Xerox 1000 strong banding, registration, color consistency..

[kanovits]

Good evening,
We have installed a Xerox 1000 Press in July 2013, and started with awesome print results.. till september. Our problems started with 1mm +/- registration problems, then with unpredictable artefacts on pages (something like strong JPG compression artefacts visible on all solids), toner fixation problems on heavy stock (300 & 350g, white spots with missing toner particles everywhere). Tech staff adviced to set manually the fuser temp to maximum +10, but after another weeks it was not enough to print on 300g stock with setting of 350g and fuser temp max... While after the installation we printed superb results with default fuser temperatures.. Tech staff first said that we have bad paper, but another X1000 at neighbor printer service printed to our stock with perfect result. In meantime the quality of our prints are worse and worse, with strong visible repeated banding, bad toner fixation at the edge of sheet, bad registration between two printed color strips (like when we must to use trapping, white band between two colors, but in this case enabling trapping not helps). Tech staff serviced the machine for 2 weeks, replaced drums, fuser belt, registration motors... The result is much better overall print quality, but the strong banding and coloration effect is still visible, toner fixation at the edge still problematic. Xerox yet sent us a statement, that these effects are normal and this is not offset quality machine... Welcome any advice. Thanks.

 

[arossetti]

Can we see a picture of what you are talking about?

 

[jotterpinky]

good to know others are having trouble with this machine. We nearly bought this one and were still looking at it for an upgrade next year but we'll look more closely as well as at some other brands as well if they are giving you the run-around. In our experience Xerox has been the best to deal with for production environments (we've had Canon, KM, and Ricoh before) but if they won't stand by their equipment, especially that machine then it sound like they are aware of some problems and do not have fixes for them yet. Yikes.

 

[poppin]

Machine produced superb prints and subsequently faced problems. Very classic example of the importance of having a very strong and able team of support staff from X, or as a matter of fact, every brand.

I have personally seen the X1000 at work; no doubt is one of the best around in its class. Your scenario shouldn't be happening. I suggest you have a meeting (table banging might be required!) with X's senior service staff in your area. Their reputation is at stake. I think they will do something. And for drastic measures to be implemented, you gotta bang the table harder!

Best of luck! Do keep us posted on latest development.

 

[gsb]

We are actually experiencing similar issues with our X770. Installed in march, lots of great print results. We've recently seen a decay in stability, after a whole day of changing mechanical parts, problems still persist a couple of days later. Service level has dropped dramatically in the last 12 months, with response times seemingly becoming longer by the month, also for our nuvera's. Large fluctuations in staff competence vs. issue complexity.

A lot of paper blaming, and table banging has been done. Due to increase in print volume we considered looking at a 1000, but with their service history, i'm starting to look around.

There is no end to how fabulous these machines are when you buy them, but as soon as you have image quality issues there are all kinds of excuses and limitations. On our old 260 they forbid us to print JAC digital labels, as they weren't on the official media list because one time a labels slipped of the sheet and burned onto the belt. One time!

 

[SherrySpencer]

Effective discussion. Thanks for sharing it though. Window Displays

 

[Juleulven]

There is no end to how fabulous these machines are when you buy them, but as soon as you have image quality issues there are all kinds of excuses and limitations. On our old 260 they forbid us to print JAC digital labels, as they weren't on the official media list because one time a labels slipped of the sheet and burned onto the belt. One time!

many of theese problems occur when salesrep dont show the enduser (or enduser ignores) the "Customer Expectation Document".
On all printers from Xerox theese documents exists and show what kind of registrations are to be expected from different trays, which paper types and so forth ...

e.g. a DC260 (prof. finisher) cant booklet fold papers with more than 90gsm and if people try to push the device beyond thoose limits problems begin to show when device is used ..
another example is that people try to use autodupleks on coated papertypes 220gsm when in reality the device aren't built for that ...

 

[gsb]

many of theese problems occur when salesrep dont show the enduser (or enduser ignores) the "Customer Expectation Document".
On all printers from Xerox theese documents exists and show what kind of registrations are to be expected from different trays, which paper types and so forth ...

e.g. a DC260 (prof. finisher) cant booklet fold papers with more than 90gsm and if people try to push the device beyond thoose limits problems begin to show when device is used ..
another example is that people try to use autodupleks on coated papertypes 220gsm when in reality the device aren't built for that ...

We have seen the CED for the 770, and the machine has had serious issues delivering the promised quality. We have to push transfer charges higher and the machine has had a "mottle-reducing" modification. However, that mod slows the machine down when operating at more than 170gsm - so much for a "high speed printer". However we are pushing the top end of the rated AMPV for the machine by now. We have demanded that xerox carries out bimonthly preventive maintenance, and they have agreed to do it - so we hope this will solve some of our issues.

 

[gsb]

Juleulven -> it would be a great idea to add a signature, that tells people that you are a xerox sales partner and not an end-user of the product.

 

[jdkmfish]

Hello
Just an FYI, I do not work for Xerox.
We have the colorpress 1000 for about 2.5 years,
It is a great machine, a workhorse, and runs beautifully.
Everything from heavy stock to paper, quality is excellent with
The exception of printing too glossy on uncoated stocks.
If you are getting white hazing in your solids,
Especially on uncoated stocks, that is your transfer bias,
It needs to be adjusted up or down for that paper stock.
Or it could be environmental, if the humidity level is low,
Below 20%, that can cause issues. Buy a small room humidifier.
A lot of your listed problems sound like a combination of a inexperienced operator and a bad service tech.
As for registration, we only had one issue, ever, and that was related to a particular paper tray , we have 4 trays.
For registration, you need to create a paper profile for every stock and for every paper tray, each tray will require a different alignment profile for each stock. You need to put in the time to setup your machine properly,
If you want good results.
As for banding, we only had one issue and that was due to the clients file,
The gradient went from 4 color to single color black, and we had to recreate the file.
If you are getting banding, in all your gradients, that is your front end,
Is not setup properly, the screening, color profiles, etc.
You need to have xerox get a front end tech into your place to help
Good luck