Upgrading Phaser 7760 - options and opinions

Discussion in '11 x 17 Color Laser Printers' started by MattOz, Jan 23, 2014.

  1. MattOz

    MattOz Member

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    We currently have a Xerox Phaser 7760 printer, which has been excellent in terms of print quality and reliability. We print flyers, photo books, business cards and brochures.

    The only downsides to the printer is its ability to print on heavier stocks, front to back register with SRA3 sheets (have to use the multi-purpose tray) and sometimes roller feed marks on silk/gloss stocks. We do all maintenance on the machine ourselves and source cheap consumables, as we are not on contract.

    Just wondering what would be a good upgrade from this machine? Our needs are excellent print quality, ability to print on 350gsm cardstock and also solve the SRA3 issue (would prefer not to use the multi-purpose tray) and roller marks on silk/gloss stock -

    Options -
    1. New Xerox 7800 (I had some print samples from this machine and the quality doesn't look any better than the 7760, 350gsm cardstock samples were good - not much curl). Pretty good price.
    2. New Oki C941 printer. At first this printer looked like it could be impressive. 360gsm cardstock and the option for white and clear toner. The print sample quality was pretty poor, although the white and clear ability was impressive. Expensive. I think Oki are charging a premium for this machine.
    3. Second hand Konica Minolta 5501 or 6501. Photo print samples from this machine look excellent. However, text looks poor and jagged when compared to the Xerox output. I believe this machine can't print above 300gsm. Cheap second hand machines around.
    4. Keep our Xerox 7760 for now until another machine comes out.

    In addition, does anyone have a tabletop solution (we have limited space and don't do huge runs) for aqueous coating to prints from our current machine or those listed above? We have a GBC Catena laminator that can do celloglaze, but it is too thick - we are trying to match the output from our offset trade printer that use an aqueous coating on all of their stocks. The Oki C941 clear toner finish pretty much replicated what we are after, but it would work out expensive and the image quality was poor.

    Would be most grateful for any assistance or opinions.
     
  2. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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    If you go for a printer, please forget all models that have "S" like paper feed, straight paper path is a must otherwise post handling becomes a pain.
    As far as new OKIs, there is a model in a their line-up that has no white/clear option and priced in the same range as printers you looked at, has all the same specs as C941. With the printer you will be stuck with using By-pass tray for a reason mentioned above - straight paper path.
    Wait a second - you mentioned that KM-C6501 isn't so good because it can take only up to 300 gsm while Phaser 7760 that you are happy with is 255 gsm max, has "S" like paper path and not a single sheet of cover stock comes out flat and has roller lines in dense areas and always skewed ( I had one for years) and you happy with it and did not like Bizhub C6501? Also as mentioned, you're tight on space and yet considered a C6501, that thing is about 10 feet long...
    Don't get me wrong - there is some conflict of info that makes it hard to suggest anything to you...
    In any case - if you wish to escape the bypass tray use plus have some input/output capacity - Bizhub C6501 with finisher, Large capacity tray and External fiery should be a wise choice. Large capacity is a must as lower tray of it is straight path and allows a Max paper weight to be loaded in to it not mention 13x19 size and it is air assisted feed that should benefit you in many ways. I can't vouch for the print quality of machine you had seen but shoot me a few files (UnlimitedBT at Yahoo dot com) along with your with the address - I can print few samples and mail the to you - I have a Bizhub C65HC with CREO and another with Efi Fiery Pro 80, these are next machines after C6501 with high chroma toner - KM replaced it with C70HC not so long time ago. Also cost per page will be at least half of what it cost you now or would cost with any of the Printers assuming OEM VS OEM.
    With new printer OKI or Phaser 7800 I am not sure that there are aftermarket alternatives for toners/drums so in any case you'd experience a jump up in cost per page, with machines like KM C6501, Xerox 700, cost per page is very reasonable using original consumables plus your quality, capacity and speed should be up as well.
    Once again - if you want to give it another try - send me few files, I can also print them on OKI CX3641 just so you can see the output on one more machine...
    Roman.
     
  3. MattOz

    MattOz Member

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    Hi Roman, thanks for your detailed answer. We manage to get 300gsm cardstock through the Xerox 7760 choosing the right stock and profiling the media with only slight paper curl (we don't run a lot of these jobs). We then place the sheets in a bookpress prior to finishing to reduce curl. We are tight on space, but could fit a C6501 with a bit of work. I have seen some sample prints from the 6501 and photo reproduction looked good, it was just text didn't look as sharp as our Phaser 7760 (very jagged) and that was viewing numerous samples.

    In your opinion is the quality from the 6501 much better than the 7760 and how do you think the Phaser 7800 print quality compares to the Phaser 7760 and 6501? The Oki and Xerox machines appealed due to the fact they accept 350gsm vs the Konica's 300gsm.

    Also, do you know of any reasonably priced benchtop aqueous coating machines for these printers?
     
  4. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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  5. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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    Yes, in my opinion, print quality is significantly higher out of c65hc's, just not having an exit roller lines and perfectly flat page is huge plus.
    Did the machine you tested have a good RIP? As a general rule - try not using a photoshop to input text in artwork. Photoshop is for photos and Illustrator is for everything else. Vector based text should always look sharp unless there is a problem with machine.
     
  6. MattOz

    MattOz Member

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    How much are the c65hc's you are selling and do these only go up to 300gsm? Also, what printer do you use with the UV unit you mentioned?
     
  7. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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    $15,000 for the one with CREO (Fnisher, Relay Unit, LCC, CREO) counter: 280,000 pages only
    $16,000 for the one with Efi Fiery Pro 80 (Saddle-Stitch Finisher, LCC, Fiery) counter: 230,000 pages only
    Yes it is up to 300 gsm, KM Bizhub Press C6000/7000 are the same 300 gsm. You will find it surprising, because Phaser 7800 & Oki C941 are said to handle 350 gsm, but within real machines 350 gsm and up - that is $100K+ devices - Xerox Igens, Kodak NexPress and other real monsters.
    That UV unit is just a sample for you to research the market and find what might be the solution for your needs, we do not have one just yet.
     
  8. MattOz

    MattOz Member

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    You mentioned using one of the UV units in your print shop in a previous post. Was that the same one as the link and what machine were you using?
     

  9. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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    This?:
    We are also a Equipment dealer and bought these for resale but using 1 machine slightly in our printshop and customers love the quality.
    I was referring to Bizhubs C65HC's not a UV coater. I apologize - I did not made it clear.
     
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