Need advice on mass name card printer choice

Guys, I have been joining force with my friend to start printing mass volume business cards and struggling to find a suitable printer for following conditions:

The business card might contain solid colors as well as color photo.
And also be fast enough to handle the mass printing needs.
I have looked at some laser printers and they are definitely not good for photo and gradual color transition. Looked at some epson professional inkjet printers, they are mostly suited for large papers otherwise print would be slow. I have to do it on 8x11.5 papers because of the trimming equipment I have.

Also the budget is a major concern, need to keep it down as much as possible wihout comprising the above requirements, I can not buy an equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars since the need is only for printing business cards.
Please help
Please help.

Could someone give me a suggestions?

 

I would suggest that you look for a Inkjet Printer that would help you print full color on the art card for the size 8x11.5 it would be also easy to print photos on the glossy paper through the inkjet printer.

Mostly people used the high quality brands for the easy access of the parts and service like Epson 9800 inkjet and Canon IPF5000 inkjet

I think you will get an idea now.

 

Frankly I don't see it. The results will be fine, but the ink price per print printing "mass" business cards on such an epson or canon "small" inkjet will absolutely kill your budget unless the percent of coverage is very low. You'd have to price your cards many times higher than the market average to make a profit. Unless there is something about the cards that cannot be done by partnering with or outsourcing to another printer who has offset equipment to get the job done, the price for wanting to do these in house is extremely high to the point of making it a losing proposition in my book. Something that is a commodity standard run item like a standard size process color business card just makes sense to partner with someone who has the equipment to run them quickly and cheaply... an offset press, coater, card slitter. If you want to print with small equipment, focus on something that is unique or labor intensive so you can provide a product that can't be easily done in the much larger shops that already have excess capacity to do commodity items. Or figure out a business plan and get the equipment that can do them at a pricepoint and volume where there is some profit to be made.

 

I suggest you Meteor Digital Printing System

Here are the features;
Meteor DP40 for printing on Paper and Plastic is ideal for virtually any type of On-Demand and Short and Medium size-Run 4-Color printing. The METEOR DP40 has been designed for the ever changing needs of the Graphic Art professionals (Commercial Printers, In Plant Printers, Quick Printers, Graphic studios and Photo labs) providing them with total flexibility in combining Productivity, Quality and Profitability, adapting their production needs while respecting their investment budget.



The METEOR DP40 Is a new innovation in the world of short & medium-sized run digital printing on a wide variety of Paper from thin bond to heavy cover such as Bristol Paper, Mat or Glossy paper, Linen or textured paper, Chromolux paper up to 300 gsm and synthetic materials such as Standard PVC, Teslin® SP, Lexan®, Polyester media up to 320 microns and produce 21000 PlasticCards per hour.

Allows you to print on paper from 64 gsm to 300 gsm and on palstic from 4 mil to 13 mil ( or 100 µicrons to 320 µicrons) of polyester or PVC media (you can then laminate by any means to achieve a 30 mil card). Is equipped with a Print Station Manager® that includes a Pantone certified FIERY RIP. METEOR DP40 manages ICC profiles & is enhanced by an automated colorimetric calibration software program that includes a spectrophotometer & a linearization system that manages consumables to ensure the highest quality color-matching. The HPS (high fidelity) raster generator allows you to modify the shape of dots and raster angles.


METEOR DP40 Opens the door to super format on 311 x 457 mm 12” x 18” press sheets, for printing , booklets, catalogues, Flyer, brochures, Poster, technical documentation, Business Cards, Calendars, Letterheads, Stickers, Adhesives labels on Paper and Plastic cards, customer reward/ loyalty Cards, membership Cards, Prepaid cards, Luggage tags, , Access security cards, Menus, Point of sales Materials, Advertising Marking on synthetic substrate.

We Supply Used and 0 Machines

 

thanks guys, archipelago for useful thought and printplast for product suggestion. design2express i looked at the canon u suggested but they seem to be super high quality but deadly slow i dont think it will fit in needs. please continue giving ur opinions, havent abandoned this post, i will keep visiting back once a while. thx

 

hey printplast, i have looked at the DP40 product online, but can not find any site that lists its price. I wanted to get at least approximate price of it. Could you help? Thanks!

 

Before you start look out your window. Some comps like Vistaprint.com are in the same biz. And they do it worldwide.
I´d never spend a dime for a press to print mass products.

 

hey rossio, thx for info, but your answer is not related to this topic at all. please read the questions carefully and post that is something related if you want to help. thx.

 

Guyen:
did you somehow find the printer you're looking for???

It seems to me that I will have the same requirements

 

One word ... Indigo.