Digital press for 350gsm?

[dagoof]

Was wondering if anyone can help - I've got a small business and I'm looking for a digital press that I could manufacture greetings cards on (~350gsm). They'd mainly be photographic and I'm not fussy about spot colour. I had been looking at an Indigo turbostream but it looks like the lack of ability on solids would mean too many compromises and it sounds like it would be costly to run (we don't mind the weekly maintenance and would undertake training but don't want to constantly be forking out for parts and engineers). Volumes would be pretty low, probably only a 400,000 per year.

The Indigo 3050 sounds much more up to the job but I think we're a couple of years away from making that kind of financial committment. I'm just wondering if there's anything out there that would be suitable to bridge the gap (and indeed to confirm the indigo isn't the way to go)?

[Craig]

Maybe Xante Illumina.

[overscan]

Our DC250 chugs along merrily running greetings card on 350gsm trucard.

[digitalprint.ie]

Try the Oki Executive Series (ES). The ES3640a3 from Oki sounds like an ideal machine to get you started and comes at an attractive price point. We are the suppliers of the Oki in Ireland and have sold this model with success for this very type of job and at similar volumes

[dagoof]

Thanks for the replies.

Craig - I had a Xante machine a couple of years ago (think it was the 330HSE), worst machine I've ever bought, was less than useless (terrible background toning and offset from the fuser even at low weights) so I don't think I'd be going back to them!

Overscan - I do have a half-decent copier atm (a Konica 8050), just thought a move to something more heavy-duty might be in order.

Digitalprint - pretty much as above, we currently have stuff manufactured on 4 colour litho so will eventually be looking for something to bring manufacture in-house, approaching litho quality, but looking for something in between at the moment.

Wondering if something like an iGen3 would be a big jump in quality from my Konica?

[thebluesdude]

For what its worth, we have tried all the low cost options, xante, oki, xpress on demand etc and none have the consistancy of colour or registration, some can even print certain colours such as dark blue without mottling, its down to how strong a charge they can generate.

Then you have the copiers such as Konica 8050, bizhub pro 500 etc they suffer another problem in that the paper has to make a right angle path so using thick stock becomes a problem, as does registration.
We currently have a xerox dc5000 which is great but expensive, but I have to agree with an earlier comment that the xerox 250 which we also have kicks along without much trouble at all, decent registration, good solids, acceptable halftones and very, very relaible.
My current engineers log for the past year shows three visits for the 250 and although a much better printer our 5000 shows 30 visits!
Then there is the price, second hand with contracts at around £12k with a fiery.

[Craig]

I'll stand corrected with the Xante recommendation. I have never run the Illumina, just thought of a device that could handle the 350gsm without suggesting something that is $300.000.00 +.

[dagoof]

Thanks Blues - will look into that.

And no problem Craig, just thought I'd share the experience!

[X33]

Wondering if something like an iGen3 would be a big jump in quality from my Konica?

Definetely!!!

The iGen family officially supports media up to 350gsm.

If you are in the U.S., I would suggest to contact Xerox and ask for the "previously enjoyed iGen3 program". You may be suprised.

[rtesta]

Pre-owned iGen3's can be purchases / leased for close to the same price as a 8002. You might also want to wait for the 800/1000 color press being released in Q2. No info yet on specifics, more to come.