Thoughts on Xerox Versant 3100 ??

[Digital Insight]

My 2nd Colorpress 1000i is coming up for "service renewal" in JULY

I do NOT plan to "renew" on that machine

I am currently running a Ricoh 9200 with a Plock 350 and the "banner" tray so I can run UP TO 13 x 27 inch sheets and 470 GSM

I REALLY like the RICOH, but don't know if I REALLY need "2".......

XEROX is trying to pitch me on REPLACING the 1000i with a Versant 3100


I am familiar with the following XEROX Products:

250
5000
5000 AP
800 Colorpress
1000i Colorpress


I would "mainly" use the 3100 for my "overflow" work when the 9200 is busy.

I don't need to to run anything over 350 GSM

Just looking for a "cheaper" option than buying a 2nd 9200


For those that have a 3100 - FEW QUESTIONS:

#1 - How do you like / hate it?

#2 - What is the BEST and WORST feature of the machine?

#3 - How is it on JAMMING? The Colorpress jams WAY TOO MUCH for my liking. The 9200 runs like butter

#4 - Roughly what is your "service base" $$$ charge PER month?

#5 - Roughly what is your "click"?

I am SUB .03 cents a CLICK on my 9200.....


Thanks for your time.

Much appreciated.

 

[Shawnd]

Why not get a 7200?

 

[SoggyWinter]

The 3100 seems to be a 2100 with bug fixes. Stock Library Manager has constant communications problems. Parts shortages. Poor Xerox-internal troubleshooting documentation for their techs. Duplex registration on 13x19 sheets needs a lot of tweaking. 60gsm paper and carbonless are very jam prone, but heavy media seldom jams. Your stock settings need to be spot on for the weight to avoid jams.

I don't have a lot of faith in Xrx as a company based on their administrative problems, supply chain issues, and possible merger with HP. I would recommend looking at a Ricoh 7200 as a backup for your 9200 if your Ricoh techs are solid. I'm hoping to replace my 3100 with a Ricoh 7200 or 9200 if the pricing and support are realistic. KM and Cannon have some hardware in this class that might be worth looking at too.

For pricing, I would recommend getting some competitive quotes and bouncing between vendors to see how low you can get them. .03 color clicks in the continental US sound reasonable to me, but I'm hardly an industry veteran.

 

[Digital Insight]

Thanks for the feeback SOGGY

Much appreciated.

 

[AP90]

Our experience with the 3100 is just about opposite of Soggy's.

We love our machine. We have just over 4 million clicks on it and it runs like a champ. We actually moved over to this machine from a 1000i also. I think the colors are better on this machine, and the finishing options are a lot better without having to upgrade to the Plock. We can run full bleed booklets inline at a sheet or 2 under rated speed. Its a huge improvement over the 1000i in that case.

I think the best features of the machine are the inline finishing for us. If you don't inline finish, then its not that big of a deal for you. I guess the biggest downside of the machine would be the drums X sends out are junk. Im constantly replacing them. Its not a big deal, takes 30 seconds, but it makes me want to watch the prints just a little more than I should have to incase a drum starts failing.

We don't ever have any jamming unless something like a gear or belt is at EOL. We run a lot of 50# text and it runs like a champ. Haven't had a brand that wouldn't run. But we do run a lot of 80# gloss text and cover. never a problem. All of our business cards are on 16pt Carolina/tango. Don't know if Ive ever experienced a jam on it.

With the Full Width Array, we have never had a sheet that wouldn't be in registration after it did its thing. Machine prints 10 sheets and the last sheet is in perfect registration. Takes about 1 minute for it to run everything.

I wouldn't think you could get sub .03 with this machine. Im going to say sub .04 would be a good click.

Thats pretty much everything I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[SoggyWinter]

Something that I do like about Xerox is their Customer Expectations Document (CED) - it is a fine-grain guarantee of what the press and integrated finishing equipment in question will or will not do including registration for various sheet sizes and operating temperature.

 

[SoggyWinter]

Our 3100 shipped with a defective RoS assembly. After that was diagnosed and fixed, our drum consumption and problems plummeted.

Our experience with the 3100 is just about opposite of Soggy's.

We love our machine. We have just over 4 million clicks on it and it runs like a champ. We actually moved over to this machine from a 1000i also. I think the colors are better on this machine, and the finishing options are a lot better without having to upgrade to the Plock. We can run full bleed booklets inline at a sheet or 2 under rated speed. Its a huge improvement over the 1000i in that case.

I think the best features of the machine are the inline finishing for us. If you don't inline finish, then its not that big of a deal for you. I guess the biggest downside of the machine would be the drums X sends out are junk. Im constantly replacing them. Its not a big deal, takes 30 seconds, but it makes me want to watch the prints just a little more than I should have to incase a drum starts failing.

We don't ever have any jamming unless something like a gear or belt is at EOL. We run a lot of 50# text and it runs like a champ. Haven't had a brand that wouldn't run. But we do run a lot of 80# gloss text and cover. never a problem. All of our business cards are on 16pt Carolina/tango. Don't know if Ive ever experienced a jam on it.

With the Full Width Array, we have never had a sheet that wouldn't be in registration after it did its thing. Machine prints 10 sheets and the last sheet is in perfect registration. Takes about 1 minute for it to run everything.

