Starting up a Digital Print shop

[nojiltplease]

Hi everyone,
I am planning to setup a small printshop to cater the business of Flyers, booklet, Business cards, envelops etc and I am looking for suggestion for buying the most suitable digital press for this. Speed does not matter much but the max size should be 33x48 cm and could print on 320/350 GSM. My budget is around 10-12 thousand USD which includes cutting, folding and stappling machine.
Thank YOu

 

[Neko2]

At that price you're in desktop printer territory. Digital presses start in the $100,000 range.

You might be able to swing a Xante or Oki system or something like a Xerox Phaser 7800. You'd be in for about 5-7k + on a one of these new.

If your budget includes cutting, folding and stapling equipment... you wouldn't even have enough for those alone unless you can get one heck of a deal used. Most of that equipment is in the 3-5k range for each unit.

Look for a plockmatic booklet maker and maybe an old challenge cutter on the used market and you could manually trim the books and have something to cut cards.

 

[OkiTech]

A $50,000 color KONICA MINOLTA can take up 300 GSM card so the specs you want, even for used equipment, you need to double if not triple your budget.

 

[Neko2]

Sorry, I should have said digital PRODUCTION presses start in the $100,000 range.
I forgot about light production, MFP etc.

 

[nojiltplease]

Sorry, I should have said digital PRODUCTION presses start in the $100,000 range.
I forgot about light production, MFP etc.

Thanks to unlimitedBT and Neko2,really appreciate it. I have a question to both of you. That what is the accountable difference between an MFP and a production printer apart from speed and volume they can print daily or monthly.
Do just these differences make sense to invest in a 50,000 $production line where a good MFP from the same brand costs just around 5000 $ OR Is there some more technical reason(s) are there related to ROI?

 

[OkiTech]

Hi, you've got it all wrong... MFP is multi function printer, i.e. printer with added modules to be able to scan/copy/fax. Production printer had nothing to do with MFP. What is the difference between Chevrolet Cruze and Corvet? Yeah, the difference is fundamental. The production printer is built to last, it's duty cycle could be 100,000+ clicks between scheduled maintenance, its big, it's fast and expensive. Something that defined as MFP could be tiny to mid volume printer with added capabilities. As I had mentioned, it is rare that midsize printer can chew on anything over 300gsm. I have a Konica Minolta Bizhub 65HC and 300GSM is top spec OKI CX3641 and OKI C910 Pro all 300GSM top spec, I believe similar size Xerox (DC252 or similar)has the same spec. So if you aim any higher you'd have to go real production machine, may be KM Bizhub C7000/C8000 (google the brochure - take a look) but we're talking $20,000-30,000 for used unit nicely equipped in nice condition.

 

[nojiltplease]

Hi, you've got it all wrong... MFP is multi function printer, i.e. printer with added modules to be able to scan/copy/fax. Production printer had nothing to do with MFP. What is the difference between Chevrolet Cruze and Corvet? Yeah, the difference is fundamental. The production printer is built to last, it's duty cycle could be 100,000+ clicks between scheduled maintenance, its big, it's fast and expensive. Something that defined as MFP could be tiny to mid volume printer with added capabilities. As I had mentioned, it is rare that midsize printer can chew on anything over 300gsm. I have a Konica Minolta Bizhub 65HC and 300GSM is top spec OKI CX3641 and OKI C910 Pro all 300GSM top spec, I believe similar size Xerox (DC252 or similar)has the same spec. So if you aim any higher you'd have to go real production machine, may be KM Bizhub C7000/C8000 (google the brochure - take a look) but we're talking $20,000-30,000 for used unit nicely equipped in nice condition.

Thanks UnlimitedBT, I agree your factor that Production Printers are big, durable and high speed and the models you mentioned for Konica Minolta Bizhub 65HC, OKI CX3641 and OKI C910 Pro are hight end MFPs which could not be feasible for large duty cycle. But My topic for this particular forum is to start a small print shop where the volume per month could be around 30-50 thousand impressions. so a good capacity MFP like 1200 dpi, SRA3 print(11x17 inch full bleed print), 320 GSM handling with the one tenth price of the production line printer could be choice or not?
If you can suggest me some good one (or a combination of them as I don't mind to go for two machines as backup and to print little more per day). I have seen demo of Intec Printers which is marvelous in quality and print 500 GSM, any idea?

 

[Neko2]

http://xantestore.com/Ilumina-HWC.html

Probably similar to the Intec. Prints up to 500 gsm and can even produce plates if you ever get an offset press.

 

[Emilio Lazcano]

I would recommend for this to start up with INTEC solutions. There are 3 options on digital presses and you could print heavy stock. Also they have finishing equipment. Send a mail to Michael. michael.sparbeck@intecprinters.com

 

[Emilio Lazcano]

Sorry if you are in India you should enter the web page http://www.intecprinters.com/

 

[OkiTech]

The Intec is OKI based, completely made around OKI engine, if you peel off the labels and put two next to each other - you won't guess which one is which.
It is sad that I have to explain this to you for a second round - guess it is not what you want to hear - sorry.
There is NO over 300gsm spec machine that is small-ish
No Intec will not do you any good - the way they achieve the higher GSM is by adding piggy-bag electronics and some programming to make the machine go slower. OKI, it is based on, is 36 page per minute on 20gsm bond paper, can you imagine how slow it would have to go to run 350gsm print? Find a way to see it in action printing 350GSM+. Want to print 30-50K per month on it? Well, you'd need to have your days stretched to be 36hrs not 24
Besides INtec sells OKI supplies at about x2 the cost of those, generally same OKI supplies. so do figure out your per page cost.
Keep in mind - no, you will not get 15000 out of toner cartridge, thats at 5% coverage which is nothing in our industry, realistically 5000-7000 pages and with the big IF
-no you will not get nice consistent 30,000 pages out of DRUM
-fuser 50,000 running cardstock - not likely, probably half
-Belt 50,000? I'd out that.
If you fall for it anyway, contact me - I will help you using all ORINAL GENIUNE SUPPLLIES for, probably, half what INTEC wants.
Did you say 30-50K per month? thats half a million per year, how strong do you imagine these mid-size printers are? and once again, are you ok with 10-15 cents per page cost?
I was right - KM Bizhnub C7000/8000 can go over 300gsm so that is the only choice (sure there are similar duty/spec machines form other manufacturers) according to what you're asking. You can not have both be on budget and have 350gsm printer. That is unless XANTE or INTEC will be called in to the game but once again - look up supplies prices for OKI CX-3641 VS XANTE VS INTEC. Once again- consider that with 350GSM media they will push 10-15 pages per minute on 8.5x11 / A4, half of that or SRA3 - how are you planning to run 30-50k impressions per month, I, really don't know. Run 24/7? But then again, these printers are not designed to run 24/7 even a glorified OKIs like Intec and XANTE.
My point is that you need to rethink your business model and probably the budget according to reality.

 

[ohsopesonal]

I have sent an email hopefully this kind of printer will work for me too, thanks for the info