Xanté / RIPiT or not!

jbackus4

Active member
To all using OpenRIP Flexo 5, 6 or 7,

My company is getting ready to purchase a replacement for our current rip system (Agfa Apogee PDF Rip with an AccuSet 1000plus). We are a small to medium sized label printer capable of printing up to 6 colors. I've done as much research as possible on the OpenRIP Flexo 7 system and it seems to be a good match for our company but I am hoping to read some reviews from others who are currently using this system. Especially how each optional feature benefited your operations and if that benefit was cost effective.

It’s a difficult time to spare money for any upgrades so I hope to get all the info I need before we sign at the dotted line.


Thank you all in advance,
John
 
Excellent Question

Excellent Question

Dear John,
Excellent question and I'm looking forward to reading the answers!

If you would like, I can also offer you some direct phone numbers for customers using this software today. We can review specific benefits to your company and you can speak to fellow label printers using these as well. If you give me a call I would be happy to connect you with this information.

My team and I are committed to helping you make the most informed decision possible for your business. I am personally confident you will be tempted by our ease of use, attractive feature set, and value. At the end of the day, our goal is to help you make a confident decision about what will be best for you.

Cheers,
Scott T. Reese
Senior Vice President
Xante
(251) 473-6502
 
Feedback from recent Quick Printing Magazine article

Feedback from recent Quick Printing Magazine article

Dear John,
Here are a few cut and paste comments from a recent Quick Printing story on CTP.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Scott T. Reese
Senior Vice President
Xante (251) 473-6502

"The impact was immediate," states Victor Kishter, owner of Corridor Printing, Columbia, MD, of his Xanté Speedsetter. "It saved us hours a day in our prepress. So getting a job from file to press was cut more than half. It went from a half day process to minutes."
Kishter bought his equipment, which was originally sold by RIPit, just as that company was being bought by Xanté. He initially had some concerns about the change of hands, but says there was no reason to worry. Across the board, every printer interviewed for this article was quick to point out that they have received outstanding service and support from their respective equipment manufacturers.

"Our ROI was immediate from the day it was installed," observes Victor Kishter. "There are not many pieces of equipment you can say that about, but for our company, it was one of the best investments we've made. It had a great impact, economically and time-wise."

"When we went to computer-to-plate, we really had to get our pressmen involved in that process. We didn't want to have them dependent on our prepress people to put out the plates," he points out. "So we got all our pressmen involved in learning about creating templates; learning about how to output the plates for themselves. We saw a bottleneck there. If somebody's out or working on a big project, we don't have our pressmen waiting around for plates to get the job on the press. They have the skill to go in there and get what they need."

Another big benefit to Kishter's company was the small footprint of his CTP equipment. "We had a huge room with all our prepress equipment in it. When we brought that in, we were able to clear out all that prepress equipment. We did a complete conversion and we picked up a whole bunch of space," he relates. And what did he do with that space? Added mailing services in order to open up a whole new profit center.

Several of the interviewees had some words of advice for printers who are considering the move to CTP.

"A lot has to do with what you have in your budget to spend on the equipment. There are higher end devices that have a lot more whiz bang," says Jim Mitchell."There seems to be a lot on the market that gives you this ability these days, but you just have to shop carefully and know what you're looking for. Talk to other people who have used the equipment of the sort that you're thinking about buying. It's always a good idea to do that. Other than that, I'd just say make a decision as quick as you can and move in that direction as soon as you can because there are just so many benefits."

Victor Kishter concurs. He also spoke with others who were already using the equipment he chose. "We were able to take advantage of real world experience, rather than just going on faith in the salesperson. We knew what that piece of equipment was capable of doing and what kind of impact it could have when we bought it."

"I would tell them to definitely go for it because as soon as you set up the piece of equipment, you'll wish you had it 10 years ago" adds John Scott. "As soon as that first plate came off, by the second plate, I was thinking, 'If I'd had this five years ago, what could I have done?'"
 
15 years and counting with Ripit

15 years and counting with Ripit

Hi John,
We have been using Ripit /Xante for around 15 years. We actually got the system back with Allen Rip. We have upgraded our Rip numerous times and our imagesetters over 3X all with excellent results. We were one of the first companies to adopt there Perfect Blend when it came out around 2000. That product alone has saved us hundreds of plate remakes for hard edges and dropped screens. We actually had a DuPont salesman see what we were doing and telling us it was impossible with their water washout plate.
About 2 years ago we went direct to plate with Esko Graphics. There package included new Ripping software and new step and repeat software. We loved our Ripit software so much that after about 2 weeks of working without it due to this upgrade we almost sent the whole package back. We ultimately ended up getting our Ripit software to drive our Esko CDI and now we have the best of both worlds.

Chris Martin
Vice President
Creative Labels Inc.
Gilroy, Ca

P.S.

We also have a Ripit Speed Setter x2 virtual drum imagesetter for sale if you are interested
 
The right choice

The right choice

Hey John,
I can honestly say your making the right choice by going with Ripit. We have been using their rip to drive our imagesetter for over 10 years. We have now upgraded to a cdi and we are still problem free with Ripit. Everything from their software to their customer service is top notch. The old saying you don't know until it's to late. This isn't the case with Ripit. I just can't say enough about them.

Great choice and good luck!

Rick Scott
Graphic Arts Manager
Label Products Inc.
 
Thank you's

Thank you's

To you both, thank you for sharing your insights to your operations. It does give us some peace of mind if we go the Ripit route.


Thank you again,
John B
PTL, Inc.
Uxbridge, MA
 
Can anyone compare OpenRIP Flexo to my current system running Nexus RIP, PowerLayout, Insight and DotSpy? I did have a demo on the OpenRIP (about 4 years ago) prior to purchasing the Nexus RIP, and I was impressed, but I couldn't find any reviews or customer input on the RIP and everyone seemed to say that Artwork-Systems was the way to go for flexo. My Nexus RIP is due for upgrading and I'm looking at other options first to drive our Esko CDI. How is the trapping on the OpenRIP and does the workflow offer a tiff viewer similar to DotSpy? I can use Esko's Bitmap Viewer, but it would be more convenient to be able to view the dots before sending to Grapholas/CDI.

Thanks,
Steve
 
Chris,

Former Ripit employee Erick here, do you still have this box?

P.S.

We also have a Ripit Speed Setter x2 virtual drum imagesetter for sale if you are interested
 
We have a Rip-it speed setter X2 works good I just wish it had a better reg system on it thank god for our plate punch that lines up the targets via scooping the targets works great with our new Ryobi 524GE using Fuji plates
 
We have a Rip-it speed setter X2 works good I just wish it had a better reg system on it thank god for our plate punch that lines up the targets via scooping the targets works great with our new Ryobi 524GE using Fuji plates

I'm a little confused.... You say you have a RipIt Speedsetter X2 using Fuji plates?
The Speedsetter only produces Polyester plates. I wasn't aware Fuji has a polyester plate?

Are you sure you don't have a RipIt VM 2 metal plate system?

Have a great day!
Kim

KJSAKS Enterprises, Inc
ph... 702-561-5936
e-mail... [email protected]
 

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