I wouldn't think you could get sub .03 with this machine. Im going to say sub .04 would be a good click.

Thats pretty much everything I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Bookletmaker]

I run a small magazine and am looking into getting a Xerox Versant 3100 so doing a little research but figured I'd ask people who actually have been using the machine. I'll be running about 20,000 to 40,000 5.5" x 8.5" 12 page saddle stitch no bleed booklets with preprinted media inserts a month and was wondering if anyone knew how fast it prints booklets. Like how many booklets per hour or min.

Thanks in advance!

 

[SoggyWinter]

20 to 30 seconds per booklet without the trim buffer. I would recommend buying an offline booklet maker so that you could print your booklet pages 2up on 11x17 and reduce your click costs by 40%.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

That is almost certainly an offset job. Is there personalization that is making you think digital?

 

[Bookletmaker]

Yea there is some personalization. The short of it is that every 500 to 2,000 booklets there are some significant changes so that's why I was going digital

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

In that case I would recommend a 3100 and an offline booklet maker. You might be able to get by with a Versant 180 as well.

 

[Bookletmaker]

So good to know thanks .. would have been quite the fun surprise to be doing all those booklets at 2 per minute

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

The machine runs booklets at it's rated speed. If you're running a 8.5 x 5.5" booklet, you'd want to run them 2 up on 12 x 18" to save on click cost, then trim and run through a booklet maker. It's not about how fast the machine runs in my mind, it's about how cheap you can make the cost per booklet. We run 8.5 x 11" booklets on our Versant 180 all day long and use our booklet maker, but for larger run, 8.5 x 5.5" booklets we simply output to flat sheets and offline finish to reduce our price per booklet.

If you finished inline for an 8.5 x 5.5" booklet you could realistically see 10+ booklets per minute (I think). I would ask someone like AP90 as he tends to know these numbers a lot better than I do.

 

[kev_24]

My 2nd Colorpress 1000i is coming up for "service renewal" in JULY

I do NOT plan to "renew" on that machine

I am currently running a Ricoh 9200 with a Plock 350 and the "banner" tray so I can run UP TO 13 x 27 inch sheets and 470 GSM

I REALLY like the RICOH, but don't know if I REALLY need "2".......

XEROX is trying to pitch me on REPLACING the 1000i with a Versant 3100


I am familiar with the following XEROX Products:

250
5000
5000 AP
800 Colorpress
1000i Colorpress


I would "mainly" use the 3100 for my "overflow" work when the 9200 is busy.

I don't need to to run anything over 350 GSM

Just looking for a "cheaper" option than buying a 2nd 9200


For those that have a 3100 - FEW QUESTIONS:

#1 - How do you like / hate it?

#2 - What is the BEST and WORST feature of the machine?

#3 - How is it on JAMMING? The Colorpress jams WAY TOO MUCH for my liking. The 9200 runs like butter

#4 - Roughly what is your "service base" $$$ charge PER month?

#5 - Roughly what is your "click"?

I am SUB .03 cents a CLICK on my 9200.....


Thanks for your time.

Much appreciated.

The machine is fast, strong & reliable. It produces excellent color consistency and sharpness

 

[Shaare]

So good to know thanks .. would have been quite the fun surprise to be doing all those booklets at 2 per minute

Your local Xerox analyst may have access to a machine to run a test for you. Send me the file in PM and I can youtube a run for you live.

 

[Mr Production Print]

The machine is fast, strong & reliable. It produces excellent color consistency and sharpness

The Versant 3100 is nothing like the ColorPress in terms of build quality despite the same speed and performance. The image quality is more matte than the CP and it's just over half the price. However, if you're not doing extensive heavy media (which it struggles with) then the Versant 180 might be a cheaper alternative. Why not go for the Ricoh c7200 or, better still, wait for the new Ricoh c5300 (due next month). The quality will be closer to the 9200 then and you can get engineers to take a look at both machines when they visit. It's cheaper than the Versant (it's a back-up to the 9200 anyway). Save your money and invest it is sales and marketing to expand your business!

 

[mapsglobal]

From the beginning we keep having streaks issues and registration issues. We dont have a service contract. Anyone know what can we do to fix these issues?

 

[tngcas]

From the beginning we keep having streaks issues and registration issues. We dont have a service contract. Anyone know what can we do to fix these issues?

We have a V2100 and the banding/streak issues are common. Xerox states that they cannot fix it and that it is within speck. Some streak issue can be fixed by replacing the transfer belt if that's causing it and/or a defective drum but the banding has never been fixed to my satisfaction. We simply cannot print solid blocks of many colors.

My understanding is the 3100 is just the same print engine with a few minor changes.

 

[SoggyWinter]

We have a V2100 and the banding/streak issues are common. Xerox states that they cannot fix it and that it is within speck. Some streak issue can be fixed by replacing the transfer belt if that's causing it and/or a defective drum but the banding has never been fixed to my satisfaction. We simply cannot print solid blocks of many colors.

My understanding is the 3100 is just the same print engine with a few minor changes.

Similiar experience here. When the machine is good its good, but the we seldom can get good solids on non-coated media.