C12000 / C14000 Colour Shift

Our C12000 was installed 11 months ago and we are still struggling with multiple colour issues till date after installing the retrofit kit, numerous firmware upgrades, soft switch changes and parts replacement (and yes, we do have the IQ unit fitted).

We have not been able to match jobs printed previously so we have to perform curve adjustments for all these jobs (this is a real pain). We are not able to achieve consistency throughout a single print job (gradual but very noticeable increase in colour saturation). Another notable issue with the C12000 is the test sheet (for quality check) usually has slight colour shift when comparing against the prints from the actual print run (even for the first sheet) which is really odd.

The service team has worked really hard on these issues and this has now being escalated. However there is still no solution in sight and the response from the escalation has been slower than what we would prefer. It would be great if I can get some advice from C12000/C14000 users in order to resolve the colour inconsistency issues that we are experiencing.

 

I'm commenting just to follow and hopefully see some resolution or advice from others. We have a Konica C7090 and have exactly the same issues you're describing. In addition to color shifts and not being able to match colors of previous runs, we also have color registration issues. Small reverse type is an issue on one corner of a 12x18 sheet only. Frustrating!

 

I was told that KM implemented some dip switch settings which resolves the colour shift issue in C7090/C7100. Have you tried any of that? The service team tried similar switches on our C12000 but that did not work for us.

 

Yes, they've done firmware updates, probably some DIP switches too. We've had a local color specialist out, who then pushed it up to a regional specialist who spent several days here. They were able to get our color to look better in general because he basically did a G7 process, but it still doesn't hold consistent.

 

The disappointing part is that we have a C6085 that we love, no color shifting issues. Our color work started to grow, so we needed a 2nd unit. Unfortunately, they had upgraded to the C7090/C7100 and didn't have any C6085's left. We were concerned about the color and even print quality matching between the two. They assured us it wouldn't be an issue and would have the color specialists make them match. Been a year and they still can't get the two machines to match, and we have the ongoing color shifting issues. The techs told us they just took a C3070 engine and sped it up to 90 or 100pm without really upgrading any of the internal components, so they can't keep up.

 

We had the C7100 for a brief few months with colour registration and colour shifting issue so the team came in to replace it with another C7100 because "no one else is seeing these issues". That did not resolve the colour issue so we finally agreed to upgrade to the C12000 with the assurance from the account manager that they have many units in the field running fine. Obviously this is not the case but at least there is no colour registration issue with the C12000 (a costly solution for sure).

 

I was told by the technician (not the salesperson) that the C4080 runs really well with no colour shifting issue. Are you in the position to negotiate with KM to probably replace the C7090 with C4080?

 

That's rough! Paying more only to get the same problem?!? Ouch. We probably could have switched to the C4080 if we did it early on, but we've had it too long now and have just been working around the issues. Luckily we're an inplant and most of our pieces aren't too color critical. When they are, we'll run on the C6085, or just monitor it closely on the C7090.

 

Looks like KM just released a series of updates that are supposed to address the issues you're having. Maybe reach out to your service manager to get these installed ASAP.

 

jwheeler has the most experience with the 12000. His advice is solid. If your service team can't resolve the problem, you must request the issue be escalated. We just had KM engineers out one week ago, installing another firmware update that helped resolve one issue. They will help you but you have to make it clear to them that your business is suffering due to this problem.