Xante Answers Questions about Digital Envelope Press

[sreese01]

Dear Customers, Colleagues, and Friends,

Thank you for the questions, blog posts, emails, and phone calls about Xante’s new envelope digital press. Three customers in the past weeks have already driven 4 to 10 hours each to our office to see a demonstration. This is a first in Xante history and we can feel the excitement!

We’re getting questions on the new envelope press every day, so let me try to answer as many as I can right here:

First, we have started shipping this product and the first units are soon to be installed. To the many of you who pre-ordered, paid deposits, and patiently waited I would like to say thank you for your patience as we did our final QC.

Second, I realized that some personal experiences I’ve had over the past few weeks go far in answering some of your specifics. I believe these stories are representative of the hundreds of conversations and meetings we’ve had in recent weeks with customers across North America. (I think I’ll post those separately so this doesn’t go on too long.)

Third – A little silver lining here. The tightening economy is bringing price pressure on us, primarily from our own suppliers. As a result we are setting the retail price of the Ilumina Digital Envelope Press+ to $19,995. We will continue our launch special retail price of $14,995 through the end of February at a minimum, and we will honor all quotes during the launch special time period.

My best regards to everyone, and good luck to us all in servicing existing customers, acquiring new customers, and providing best value products and services.

Cheers,
Scott T. Reese
Senior Vice President
Xante
(251) 473-6502

 

[sreese01]

Customer Story, Dave from New York

Customer Story, Dave from New York

Last week I got a call from someone named Dave in New York. Dave said that he had sent an online request for information on the envelope machine and when no one had called him back fast enough, he found my name and phone number on PrintPlanet. (After of course apologizing that he hadn’t heard back from anyone yet), I asked him about his business and printing.

Dave evidently has a thriving print shop. He’s moved from being 100% offset to almost 100% digital. No more GTO presses; now he does his work on two big Xerox machines churning out fast turn work. However, he still has two duplicators that he keeps to run 1c/2c envelope jobs. Dave gets 7-10 envelope jobs /week, and it costs him too much time and too many headaches doing the jobs this way. Dave would like to replace the duplicators as well, but his Xerox machines can’t do the job. He told me that “there is no digital solution on the market for envelopes, at least that works acceptably.”

We did the math together. For his current envelope jobs with his AB Dick duplicators:

Cents USD, Per Envelope:
Cost of envelopes:

​

1.3
Cost of production:

​

1.5
Cost of labor:

​

Too Much!
Total Cost:

​

2.8
Revenue (1c/2c only):

​

7.5
Gross profit (not including 'too much' labor): 4.7 per envelope / 63%
Delivery Time: Couple Days

Using a Xante Ilumina Digital Envelope Press+:
a. Cost of envelopes & production: approximately the same, about 3 cents for typical Com10 envelopes with 4c image printed in return address area.
b. Quality: now producing 4c for same cost as 1c/2c.
c. Revenue for 4c goes up dramatically.
d. Cost of labor drops (print from PC/Mac, go get job, load envelopes, carry away printed envelopes).
e. New Gross Profit: 100%+, 15+ cents per envelope (minus not much labor).

Dave is now talking with a sales representative and we’re confident he will make the decision to invest this month.

I’m happy to answer any questions on this directly. Please feel free to call me.
Cheers,

Scott T. Reese
Senior Vice President
Xante
(251) 473-6502

 

[sreese01]

Customer Story, Robert from the South

Customer Story, Robert from the South

A true story from last week. Please call me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Scott T. Reese
(251) 473-6502

Robert, owner of a medium-sized commercial print shop here in the south, drove 4-1/2 hours to visit us last week to see a demo of our new Ilumina Digital Envelope Press+. He has a big & profitable operation including iGens, DI, a 6c 4 over 4 sheet fed press, a narrow web flexo press, and a design & prepress department. One challenge for Robert today is the numerous short run envelope requests he does for his customers. For example, some of the shop’s best customers are a group of local colleges & universities. These customers keep Robert’s presses busy. However, they also routinely request short-run envelope jobs from 500 to 2,500. To produce this work, the shop:

1. Sets up the envelope job on the DI press (plate cost alone is $80 for the DI).
2. Runs the job.
3. Packages and Ships to the customer.

Robert definitely takes care of his most profitable customers. What he really wants to achieve is to:

• Keep customers happy and supplied with short run envelope requests.
• Keep the DI press running work much more profitable than short run envelope jobs.
• Make more profit on small envelope requests (as Robert puts it, when it comes to his equipment purchases and work in his shop, “I only care about making money”).

Robert was very pleased with the demonstration from our CEO and engineering team. He handed us an American Express card and said, “Please bring one over and install it next week”.

Bottom Line: We are installing one in his shop next week.

 

[sreese01]

Update To Install

Update To Install

As a follow up to this install, after setting up the new Envelope Press the customer ran 10,000 6.5x11 fold over postcards through the Ilumina Envelope Press to print the variable data addresses. Normally, they would have sent this out to a mail house to get addresses printed and then bring it back in house to fold and seal and mail. They saved time and delivered the job faster. We showed the customer they could produce letterheads, business cards, envelopes, post cards, etc. from their new envelope press. The customer was excited to combine typical short run orders for 1,000 envelopes, 2,000 letter heads, and 500 business cards all on one production machine to get matching color and ease of handling the jobs.

Any questions, please feel free to call me.

Cheers,
Scott T. Reese
Xante
(251) 473-6502

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

When did they convert it over to a conveyor on the exit of the machine? I never though the system that dropped them to a catch bin on the floor was an efficient or ergonomic friendly way.

What is the speed if you were to run a small size card if it runs 60 envelopes a minute and 36 letter pages a minute?

 

[User Name]

Buy a Okidata 9800 its cheaper!

