Xerox color 550

[rrose]

My graphics department recently purchased a Xerox C550 for our in-house graphics. From the first day we got it, the print quality was poor. There's streaking on full color blocks and skewing. We were recently told this copier is not meant for full color pages and is no more than an office copier. I"m getting that feeling from reading some of the posts. Is this true? We don't print more than 4000 copies per month, but we need a high quality printer that can print full color blocks and prints straight.

We also mostly print on 80lb cover gloss paper, kromekote and cardstock. Is the 550 meant for full color on heavy weight stocks?

 

[GusG]

I haven't worked with the 550 but considering what it replaced it should be the ideal small production machine, should certainly be capable of doing your volume.

There must be a problem with your particular machine and I'd suggest you get your technicians to look at it.

 

[rrose]

The technicians have been here and are saying this type of machine isn't meant for printing full saturated color blocks yet it's listed under Xerox as a production color copier.

 

[whoami]

We are having similar issues with this printer. I think it's the fact that it's a gen 1 printer and they are still working out the bugs. It should handle 4000 prints a month on heavy stock with full color coverage. You should contact your rep and ask him about it. You might want to ask him about the Xerox customer total satisfaction guarantee. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

 

[printresponsibly]

rrose,

I'm very surprised by your experience. Although the 550 is a launched at the end of last year it is essentilally the same as the 700. The only difference is the 700 has a built in decurler. We have placed many and had no problems at all. The 550 is a light production unit, that can do office work. It is made for a graphic intense environment.

4,000 color impressions a month is a fairly low volume. You could triple your volume and I wouldn't expect any problems.

The 550 can handle Coated 1 80-100lb, Coated 2 65-80lb Cover, Heavyweight 1 28-90lb Index, and Heavyweight 2 65-85 lb Cover

I hope I helped. Good luck.

 

[chetan3d]

Dear Rose,

What type of print server you are using along with 550, Whether it is Fiery/ Creo or integrated Fiery.?

 

[X33]

There's streaking on full color blocks and skewing. We were recently told this copier is not meant for full color pages and is no more than an office copier. I"m getting that feeling from reading some of the posts. Is this true? We don't print more than 4000 copies per month, but we need a high quality printer that can print full color blocks and prints straight.

We also mostly print on 80lb cover gloss paper, kromekote and cardstock. Is the 550 meant for full color on heavy weight stocks?

I think your quality expectations might be different than the capabilities of the equipment. Actually, any digital printing machine, Xerox or non-Xerox, will have some challenges printing "full color blocks".

Many designers and people that come from the offset world will love to see a full page printed in solid red, green or any other color in a digital printer. Some tricks are using some noise in the solid area, adding some kind of texture to it, changing the screening in the RIP.

Yes, the Xerox 550 is totally capable of running heavy weight stocks up to 300gsm with no problem.

The skewing should be an easy fix as long as it is within specifications. How much skewing are you getting (in inches or mm)?

 

[rrose]

We have the Fiery for our RIP. We've actually had two color copiers in the past by Canon that both printed solid color blocks the first few years so we know these types of production color copiers are capable of printing solid color blocks. The skewing is in mm, but it's bad enough that we can't print duplex and cut evenly. Our work is very high profile and we need it to look perfect and should not expect image fading, skewing, banding or splotchy color on a brand new $60K machine.

I've also been reading that the C500 is an upgrade to the docucolor series not the 700.

 

[GregNac19]

rrose,

I'm very surprised by your experience. Although the 550 is a launched at the end of last year it is essentilally the same as the 700. The only difference is the 700 has a built in decurler. We have placed many and had no problems at all. The 550 is a light production unit, that can do office work. It is made for a graphic intense environment.

4,000 color impressions a month is a fairly low volume. You could triple your volume and I wouldn't expect any problems.

The 550 can handle Coated 1 80-100lb, Coated 2 65-80lb Cover, Heavyweight 1 28-90lb Index, and Heavyweight 2 65-85 lb Cover

I hope I helped. Good luck.

Sorry but the 550 is not the same as the 700. It was billed as the "slower/cheaper" version of the 700. The truth is it is a 252 with more office capablities. The question to ask always is, "Can I get a fax on this machine"? If yes than you don't have a production or light production machine. No one needs a fax stealing from the hard drive and memory when you are sending very large files.
Don't be fooled about the 550. I have sold them and they are no 700.

 

[rrose]

So what would you recommend for about $60K? We can't afford and don't have the space for a digital printer. We only print about 4000 prints a month, but we do high level graphics and need a good quality color copier.

 

[GregNac19]

I would consider a Ricoh 720 for the budget you showed. It is a production machine for the price of a Xerox very light production color. I have sold both and I was suprised at the quality of the 720. Take some samples and see what you think and how they compare to your current prints. Price wise it would be perfect. Application wise you will need to go in depth more in front of the machine. Ask for print shop pricing and you can get a steal right now with fixed pricing. Oh yeah, don't mention your budget.

 

[Milo Wilson]

DC 5000 instead of 550

DC 5000 instead of 550

I would consider a DC 5000 from Xerox. Buy it used for about 25K and have it refurbed for about 12K and that is only a little more than half of the 550. Very good high volume machine and can run 280 GSM.

 

[rrose]

We saw a demo of a Richo (don't know the model but it was a graphics production machine) and the prints were very bad. We were not impressed.

Any thoughts on Canon's? We had two of them and they were great for the first few years. Never had streaking or blotching. I'm more concerned about print quality than volume.

 

[willvp2408]

Ricoh NOT!

Ricoh NOT!

Would not go Ricoh. We have had problems with them. I would look at the KM C6000. It is a production machine and I find the prints are better than X.

 

[rrose]

We won't go with Konica Minolta. We had one and it was awful and we had a horrible experience with the reps and techs where I live.

Does no one use Canon's? I haven't heard any referrals for them. We had two in the past and they were wonderful.

 

[RandyD]

I would like to re-visit this topic about the 550? Currently our local reseller is pitching the new 550 with a Creo external rip to us. This would be to replace our current Xerox DC240. Our 240 prints fine and we are happy with the quality. I ran a 'test' job on the Xerox 550 and noticed that it had weak solids and differences in the gloss differential like streaking. The output looked very flat. On the test job the designer had used solid areas coloured 100%K and they looked weak, but on our 240 they printed nice and solid.

 

[rrose]

That's our complaint is that the 550 prints weak solids and is streaky on both plain, matte and glossy paper of any weight.

We had the Creo with our Konica and found it very UN-userfriendly. We prefer the Fiery.

 

[RandyD]

Correction. The reseller is pitching an external Fiery rip, just checked with somebody else here at the shop. I guess the pitch with this machine is that it will save us money on lower click costs as the machine is current and a new lease agreement always sweetens the deal. My thoughts... if it's not broken why fix it?

On my testing I did notice that the skew was much better on the Xerox 550, and front to back registration better. I'm just worried that this is another Xerox 3535 (ie, glorified office copier).

 

[rrose]

The placement of the Fiery has nothing to do with the clicks. Our new 550 has an internal Fiery and it was cheaper than an external, but the clicks have to do with how many copies you print, not your RIP.

Some of our prints on the 550 were badly skewed too. We may have gotten a lemon though.