Upgrade Advice and WC7500 Experience...

[kdw75]

We are a small family run print shop that has been in business over 100 years. We bought a Linotronic imagesetter back in 1989 and later realized that we should have waited for the technology to mature and the prices to plummet before jumping in. Maybe that is why when it came to digital printing we drug our feet and ignored it for as long as we could and focused on offset. Finally we had some of our major clients want variable data and short runs that made us look into laser printers. We had been doing shells on our 4-color offset press and then imprinting the variable data on our Xerox 7760s.

Our service man, who also sells Xerox machines, though not any production machines, convinced us to get a machine with a per click charge and run the entire jobs on there rather than printing offset and then imprinting. He suggested we buy the machine and then get a Pagepack service and supplies agreement on it. The machine he suggested was the WC 7556 by Xerox. After seeing samples that it duplexed on 100# gloss cover and being satisfied with the quality and happy with the front to back registration we bought it. We pay 8 cents per 12.5x19 click for color and 1 cent for each 12.5x19 click. This covers all service and supplies and there is no monthly print requirement. The machine on Xerox's website was 27K and the professional finisher was several thousand more. They agreed to sell us the machine with the professional finisher for 14K, which sounded good even though I hadn't had much experience with Xerox.

We are finding that we are running more on it than we first expected, though not much compared to what many people on here talk about running. We are averaging 32K clicks per month, all of which are 12x18 or larger and more than 3/4 of it is on gloss cover. While there are times when the machine is sitting idle there are other times when it is slowing down production and holding things up because of the slow speed of printing gloss cover 12x18 sheets. We are also having lots of issues with clumping in the developer units. The machine has just over 200,000 clicks and has had 2 sets of developer units replaced. The Xerox repairman says that is it because of the enormous coverage of our work. Tuesday I went through 3 sets of toner in an 8 hour day.

This post is getting longer than I intended so let me get to the point. Would it be much of an upgrade to move to a machine like the 570 over what we have? I was told by the guy that sold us the 7556 that Xerox is now charging double for 11x17 and larger sheets. If that means that a new one would cost us more than 8 cents per 12x18 click for color then that sounds like a deal breaker.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[msaeger]

Are you in the USA? I am not an expert on prices but from what I hear from customers 8 cents sound high even for a single click 12x18.

 

[Keith]

A 570 would be a lot of an upgrade over the WorkCentre series. Your technician is right, it is the heavy coverage; plus the heavy coated stock. That's not helping. I do not work for Xerox but I have run a DC252 (predecessor to the 560/570) for the past 4 years and it still does the job very well. Now, I don't always hit 32,000 clicks but I certainly pound that crap out of it with heavy coverage and heavy coated stocks, always 12x18 or 13x19.

If you are hitting 32,000 a month on average, I would look right past the 570 and consider the C75 or maybe even the J75. The nice thing about either model is it will AUTO duplex all weights. The main difference is the J75 is almost twice the cost of the C75 and will run all weights at rated speed (won't slow down on that cardstock). I came very close to upgrading to a C75 but just don't quite have the volume to justify it. I have the same frustration as you- I'll have days were the machine is just too slow and I have to work overtime and weekends to get the jobs done with a lot of schedule juggling and then the machine sits idle for a few days.

Msaeger is correct. 8 cents is high for any size click but it is the going rate for a machine that is purchased used. If you look into a new Xerox, click rates are less than 6 cents for any size color click. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.

 

[kdw75]

I sent you a PM.

Thanks

 

[kdw75]

I talked to another Xerox Rep. today that sells production equipment and he is putting together some numbers for a 570 or C75. I also found that contrary to what the other guy told me they would only be charging 1 click for 11x17 and larger sheets. He is telling me it should cost just under 5 cents per click.

 

[Craig]

Keith - The difference between production equipment and office equipment is night and day, both in durability and price. Be ready for some sticker shock on the lease amount! Make darn sure you have competent service on that machine if you pull the trigger. The "office tech" may not be able to understand the print for pay world! Making a machine put color on a sheet is a hell of a lot easier than making a machine print sellable sheets!!!

Good Luck!!!

 

[rcreveli]

At my previous employer we bought a Canon 6010. The lease price is high but it runs 30K 12x18 without breaking a sweat. We have fixed for 4 years leas click and it was well under $.06. The lease is fixed so fight on the clicks lower is better as you grow.

 

[kdw75]

He is finalizing the discounts with Xerox, but it looks like we will be getting a 560 with an oversized high capacity feeder, the EFI Internal RIP and a finisher. And it looks like it will save us hundreds per month considering the click price is about half as much. We should be putting about 40,000 per month or more through this machine.

We have lots of trouble with the 7556 varying colors during the run, on high coverage jobs especially. It almost acts like the ink feed can't keep up with demand. Hopefully the 560 won't do that.

 

[adriansto]

We have lots of trouble with the 7556 varying colors during the run, on high coverage jobs especially.

Remember that 76xx machine is office machine and nothing more !

 

[kdw75]

I am anxious to see the difference. I think I am more excited to see how the oversize high capacity feeder and bustled RIP work than I am the machine itself.

 

[kdw75]

I signed the contract the other day after reading it thoroughly. One of the things that caught my attention was how it mentioned that they could charge you for using consumables over what the published yield is for the machine. Below is the section:

4. CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES.
If "Consumable Supplies" is identified in Maintenance
Plan features, Maintenance Services will include black toner and/or solid ink and color
toner and/or solid ink, if applicable ("Consumable Supplies"). Highlight color toner, clear
toner, and custom color toner are excluded. Depending on the Equipment model,
Consumable Supplies may also include developer, fuser agent, imaging units, waste
cartridges, transfer rolls, transfer belts, transfer units, belt cleaner, maintenance kits,
print Cartridges, drum Cartridges, waste trays and cleaning kits. Xerox may charge a
shipping and handling fee for Consumable Supplies. Consumable Supplies are Xerox’s
property until used by you, and you will use them only with the Equipment for which
"Consumable Supplies" is identified in Maintenance Plan Features. If Consumables
Supplies are furnished with recycling information, Customer will return the used item to
Xerox for remanufacturing. Shipping information is available at Xerox.com/GWA. Upon
expiration of this Agreement, Customer will include any unused Consumable Supplies
with the Equipment for return to Xerox at the time of removal. If your use of
Consumable Supplies exceeds Xerox’s published yield by more than 10%, Xerox will
notify you of such excess usage. If such excess usage does not cease within 30 days
after such notice, Xerox may charge you for such excess usage. Upon request, you
will provide current meter reads and/or an inventory of Consumable Supplies in your
possession.

I of course emailed the salesman about this and he assured me that it wasn't a concern and that they would never enforce that. Having his assurances in writing couldn't hurt. With my previous experience with them I tend to agree, but this still makes me uneasy. I haven't found the published yield on the 560, but on most of them I am thinking it is around 5-10% coverage. We average around 60% coverage.

 

[Craig]

My contract said the same thing. It's there in case they find out you are selling the toner on Ebay. They have never enforced this with me and I have 5 or 6 of each color here at any time.