Thoughts on the Konica C8000?

[Digital Insight]

Greetings all.

I'm Considering a Konica C8000.....

Any current users here?

How do you like your C8000? The good the bad and the ugly....

How many clicks a month are you averaging?

How is the service?

And MOST importantly, what is your "click" rate?

Thanks in advance

Rob

 

[csudman]

In a word. hell no.

Greetings all.

I'm Considering a Konica C8000.....

Any current users here?

How do you like your C8000? The good the bad and the ugly....

How many clicks a month are you averaging?

How is the service?

And MOST importantly, what is your "click" rate?

Thanks in advance

Rob

 

[Digital Insight]

Csudman

Thanks for the comment

Could you "expand" on your thoughts a bit?

What are the main issues with the C8000?

Thx kindly

Rob

 

[KopyBoss]

How do you like your C8000? Love it
The good the bad and the ugly- When we first got the machine had problems with color registration. They worked on it for about three weeks after that we told them to replace the machine or get it out of our shop. They replaced the print engine and after that we haven't had any major problems. We do a lot of the maintenance our self so we get about 150 - 200K between service calls.
How many clicks a month are you averaging? - Around 275K
How is the service? We are lucky have a very good tech.

 

[airyk]

http://printplanet.com/forums/digital-printing-discussion/27574-konica-c8000-review-please-help
http://printplanet.com/forums/digital-printing-discussion/28153-between-km-c8000-xerox-800-a

 

[ColorKeyOp]

We like our machines. We have three KM 8000's. We calibrate daily, and have averaged the profiles between the three to swap jobs around. Definitely get the Fiery Graphic Arts Premium package.

 

[KennyPowers]

How do you like your C8000? Love it
The good the bad and the ugly- When we first got the machine had problems with color registration. They worked on it for about three weeks after that we told them to replace the machine or get it out of our shop. They replaced the print engine and after that we haven't had any major problems. We do a lot of the maintenance our self so we get about 150 - 200K between service calls.
How many clicks a month are you averaging? - Around 275K
How is the service? We are lucky have a very good tech.

I'm new to the forum but not new to digital 4 color print. We have two KM C8000's and i'm concerned about the number of service calls we have when we are busy. In a busy week, each press goes down daily and a busy week equals 300k clicks per device. Is this typical? I know the machines are rated for 500k clicks per month... are we crazy to think we can run these 5 days a week, 1.5 shifts per day of long run VDP?

 

[Joe Duffy]

I'm new to the forum but not new to digital 4 color print. We have two KM C8000's and i'm concerned about the number of service calls we have when we are busy. In a busy week, each press goes down daily and a busy week equals 300k clicks per device. Is this typical? I know the machines are rated for 500k clicks per month... are we crazy to think we can run these 5 days a week, 1.5 shifts per day of long run VDP?

Your math points out that you are running 83+ clicks per minute per machine for 12 hours a day for 5 days a week(300,000 clicks/5 days/12 hours /60 minutes) and you are concerned you are down for 1 call per day - you need another spare machine to handle the load of the one that will be down. Buy another C8000 for a "service machine" - with the volume you are running it should not be hard to ROI.

 

[KopyBoss]

Your math points out that you are running 83+ clicks per minute per machine for 12 hours a day for 5 days a week(300,000 clicks/5 days/12 hours /60 minutes) and you are concerned you are down for 1 call per day - you need another spare machine to handle the load of the one that will be down. Buy another C8000 for a "service machine" - with the volume you are running it should not be hard to ROI.

Agree at that volume they would almost give you another machine to get the click charges at 0.029 per click(not sure what you pay) for one machine that is $34,800 a month per machine.

 

[rsands]

Had big teething problems at start but after we got a hold of service manual ourselves and studied the process of the machine and its true adjustments its perfect

Reg is great, holds throughout the run, no skew. Pulls heavy weight board no problem at all. Prints are very glossy mind but our customers like that about it. Laminates without a problem.

I think the problem is some people have no clue about the workings of the device and when a service call is needed they cant self fix. Our staff are KM trained to deal with problems onsite without the need for engineers.

Its same as litho....i could get anyone to run our litho presses - train them in 1 day for getting print onto sheets - but the true quality of a print operator comes from ability to troubleshoot and fix problems on the fly.

Great machine....

 

[FastColorInColumbia]

I have a vendor whos 8000 wont handle strathmore 110# bristol 12x18 but another vendor has a 7000 that handles it just fine. i use to have a pair of 6500 and they ran it daily. Any thoughts on on that? Im think its that certain 8000, other 8000s would run it fine. Is there a big difference (engineering wise) between 6500/7000 and 8000?

 

[IR8PIR8]

C8000 is a strong machine

C8000 is a strong machine

When looking at the C8000 the only real machine that fits in that space with them is the Xerox 800.
The Ricoh 901 comes to an absolute creep when doing any mixed media. I have literally seen jobs take over three minutes on a 901 that took under 20 seconds on a C8000. That single fuser on the 901 kills it. It takes forever to switch media, not to mention i hear they have color consistency issues.
It is very important on a C8000 to realize their paper catalog is imperative. You do not want to run that machine with generic paper descriptions, you need to catalog your paper.
Another bright spot for the C8000 is that Konica Minolta manufactures their own finishing and Ricoh and most other manufacturers do not. This means when a VDP job jams you can reclaim on the proper record due to it having true bi directional communication pas the engine. When other manufacturers outsource their finishers to other companies they slow down considerably from engine speed and they also lose communication past the engine. Big problem!
The C8000 also has two densitometers on the inside so they are checking density both pre and post fusing while most others are just doing this once if at all. I also like the 350gsm single sided and the 300gsm duplexed. If you catalog your papers and listen to your trainers they will typically give you a sequence to do these actions, that order sequence is important. If you follow it you will get good consistent registration as well.
I know the C8000 also has a larger color gammut than most engines out there so you can hit those difficult colors a little more easy. I know I have been provided many positive and glowing references on the C8000 and they all seem very happy. You can't make everyone happy, but the majority of C8000 owners I talk to seem to love it.
It's a shame Ricoh directed me to this site and particular blog as a selling tactic against Konica Minolta. There seem to be compliments and complaints on every machine, but if you line the spec's and facts up the KM seems to be stronger.
200 page booklet, 80 page on 901
300 page perfect binder on KM
Dual fuser versus one fuser that winds up and down in temperature for mixed media. exponentially faster on the KM.
The folder on the KM is brilliant, 6 different types of folds, some even nested.

Just my opinion, but the C8000 is gold. The only other machinein its class is the Xerox 800 if you got the money.