Maybe look at something like a DI press? They're fairly inexpensive to buy anymore and are supposed to "bridge the gap" between offset and digital. Quality should be excellent
Have you looked at the Ricoh 9100 / 9110? They are rated 110ppm 150ppm for A4 but actually run faster on large sheets, sorry can't remember off of the top of my head how much faster. They are pitched in the heavy production (i.e. iGen) class. Price wise they start at around 2x the price of a similar spec Xerox Versant 2100, but below the similar iGen models. The list on our 9110 was GBP270K, so I guess around USD350K. They are big, with heavy duty construction and the paper path through the machine is not cramped like in the smaller mid production machines. We bought a 9100 a couple of months ago. Some teething problems, but Ricoh are working with us and so the jury's out on whether we'll be happy with it.
Some positives. Firstly the image quality is excellent. Way better than the already very good Versant 2100 (which we have as well). The print is much less glossy than a Xerox C1000, much more similar to litho. The colour consistency is also good. We print a lot of high end hardback books, so have to have perfect quality. We print far less than you, but it's not seasonal for us. In the 2 months we've had it, it's had no problem producing 200K large clicks (i.e. 400K A4s) per month single shift. Far less than it's duty cycle, I can't remember exactly what that is but c1M per month
It's not fair to list the faults as Ricoh is still working on them, but they are significant. We aim to move more work onto this machine once (if?) Ricoh gets it working properly.
Anyway, 2x Ricoh 9110 would easily do your seasonal volume so worth you looking at.
You can get a rebuilt DI for 110,000 for the 34 series. I am pondering one for the future. I just can't justify the labor if a pressman.
What are the click charge and maintenance agreements like on a 9110?
You are going to have to speak to Ricoh about that, but roughly in in line with an iGen5. AFAIK Ricoh will only sell & service the 91xx series direct, so you need to contact them if interested.
I've got to say I think the machine has great potential, fast, excellent print quality, stable colour etc., however I cannot recommend it. We still have major problems with ours and I am extremely unimpressed with Ricoh's handing of the ongoing problem. I'm sure that others will have the same type of war stories about Xerox, HP, etc., however we have an extremely expensive machine with major issues that hasn't worked right since installation 2 months ago. Patience is running thin.
That is why i am still very much an HP guy we have xerox and Hp machines and yes they both go down. We just had a J75 down for over a week and xerox did not seem to concerned. But when the Indigo goes down if my local tech can't get it up in a day or two Hp will start flying guys in from out of state and they are in here everyday until it is printing again. Hp will do that for us even though we only have one of there machines there are customers that have 20 plus indigos and Hp will actually give them a full time on sight tech. I just can't get management to understand that they get what they pay for. Cost is the only legitimate reason they have for moving on from Hp which i understand it is all about the bottom line. But that does not matter if the cheaper machines can't do what we need them to.
DannyB, what did you guys end up getting?
Looked at a KM c1100 sitting across the room and have been smiling ever since. The drawbacks to the KM as I see them is the finisher can't hold as many sheets and the remaining prints counter isn't working yet.
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