Xerox C60 vs J75 vs V80

[gazfocus]

I’m currently using our Konica C3070 for printing sheets of labels and have been looking for a relatively cheap machine to dedicate to labels. Originally looked at the Versant 80, I’ve just been offered a C60 with adaptive colour kit to enable it to print white, gold and silver.
The C60 with the adaptive colour kit is about the same price as a standard J75, and about £2000 less than a Versant 80.

I know the C60 is more of a supercharged office machine but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on which you’d go for.

 

[Some Guy]

The J75 is the best of the lot. It was designed before the cost savings were put into the others.

Former Xerox Tech

 

[Lorenzo lab guy]

Our V80 does a good job with labels with just one jam recently. We have looked at the output from the Xerox adaptive color kit as you call it. We were unimpressed with the samples. They are interesting but do not give the WOW factor that the Iridesse ( I know, much more expensive) or other processes give. We currently use a digital foil machine to embellish cards. The Xerox solution would save labor but would be step back in the look of the product. Our V80 has been very reliable but are getting ready to move to the V3100 or 4100.

 

[azehnali]

Our V80 does a good job with labels with just one jam recently. We have looked at the output from the Xerox adaptive color kit as you call it. We were unimpressed with the samples. They are interesting but do not give the WOW factor that the Iridesse ( I know, much more expensive) or other processes give. We currently use a digital foil machine to embellish cards. The Xerox solution would save labor but would be step back in the look of the product. Our V80 has been very reliable but are getting ready to move to the V3100 or 4100.

If you ever want to consider a refurbished 3100 I have one with all accessories

 

[Ynot_UK]

@gazfocus IIRC you mentioned on another topic you liked your 3070 but wanted another label production machine on a different floor?
Maybe worth considering a refurbished 3070 and yielding the benefits of staying with KM and two machines that use the same parts & consumables. International have currently got a low mileage 3070 available in the UK (which you'll find advertised in the public domain for silly money) but don't be put off by that as they're sound as and will cut a good deal.

Alternatively you could make your current 3070 the label machine and invest in a 4070/4080 as your main digital press. We've had our 4080 for six weeks now and are absolutely delighted with the results so far.

I looked at some samples a while back from machines with "5th toner stations" and was underwhelmed. Unless you've a niche customer to sell this into, stick with offline embellishment as & when you need it.

 

[JH1986]

The J75 is long in the tooth now. We have three left in the field, with no interest in keeping them out there too long. The C60 is no replacement however. It is a great machine, but it's no press machine. It's a high end office machine and will not do the gsm weights of the press machines like the versant models.

If you are just running labels though, a C60 would have no problems doing this (we have one customer using their one exclusively for labels).

The adaptive colour kit is good, but the people with it tend to run two machines, without all the dev swapping that is required to run the multiple colours.

 

[gazfocus]

Thanks for the replies.

@Lorenzo lab guy - Yeah I've been watching some videos of the adaptive colour kit and noticed the gold and silver is more of a glitter effect than a reflective finish, but the white and clear are also a nice choice to have. I'm looking at using the machine purely for label printing and being able to do something a bit different to what other label sellers can do is a huge selling point.

@Ynot_UK - Yeah, I love our Konica C3070. I have emailed our sales rep and asked if there are any cheap refurb machines available but I suspect anything they come back with will be a significantly higher price that we are looking at spending.

@JH1986 - I didn't realise how old the J75 was. I always thought the C60 was older than the J75, but it's actually newer than the Versant 80 even, just a lower class of printer (basically a glorified office machine as you say). I'd be interested to see how much is involved in swapping out the devs etc, as couldn't really justify two machines

 

[Mr Production Print]

The J75 is really old. It was identical to the even older 770 anyway. The c60 is very lightweight with low duplex weights and a hard drum fuser (so no good for textured stocks at all). The 5th colour toner bottles are obscenely expensive and the change over takes quite a long time so unfit for a quick 5 minute print run. We sell the Ricoh range and have access to refurbished C5200s. This has better image quality than the Xerox (bandy on heavy stocks) and less glossy than the Konica.

 

[gazfocus]

We’ve actually had samples from the Xerox C60 on the biodegradable sticker paper we use (which has a slight texture) and it prints perfect.

After asking for some prices on refurb Konica machines and basically being ignored, and various other conversations, in the end we did decide to go for the C60 purely for the Gold/Silver/White toner. We were offered the adaptive colour kit and a full set of Gold/Silver/White/Clear toners free of charge in exchange for doing a case study for Xerox, so kinda made it a no brainier really. We’ve ended up going for a C60 with twin high cap, the more basic booklet finisher (just in case) and the adaptive colour kit for less than £4k inc vat. I figured that if the gold/silver/white takes off, we can either buy another machine for cmyk and keep the C60 for Gold/Silver/White, or keep using our Konica for cmyk.

I know the C60 isn’t particularly a heavy duty machine but it’s being bought for a very specific purpose, and not as our main production machine so I’m not overly concerned. To start with I’d be surprised if we even put 5,000 clicks a month on it with it just being for stickers.

 

[azehnali]

how are the adaptive colors versus the competitors?
also how's the registration on the colors once you put them on CMYK prints?

 

[gazfocus]

how are the adaptive colors versus the competitors?
also how's the registration on the colors once you put them on CMYK prints?

The printer hasn’t been delivered/installed yet so I can’t answer that. From what I’ve seen of the adaptive colour though, the gold and silver are more of a glittery sort of effect so they wouldn’t be a replacement for hot foiling for example. I will be testing out the registration alongside cmyk as I’m quite intrigued about the possibility of using the clear toner as a spot uv effect.

 

[azehnali]

maybe with white background the gold and silver will pop more

 

[gazfocus]

maybe with white background the gold and silver will pop more

I’ll post some pictures when I get up and running with it