Yes:
- Does not hold color consistency throughout runs...even shorter runs. For example, skintones or tan backgrounds shift to pinks. We've started pulling random samples throughout runs, including the first and last sheet to show the service techs how bad it is.
- Color consistency across the sheet: We run business cards 24up and the left column will be a different color than the right column.
- Color registration issues on certain corners of the sheet. This has been a major issue when we have small reverse type, or even logos on letterhead and bus. cards.
- General quality issues such as toning, banding, black marks, and scratches down the sheets will appear even after only a few hundred or a few thousand sheets after the tech worked on it.
- The SD-513 squareback bookletmaker has been a big disappointment as well. The top and bottom trimming are very inconsistent from sheet to sheet, so we end up having to trim them manually. When we use the face trimmer, it leaves all sorts of marks/toner dust on the back cover. We also have random issues such as skewed pages within a book, or it will suddenly trim several inches off the face instead of just 0.5" trim.
- The controller would lose connection at least 2-3 times a day, and we'd have to restart everything. We have the KM controller, not the Fiery. After fighting it and complaining to our techs for almost 2 years, they finally had a specialist out here for a few days to finally figure it out. It has been holding steady since then.
You definitely have some wild issues occurring. We're also an in-plant here, but running a C3080 currently w/ the IQ-501 and SD-513. I'll be taking a closer look at the C7090 and the Ricoh C72xx series in the next couple months as our lease expires (how I found this thread). Your KM issues seem to be much more persistent than ours, but I have run into several of those issues you mentioned on our C3080. I am wondering if some of them have to do with recent firmwares.
We ran into an issue where, after a tech visit, none of our colors were correct. Toner density was off the charts on some paper profiles. We had multiple techs here (including the ones I know are extremely knowledgeable) to troubleshoot this. They gutted the sensors in the RU and IQ and everything looked OK except for a bit of dust. We dialed in that this was only occurring when using the "Plain" paper setting. Any other setting ran as expected. I ended up just changing any paper profiles using plain to use "Color Specific", and that's worked just fine. Still not excusable, but I haven't seen a need for excessive downtime to try and correct it. That said...it's definitely a talking point for any new equipment.
I have also noticed toning on coated sheets, mainly coated using the "Coated-ML" profile. The trained eye can still barely notice it on other coated types, but on Coated-ML it can stick out like a sore thumb, and it's not consistent either. I do use the coated paper types, but I avoid the ML one. I also think this may be a firmware issue as our consumables are well-maintained.
Color and sheet registration have never been an issue, and have always been rock solid; however, the IQ (at least the earlier version we have) has had plenty of issues with dust. I rarely turn on in-line monitoring because it will inevitably find an error despite all sheets looking just fine. It just ends up eating into our run time and wasting paper. That said, I still wouldn't want to run a KM without it as it has made the job much easier overall.
Overall, it sounds like you have a major issue with your SD-513. Either a bad board or connector. I've never encountered the slitters or face trim adjusting on their own, or only some pages in a booklet being skewed (all or nothing). I do get dust on the books from the face trim, but only on the first 2-3 books and it wipes right off - residual from the last job. After that it's a clean run. The only issue I've encountered with the slitters is jamming, and that was due to running a thin stock that just didn't run through them well, or because someone loaded paper larger than what the set size was (the slitters will adjust to be just outside the width of the paper when running flat sheets).
Our controller also loses connection, but maybe once every week or two. It can happen randomly, or if I cancel a job at the right stage in processing (like right after clicking print but before anything actually prints). This doesn't occur every time, but when it does I have to shut everything off and wait 15+minutes for the Fiery to reboot and reconnect.
Color consistency across the sheet has been a developer issue almost every time I've encountered it. Either the powder needs replaced or the pickup roller in the unit is wearing out.
Our primary print quality issue we run into is darker streaks running the same direction as the feed; which 99% of the time is due to dirty corona wires.
