DC252 / 550 vs. Workcentre 7556

Hi,

We're just about to invest in new printers (leasing and service contract for the next 3 years).

Currently we have two Docucolor 252 running printing a total volume of around 20.000 each month. They used to print a lot more than that, but due to cutbacks etc. we're printing quite a lot less than we used to.

We're in talks with a few providers, and two of them are suggesting, that we should replace the two DC252 with two Workcentre 7556 (with an added Fiery RIP), since they're cheaper and has more functions for office users.

The last provider we talked to, suggested the DC550 as replacement.

Are the WC7556 good enough to replace the DC252? Colorwise, reliability, speed etc.?

Most of our prints are for in-house use, but some of it goes out to our agents, which use the material to sell from, so accurate color-reproduction is important as well (which is why we need to Fiery).

Any inputs would be nice.

BR,
Thomas

 

Hey Thomas,

The 75 series are OK office machines, but good enough to replace a 250?

If you can get the results you are after with the Fiery qualitywise, OK.
But in my opinion they are not built for high-volume printing.

Build quality and reliability is better on a 550-560.

The 75 series are being replaced by 78 series now. But I havent had my hands on one yet.

 

Hi Jonnan,

Thanks for the response. I managed to get some hands-on time with the 7556 the other day and first impressions were good.

Quality-wise there was nothing to complain about. We need a few minor adjustments color-wise, but that's probably because of colour-profile-setting-up-thingamading.

I'm not sure if our usage qualifies as "high-volume". Most printers from a certain price and up should be able to handle 20-30k prints a month

Anyways, long story short, we decided to go ahead with the WC7556 to replace the DC252. I'll report back in a few weeks time with an update.

 

Yep report back if you have any issues.

You have a service-plan right?

Always have a spare waste toner cartridge available. Some times they are full before the machine tells you to order one.
This is a mandatory fix if a tech works on your machine.

Also if you use paper with lots of powder, the feed roll in the trays will lose grip after some time. These are easy to get out. Take a drop of water on your finger and "work it"

 

Yep, full service included.

We had a great start.. one of the two 7556 we got was defunct. Something with the network-controller apparantly :/

Thanks for the tip! I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Fortunately we now have four printers (2x7556 and 2x7535) which all use the same cartridges, so that should make our situation somewhat easier on that front

 

In case anyone is reading this;

For now I'd recommend against using WC7556 as replacement for DC252/550. The speed is great, but according to the technician who was here yesterday, the WC7556 is unable to print a "solid black" colour. That is, if you make a black box and print it, it will be spotty and not really useful for anything.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the report. I would have thought the weaknesses would have been in more complex color blends and such that would distinguish an "office machine" from a printer's machine, not in the basic black. That's interesting. Did they offer you a deal to keep the 252 and get the new machine(s) too?

 

I thought about this in the past. Much easier to manage inventory. The only drawback is if there is a temporary shortage of one particular supply and all your machines need the same one you are waiting for...

 

what, you can't print a black box?

Will have to try tomorrow =)

 

That's true. I don't think that will be an issue though, considering we have day-to-day delivery of supplies.

 

Did you have time to try it?

And yes, I can print a black box, but it's not a solid color.. it's very "smudgy"

 

Only twice I've needed a toner that was on backorder (once yellow and I forget which color the other was) and had to wait a week for it. Maybe I could have gotten it faster if I tried harder but I flowed with it.

 

We purchased a WC7556 two months ago for some of our mailings. Only running around 25,000 a month on it, but we are running very heavy coverage work on 12"x18" gloss cover duplexed. The blacks, along with the other colors, cover perfectly. We have sheets we run that are solid black with reversed out type and color art and the black looks every bit as good as rich black on the press.

My first thought would be a problem with the imaging unit. I have heard that if they are exposed to light that they will not print with enough density. Another difference is that we are NOT using a Fiery RIP. We are using the built-in controller.

You should have heard the Xerox tech complain when he found out that we were running such huge amounts of coverage and running gloss stocks. He started in with how this machine isn't intended for production use and they really don't like gloss papers. We tend to go through around 20 toner cartridges per month to give you an idea of our coverage. They let us keep two of each color on the shelf at all times.

We are overall pretty happy with the machine. The one downside is that it can be kind of slow on complex files.

 

Good to hear that it's actually capable of printing blacks. We had a technician out this friday, and he was of the opinion that a new "developer" (what ever that is) would do the trick. So he's coming today to change it - hopefully that will do it

 

Did you get your problem fixed? Our machine has done great except we have had service out 3 times replacing developer units. The tech blames the high coverage work.

 

Unfortunately not. The techs have given up and claim that the current quality is the best the printer can deliver.

 

Thomas, may be you should experiment with your paper stock, you have received a numerous votes as far as printing solids from many forum users from everywhere, assuming that everyone has the same machine, most likely the stock paper stock is different. Do you know how print process works? at some point a high voltage charge has to draw you toner from ITB belt on to paper, obviously some of that charge is being dissolved trough the paper's body, some papers do that more, some less. Give it is try, just get some different brand of paper stock and run it.

 

Thanks for the reply.

We have experimented with different kinds of paper (including some that the technicians brought along), but with limited luck.

I can honestly say, I have no idea how the print process works.. Would you recommend heavier paper or just a different brand?

 

I really can't understand why you would be having this problem. Are the blacks your running 100% black? I have noticed that rich blacks don't look as dense as pure black.

 

We have tried both CMYK and RGB, and while RGB is certainly better than CMYK, it's still not perfect.

And yes, it was set up as 100% black.