Which printer to purchase?

Hi All

Desperately need your help. I am about to expand my invitations, business card and packaging business. Most of my work is outsourced outside my country. The idea is now to print inhouse. High Quality is my priority. My budget for a printer is US$13,000. I have my eyes on an OKI because of the white ink.

Your advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'll tell you the same thing I told dataguy in the other post:

We have the Oki C942dn. We purchased it mainly as an envelope printer, but we do occasionally use it as a backup to our Konica Minolta C6085. I would not recommend this printer for what you're describing for the following reasons:

1. It's incredibly slow in general, but especially with card stock. It frequently has to pause (maybe every 50 sheets) to 'adjust' and this adjusting takes about 30-60 seconds which really adds up over a decent size run.
2. The quality is just 'okay'. We are a county in-plant so there are not very high expectations from our customers, but when you compare it to the output of our Konica Minonlta, its not even close - especially when it comes to small text and small reverses. I would say the quality is more like an office level copier and not acceptable for high quality invitations, etc.
   
3. You can only reliably feed the heavier card stock through the bypass, and it's a very small bypass tray.
4. The sheet-to-sheet registration is not very consistent
5. You cannot duplex the heavier weights reliably
6. The cost per sheet is very high compared to any CPC plan from any vendor out there. OKI provides a cost estimator where you plug in the costs of your toners, and all other consumables that you are responsible for (which is just about every part on the machine!). I just tested our 1-pg order form which has light, text only, coverage in BW and it came out to $0.04 per page. Most CPC plans are just under a penny on a color machine for a b/w print, and less than 1/2 a cent on a b/w machine. I then uploaded an 8.5x11 cover of a manual we recently did which has a solid color pattern across the sheet and it came to $0.21 per sheet. Again, any CPC plan from any vendor will be under $0.05 per sheet, regardless of size or coverage.

The only thing I really do like, which is only needed very rarely, is the control you have over the white. You can specify which areas have white, and you can control how dense the white is so you don't have to do multiple passes. Something to consider: how often are you currently getting a demand for white toner? It will not suddenly increase because you have a machine that does it.

As for a recommendation, I'd suggest you look at the C3070L from Konica Minolta. Make sure is the "L" version - which is for 'light' production. This unit can print duplex on 350gsm in a single pass, and the registration is spot on due to a registration roller that shifts the sheets to the same spot every time. You can get just the printer body with a bypass tray and an output catch tray - so the footprint will be about the same as the OKI. It comes with 2 trays below the engine, plus the bypass. You can always add more paper feeders or finishing options as your business grows. Another bonus is you can print extra long sheets (47" long). The cost of the machine may be slightly higher than the OKI, but the cost per print on a CPC plan will save you in the long term.

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond, so many points you've made are critcial for my business.
I will surly explore these options and since plan to get a foiling machine I can just foil white instead.
I hope I am not pushing it, but besides the research and some reviews, having the advise from experience users is much more helpful...what type of cutter would you recommend? I plan to stock 18*24 sheets of paper.

Thank you once again, much appreciated.

 

I would recommend buying digital-specific paper which comes in standard package sizes such as 12x18 or 13x19. Digital presses will not run 18x24 and you will be doing alot more cutting if you buy these large sheets. As for cutting after it's printed, it all depends on your budget. Ideally, you would get 2 types of cutters. One will be a guillotine cutter to do the quick cuts such as cutting something in half or in fourths. You would get either electric for low budget, or hydraulic for higher budget. Electric is slower and will wear out faster, hydraulic lasts significantly longer and operates faster. Top brands to consider are Triumph and Challenge. But for more complex cutting like business cards, and especially greeting cards that need a crease in the middle for the fold (and to avoid cracking) you'll want a slitter/cutter/creaser combo machine. There are a variety of brands to consider, but the best are Duplo and MBM AeroCut series.

 

Thank you, most appreciated. You have been a major help.