Quality laser printer

[joshcoombs]

I am looking on behalf of our art/photography department for a printer.
They have gone through a large number of printers over the last few years, either they have died from overuse!, or they complain that the colour is not good.
Some models they have sent back are the HP 4700n, HP CP 4005 and CP 3525.
They print a LOT, (5,000+ sheets per week) but also demand high quality photographs from the machine?
Anyone investigated this before and know of any printers which can deliver high quality and high volume, we realise this wont be cheap!
Cheers.

[CPLTD]

Hi Josh,

have PM'd

[localzuk]

For that level of volume (about 200k prints a year), you should look at a contract machine. We have a Ricoh MP C2800 for our colour copying, and it provides high quality prints at a very reasonable price.

[Soulfish]

For that level of volume (about 200k prints a year), you should look at a contract machine. We have a Ricoh MP C2800 for our colour copying, and it provides high quality prints at a very reasonable price.

+1 for that level of printing you need to be using a contract printer. You'll get a lower cost per page and machine maintenance included in the cost.

[localzuk]

You'll get... ...machine maintenance included in the cost.

This is the key thing here I'd say. With that amount of full page colour printing, your machines are going to need constant maintenance, so it is best to get it included from the start.

[dhicks]

They print a LOT, (5,000+ sheets per week) but also demand high quality photographs from the machine?

It might be worth taking a look at Xerox's Phaser line of printers - similar to laser printers, but they use a melted wax-like substance to print with instead of toner. They claim to be very economical and so forth (but then everyone claims that), and they do seem to produce nice, glossy-looking photos. One of those loaded with 160gsm paper/card should produce pretty decent photos. I'm not sure one of those could quite manage 5,000 sheets a week (check the duty-cycle figures on Xerox's website), but you could always buy several printers and set them up as a print pool.

Edit: note that there's possibly some issues laminating the output from the Phaser printers - seemingly putting the prints through a hot laminator can re-melt the wax. My sister reckons she's done it and they laminate just fine, so your milage may vary. Also, as pointed out above, one of these on contract might be a good idea.

I could have sworn there was a chap a couple of years back asking about a huge great photocopier-sized device he'd got that used ink instead of toner - basically a giant-sized inkjet printer. Any remember what that was?

[localzuk]

I could have sworn there was a chap a couple of years back asking about a huge great photocopier-sized device he'd got that used ink instead of toner - basically a giant-sized inkjet printer. Any remember what that was?

There's a RISO machine that does that, but its quality is not suitable here - its more designed for cheap flyers etc...

[insideout]

give this device a look;
Commercial colour printers, high quality colour laser printers - Xerox Phaser 7760

v high quality colour output - FOGRA certified and runs to ISO standards for print. Its in fact the smallest device that can achieve this - next up would be a Canon C1 which is over 30-40k!

[synaesthesia]

I'll second the quality of the Xerox printers. All of our colour printers are those - the money saving compared to toners is very substantial. Plus they're darned slight easier to store

[RTFM]

We bought an OKI C810 for our photography department (we needed an A3 printer) but for the volumes your talking you'll be replacing toners on a near weekly basis.........the running costs are going to be astronomical.....I also doubt the printer itself would last too long with that sort of volume going through it.

How are they going through 1000 sheets a day?!?!? I'm a little lost for words! haha.

[dhicks]

Commercial colour printers, high quality colour laser printers - Xerox Phaser 7760

If the idea is to print colour-accurate prints of what they see on screen, then investing in some colour calibration hardware (Pantone Huey or similar) might also be a good idea - no point in spending thousands on the printing hardware if the whole end-to-end solution isn't in place.