Buy a Okidata 9800 its cheaper!

Buy an Okidata C9800 its cheaper and you can stick $15,000 in your pocket and make more profit. It takes alot of envelope to make up the $15,000.00

 

[Craig]

Scott,
Your are advising folks to run letterhead on an Ilumina, correct? How extensive is your research in regards to running a toner printed product through another laser printer or copier? Currently our advise to customers is don't do it. I do not want to be responsible to replace a fuser unit on someones laser printer or copier because of letterhead that I sold them ruined it.

 

[Keith]

Craig, I have an Ilumina and have successfully printed letterhead for my customers. Once, I had a problem with the toner smearing after it went through the customers printer. And it didn't happen till they reordered the letterhead. Apparently, the first run went through their machine fine. So, I took back the order and ran it back through my Ilumina- no problems untill I cranked up the heat. On another thread, Hal mentioned to me that his ink smeared from his Ryobi 3302 after it went through a customers printer. But honestly, whenever I do letterheads I educate the customer and forewarn them of what may happen. A "disclaimer", if you will. The alternative, I tell the customer, is to go offset but they'll have to order 10,000!!! (Heh! Heh! Heh!)

I love running letterhead because the coverage is so light, I can actually make some money. (No service contract so I pay for what I use).

Keith

 

[Craig]

Thanks for the reply Keith!

 

[rayadorob]

Scott:

We recently bought the DEP & are very happy with it. What variable data software package would you recommend? I know the Xante will run anything our PC feeds it. Was just wondering if any favorite or standard software has risen to the top.

Regards,

Rob Wright

 

[hart]

good morning.

the shop i'm in just got one of these machines and unfortunately there is not alot of help nor information on printing with it. it is a fairly straightforward printer, but it does not seem to want to duplex the envelopes. anyone have any answers on this? i'm also curious about the pressure showing the embossing through the print. is there a way to adjust the it?

thanks in advance for any info you guys can throw out.
christopher

 

[Happyprinter]

Consumables

Consumables

Scott,
I was curious of the costs of consumables, such as toner, transfer belt, drum, fuser, service life and can the owner preform the service on the unit?
Thanks,
Brian

 

[Keith]

Xante Laser Printers - Myriad Film - The Richardson Company

..and the only way to fix it is yourself. Well, while it's under warrenty the parts won't cost you and they'll walk you through on the phone. Even after the warrenty, they'll walk you through on the phone. I needed warrenty work on mine and they sent someone that was "Xante certified" but I wasn't impressed. I did all my own work on the machine, it's easy to work on. The best help I got was from the link above- he'll walk you through most problems over the phone.

Keith

hart, it cannot duplex envelopes. It's max duplex is "medium heavy" which I think is 28lb bond. ANd I may be wrong, but I think the new machines' duplex unit is an OPTION. So it may not even have one on there.

 

[hart]

thank you, i found out that the duplex unit is an doption the owner did NOT purchase. =)
now , my question is, we moved it this morning, but now i can't seem to get the m feeder to run? anyone run into this problem?

 

[GotToner?]

when you say that you are having trouble getting the feeder to run, do you mean it is jamming? If so, be sure to check that the machine is PERFECTLY level. Take a tape measure and measure from the floor to the corners and make sure that it is same all the way around (feeder and printer). Even a 1/4" can cause jamming.

 

[postnetnc133]

How is the quality on the Xante? I heard it is not digital print quality but more light print quality? That is also what I heard about the RISO 5500. both great for the very light color coverage and when the customer doesnt need perfect. Is this so?

 

[OutSourceD]

Buy an Okidata C9800 its cheaper and you can stick $15,000 in your pocket and make more profit. It takes alot of envelope to make up the $15,000.00

Is this true? It obviously will not come with the feeder or the delivery unit, right? What about the software for variable data? I will check it out with a local dealer.

 

[Keith]

How is the quality on the Xante? I heard it is not digital print quality but more light print quality? That is also what I heard about the RISO 5500. both great for the very light color coverage and when the customer doesnt need perfect. Is this so?

I'm not sure what digital print quality vs. light print quality is, but I'd say the Ilumina quality is very good. It will certainly beat the pants off any Riso inkjet. The first thing I did when I got my DC252 was compare the quality between the two machines. Guess what. You got to look close. Of course most of us printers will see differences of night and day. Xerox had smoother solids, gradients looked great and overall the color just popped more. My Ilumina is at a slight disadvantage being three years old and it did take over an hour of fiddling with the machine to get it to look good (I don't remember it always being like that). And I don't know about your cutomers, but most of them will not be able to see the differences.

Yes, the Ilumina is much better for light coverage. If you did a lot of low price commodity work or heavy coverage, you will go broke. The machine is GREAT for envelopes, letterhead, business cards, invitations and any stupid little job you can't fit through any other digital press (you can shove anything in there, maybe that's why it's not so hot any more?). My Xerox can't even hope of printing on envelopes but it will do 1000
6x9 postcards 4/4 with solid coverage for less than fifty dollars. The Ilumina you ask? Let's just say I could make an extra lease payment on my Xerox.

Keith- owner of X and X

 

[postnetnc133]

Okidata C9800 doesnt look like it is a straight feed for paper and envelopes so when doing envelopes I would think one would have to deal with a lot of curling, is this so?

Is it a straight feed for envelopes?

I love my DC252 but dont like that I cant do envelopes that well with it. I still run smaller quantities of envelopes through my DC252 but my customers are aware that the edge may be a little wrinkled but I havent had any issues.

 

[OutSourceD]

Is this true? It obviously will not come with the feeder or the delivery unit, right? What about the software for variable data? I will check it out with a local dealer.

Okay this is not true. Spoke to several dealers and they informed me it will not handle envelopes in any decent quantity and it is not rated to do envelopes.