Selling Copiers "Ask Art" Digital Duplicators Not Dead Yet!

I had this email from someone who read one of my posts on Print Planet.  Thought I would share this and also comment on the HQ9000.  Enjoy!

Good afternoon,



I have reviewed your comments on Print Planet and searched the reviews and am very interested in the unit. I am a single operator print shop. My son was operating my offset presses and now has moved onto a better paying job with better benefits. My husband, who founded our company, has many health issues and is not able to back up on the presses. Since I do not have a full time position for a press operator, I am at a real handicap and am looking for something more efficient and cost effective. My concern is the quality of print for text and screens (grayscales) in comparison to the offset press. We run about 15-20% 2-Color work and the rest as black only. We do a lot of Letter, Legal, Tabloid and NCR as well as a lot of envelopes with stock consisting of 20# Bond, 24# Bond, 60#, 70#, & 80# offset, carbonless, and 24# Envelopes from A-2 to #12. On the 2-color is the registration pretty accurate as well as the registration on 2-sided card stock (110# Index)?


I will do more research on your product.


If there is anything else you can offer me for advice and direction, it will be greatly appreciated. I now run (2) Ricoh printers. I have the AP3850C (about 8 years now) and recently purchased the Ricoh CL3500N. The AP3850C is having some color quality issues plus does not have the speed for smaller run booklets of 8-1/2 x 11 size. I was presently looking at the Xerox 7655 but was very concerned about the cost and consumables and efficiency so looking at other options. I am looking to have something in place within the next 2 weeks. We do have the Mac G3 (with OS 9.2) and a Mac G4 (with OS 10) as well as standard Windows XP and believe it or not the Win98.


I do look forward to hearing from you.


Thanks for your time and consideration!
 
My Response
 
As long as you have the PSIII print option you'll be able to control the dot size for the halftones. Everything else including envelopes and NCR should run very well!


There is a two color option called the TCII, that system will run two colors in one pass and will give adequate registration for printing in two colors.

I've had print shops run up to 12 point stock in the system with no issues. Keep in mind that this system has a press roller similar to a printing press. The only maintenance required on the unit is a feed roller to be replaced every 250k or so. I recommend the HQ9000 since it is 600 dpi and the HQ7000 is only 400dpi.

The cost of the consumables is very inexpensive, based on runs of 500 or more expect to spend .002 for black ink and then the cost of the master (plate), which I think is under $1.00. There's no heat, no pressure, to fix the image thus there are no consumables other than the ink and the master (plate), the image cylinder (drum) is designed for 1 million impressions and will cost around $1,200 to replaced or $600 or so to refurbish with a new screen.

You can't run coated stock, the ink just can't set up on that that of stock. Otherwise you can run almost anything and everything through the unit. As far as a maintenance agreement on the system, that's up to you, my recommendation is to take the 90 days parts & labor and see how the system runs. Odds are you'll see that one is not needed.

Each color requires a dedicated image cylinder (drum), one black comes with the system and most of my printers have a total of three on hand, reflex blue, red and black. You can get other colors but you'll need another drum for each one. Ink has a shelf life of about one year also.

Basically, you and I have the most concerning eye when it comes to quality of prints, the HQ9000 does an excellent job, it's not offset, however it's pretty darn close and your client will not be able to tell the difference in probably 85% of the media that you print.

You can't go wrong the system is easy to use, easy to maintain and does not require much service except for a cleaning every now and then.

-=Good Selling=-

PS  Digital Duplicators are a great fit for a print shop, especially since Pressman are getting harder to find.  I placed a call to a print shop the other day and they asked me if I knew of any pressman that could come in and run a job for them.  I offered up a trial on the duplicator, they passed, I guess they were afraid that they may buy something that could really help them out, save them countless hours and get jobs out quicker instead of finding a fly by night pressman!