Going to in-house printing but need to find a good printer...

I work for a client who is now going to a more daily update approach to printing. Their market is changing on the fly and varies widely depending on their client locations. They are in need of a quicker, easier, and more affordable way to print material on-site and send it out same day. They are not big enough to need a crazy insane printer, so they do have a budget of around $1,500-$3,000 for a printer.

What are the top 3-5 printers on the market that fall within the $1,500-$3,000 mark that can print 11x17 paper, is easy on the check book when it comes to ink, provides great print quality, and is easy to operate?

We currently have a $600 color laser printer by Dell, but it has proven to be a piece of junk and the refill cartridges are expensive.

All we are trying to do is accomplish making 8.5x11 catalogs that look good.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Not sure how the others feel, but that kind of budget won't really get you far in terms of productivity and quality.

The digital print branch seems to be your area of concern. For example, if you can make US$ 50k available, you should be able to get a decent, new Konica Minolta setup with inline converting and finishing inclusive. As far as I have seen, there are some very nice models out there, costing much less than an Offset machine, but providing similar print quality.

I may be wrong, as I haven't studied the digital print branch all too much. Feel free to comment.

Cheers

 

Agreed. For 3k you can get a digital printer that will print fairly well for 50,000 prints. After that you'll find that there isn't a good enough support contract / detailed information / service quality to keep your productivity going -- troubleshooting will be frustrating, and unbudgeted costs will hit you where it hurts as you find durables are excessively expensive, small parts are hard to get or not available, and the ability to keep print quality is not there as there isn't the network of expertise and technicians and parts readily available to keep quality up. Also in this range consumables are still expensive, making it only cost effective to compete with very small quantities (hundreds).

For $15k you can business-color quality decent printer + service contract that will print a million prints without major added expense or frustration.

For $40k you can get a quality closer to offset quality.

The $50k figure seems on the money for good quality digital plus some finishing options inline (not technically "production" equipment but enough to do ten thousand prints a day if push comes to shove (or 50k prints a month evened out) without breaking you! You probably don't need to do that many prints, but less than this price range and you don't get "quicker" "easier" and "more affordable" - less than this mark and you have the old expression "you can pick any two" )

 

Sorry but you´re looking for an "oviparouswoolmilkpig" / Jack of All Trades.
Depending of your daily volume and number of colors you should look for a printer, not on price.
Suppose it´s not the only client you get. Check your budget and buy / lease a solid printer and provide your service wider in your area. Ask for a professional production system like Xerox Nuvera, or Ricoh whatever. But not for an office printer. I had beside my Heidelberg QM 3 used Canon printer, but min. 65print/min + finishing.
Often are refurbished systems cheap to get.

 

Agreed with RedCircle and rossio.

For US$3k you won't find much, and if you do, it won't be worth to run a business with.

Even though as a German it was the first time I heard of the term "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau", it strikes me as a fitting term.

Refurbished systems are only really worth it, if you get them directly from the respective manufacturer. They usuallly come with extended warranty and you have the option to get a service contract with them. Unless you know a printing supplier you can really trust, you can also try them.

Leasing is an option you can take if you don't have the financial means to buy a digital printer at once. However, I would make sure to study the productivity of the digital printer, the available customer base in your region, your expected as well as your guaranteed customer demand for print products.

Leasing can turn ugly if the expected financial return doesn't happen.

Cheers

 

Would Have to Agree with the Majority. I work for Xerox and run into this objection constantly. The only Xerox A4 machine that could potentially work would be the 7760. Price range between 4000-6000. I have customers that are running 30,000 a month on these machines. It is a must to have a service agreement. There's always a catch though- the cost per color click is around 11 cents on the 7760 where as a DC252 let's say is around 4.9 cents. If your volume is more than 10,000 per month the Total cost of ownership for the small machine is actually more. Smart companies know this. It's like your HP/Dell desktop printer. It cost's you $100 initially but devours your pocketbook for ink and eventually cost's more than a nice MFP.