very offset press like once you dial it in . Anyhow hope this helps

 

[tpmar]

tpmar,

Can you give me an idea of monthly click volume you are running (Letter clicks). Do you run a wide range of stocks? Any jams?

Not totally sure what you mean as far as monthly clicks (letter clicks). This one just charges 1 color click per side or one black click, so a 4/1 would be 1 color click charge + 1 black click charge regardless of sheet size, actually it has 2 separate counters, one for color and one for black. That said I'm probably on track for a little over 100,000 color clicks for January and around 20,000 black clicks. Almost everything I run is either a 12 x 18 sheet or a 13 x 19 sheet. I run lots of 60# uncoated text and also have a repeating job on some 120# gloss cover. Almost no jams or issues with feeding. I run some label stock out of the banner tray (#3) and sometimes just because it's sticky I'll get a double pick once in a while but that's about it. I even have a monthly repeat job where I print on 11 x 17 shells that come off of our 8 color U.V web press. This is on 80# gloss text and all I do is put a 1 click black variable address on it. The way it comes off the web press makes it not the ideal grain direction for such a thin sheet, (grain short) for me. Used to always have wrinkle problems with the Indigo and I've done that 2 months with the 9100 (about 10,000 sheets each run) and it has run perfectly both times.

 

[Manafaith]

^ What he said it also prints textured stocks beautifully. Have never had much luck on a heavy laid stocks with any digital until the 9100 came along

 

[tpmar]

^ What he said it also prints textured stocks beautifully. Have never had much luck on a heavy laid stocks with any digital until the 9100 came along

Good point, I regularly print on some 110# linen cover, looks fantastic.

 

[Shawnd]

I have seen, not used the 9110 but it if is better than my 7110's then I wouldn't bat an eye upgrading to it. Feed and registration are spot on and if not the settings are easy to change to bring it back in line.

I will say on my one machine that is older and has more clicks it is starting to have more and more issues with mottling, I keep having to have the tech come in to fix it and we are good for a while then it comes back.

 

[EZPower]

Needed a replacement for our J75. Started to look at various manufactures. Ricoh, Canon, Konica, Xerox. Went to all the demos, 9110 was the game changer. At first we could not believe what we were seeing. Speed, Quality, Price. Spent a day at Ricoh and Xerox, Xerox 3100, to run actual jobs. OMG Ricoh was a clear winner. Speed, Quality, Price. They matched Xerox in price and then some.

 

[Manafaith]

Be interested in hearing where you land on this decision once you do

 

[kslight]

Needed a replacement for our J75. Started to look at various manufactures. Ricoh, Canon, Konica, Xerox. Went to all the demos, 9110 was the game changer. At first we could not believe what we were seeing. Speed, Quality, Price. Spent a day at Ricoh and Xerox, Xerox 3100, to run actual jobs. OMG Ricoh was a clear winner. Speed, Quality, Price. They matched Xerox in price and then some.

We run a couple of J75s which were "new to us" (used but came from closing demo rooms) in a little over a year for one of them and 2 years for the other. We are relatively satisfied with the machines, but perhaps our expectations are in the toilet because we came from a terrible lemon DC8080, and before that DC6060, 2060, 2045... My main distaste with the machines is that service 8/10 times takes more than a full day, sometimes 2 full days to get out here, and many of those calls also results in a callback because they send out someone who isn't trained on that equipment (or drags their feet and doesn't want to acknowledge the problem) because the Office team is too short-staffed here. We do like the inline bookletmaker/square binder on our J75s.

We don't usually "need" 2 machines for the volume, except when one of them is down. I would be curious to see if we would be better served by Ricoh and if Ricoh would take over our lease/etc.

 

[_socket]

We've been demo running a c9110 and are very impressed so far with uncoated (haven't run coated yet) stock. The two main things that stand out are more satin toner and flat sheets. I've never seen a digital printers sheets lay so flat. We always have some wave or curl. I do have a interesting question. If anyone is at liberty to comment. I spoke to my sales guy about banner (27.5") printing and he's not 100% sure how to bill it. He seams pretty sure it can't go as 1 click. I will say I was pretty pleased to hear the cost of a single click sub .03. A second question if anyone could comment on the process for front/back sheet registration adjustments? It seems a tad cryptic. Do you print out a template and then measure? Our current machine you just place it on the scanner and the machine calculates everything.

 

[EZPower]

When we got the J75 we were under the Xerox service. Then one day MOTG called us and said that Xerox who purchased MOTG will now service our J75. MOTG had no knowledge of the machine. Service techs would break parts while fixing other parts that were broken. For months I was telling them the machine was not aligned. Finally they brought a person in to align the machine. They were surprised that the machine was miss aligned and causing wear and tear. Really? Started to look for replacement. Got Ricoh 9110. No comparison to J75 or even 3100. Ricoh service is awsome. We increased the runs on the 9110 because it can handle it, and then some.

 

[tpmar]

We've been demo running a c9110 and are very impressed so far with uncoated (haven't run coated yet) stock. The two main things that stand out are more satin toner and flat sheets. I've never seen a digital printers sheets lay so flat. We always have some wave or curl. I do have a interesting question. If anyone is at liberty to comment. I spoke to my sales guy about banner (27.5") printing and he's not 100% sure how to bill it. He seams pretty sure it can't go as 1 click. I will say I was pretty pleased to hear the cost of a single click sub .03. A second question if anyone could comment on the process for front/back sheet registration adjustments? It seems a tad cryptic. Do you print out a template and then measure? Our current machine you just place it on the scanner and the machine calculates everything.

With our 9100 the banner sheets are charged as 2 clicks per side, so a duplexed banner sheet would be charged at 4 clicks. As far as front to back registration, there are 2 ways to go about it. In the paper library you can go to the advanced settings for that paper and numbers 001 through 004 are you positioning on the sheet. I've done this with everything in my library. But even then sometimes things are off a little front to back so then I use the job properties window under the finishing tab and check the image shift box, then you can fine tune. I usually move the "back" "Y" axis, but good practice would be to move the back a little one way and the front a little the other way to keep everything centered on the sheet.

 

[Manafaith]

As far as registration on the 9100 it is quite good. I have yet to have any front to back alignment issues that couldn't be handled within the Fiery by shifting the image a hair

 

[kslight]

When we got the J75 we were under the Xerox service. Then one day MOTG called us and said that Xerox who purchased MOTG will now service our J75. MOTG had no knowledge of the machine. Service techs would break parts while fixing other parts that were broken. For months I was telling them the machine was not aligned. Finally they brought a person in to align the machine. They were surprised that the machine was miss aligned and causing wear and tear. Really? Started to look for replacement. Got Ricoh 9110. No comparison to J75 or even 3100. Ricoh service is awsome. We increased the runs on the 9110 because it can handle it, and then some.

Sounds a bit like our Xerox team. I can't tell you how many times I called one of our machines in because the registration couldn't be straightened out, and it walked every few hundred impressions. Even with setup of both the SIQA alignment and the Fiery tray alignment still wasn't in spec. Couldn't get the techs to acknowledge a problem. So many emails back and forth to our sales rep and service manager. Finally got the specialist out after so much belly-aching. Turns out a baffle was bent.

 

[kslight]

Anyone use one of these Ricoh for envelopes...#10, A2, A7, etc? I find the J75 to not be that great except for larger envelopes.

 

[Manafaith]

I have had ZERO luck running #10's on our 9100. Ricoh says it will ... but our sales rep told us beforehand that it was very difficult. I know there are people out there doing it but I haven't been able to figure it out yet