PageWide at 2015 ERA/IRgA Convention
The HP PageWide printer received a lot of attention at the trade show in the 2015 ERA/IRgA Convention in Atlanta.
Attendees at the ERA/IRgA Convention in Atlanta in early April had the rare opportunity to hear three reprographics professionals discuss their experiences with a variety of large-format color printers. Chuck Wingard, president of Tree Towns Reprographics in Elmhurst, Ill. offered his observations of the HP PageWide XL8000, which he has been pre-beta testing since late 2014. Carl Byrne, owner of Printing by Evergreen in Baltimore, discussed his two memjet-driven printers, the RTI Vortex and the Xerox IJP2000. And Geoff Stoneham, product manager of Reprodux in Toronto, gave his views of the KIP C7800 and the Océ Colorwave, the third memjet-driven large-format printer. The panel was moderated by Michael Shaw, president of the Eastern Reprographics Association and president of Central Blue Print in New Hyde Park, NY.
Click here to see the chart comparing the different technologies that was distributed to audience members.
The conversation among the panelists was wide-ranging, encouraged by a list of questions from Shaw. Shaw began the conversation by commenting that HP is heavily promoting its PageWide printer, and by extension an expansion of color CAD printing. “We have to harness the marketing effort from HP, which is emphasizing color,” Shaw said.
Following is an approximate summary of the conversation:
Question: In general, how do you like the printer?
Byrne answered this question by noting that the turnaround time and quality from the Vortex and IJP2000 printers is better than conventional inkjet, and he has brought on new accounts because of them. “Once some architectural clients saw color prints from the memjet, they all wanted it,” he said.
When asked if the higher price of the memjet prints deterred customers, he replied that “price is always a factor, but when the price was compared to what they wanted, it was worth it.”
Stoneham said the KIP C7800 has performed well. “The KIP color quality is fantastic.”
Wingard said the quality of prints from the PageWide is excellent. “The blacks are blacker, the lines are sharper. Even in B&W, people like it better,” he said.
Question: Are you seeing enough color CAD work to keep the machines busy?
Stoneham said color CAD “has grown dramatically in the past two years” in his market in Canada. However, the machines are probably faster than they need to be at the moment. “It might be overkill,” he said. “Speed is important, but I’m not sure how important.”
Wingard said more people are asking for color CAD output, but it’s a gradual increase, not dramatic. Regarding print speed on the PageWide, Wingard said that the density of the color on a print seems to make no difference. He added that he believes the PageWide will change the pricing structure of the industry because of the fact that monochrome and color prints cost the same. (Click here to read Paul Fridrich’s commentary on this topic.)
Byrne said that a customer of Evergreen Technologies, an equipment and supplies dealership he also owns, told him that the IJP2000 printer allowed him to secure work that a competitor could not do quickly enough.
Question: What do you think about the print-processing abilities of the printers?
Wingard replied that the PageWide’s SmartStream software is easy to use but does not include a lot of functionality. It does handle orientation and projects with mixed document sizes and amounts of color.
Byrne said the front-end he uses for his memjet printers is the Caldera RIP. “It’s not elegant for AEC files,” so sometimes he uses the Windows driver instead.
Question: How dependable are the printers?
Stoneham said both the KIP C7800 and Océ Colorwave have been dependable. He said he recently had a 4,000-sheet job that ran all weekend without a problem on the Colorwave. Regarding the KIP C7800, when it’s very clean, “you can dump a truckload” of work into it.
Byrne said that he has not run enough prints through either of his memjet printers to really determine their dependability. But he did say, “They’re built like tanks, and there are not many moving parts. So I don’t have many concerns about dependability.”
Wingard replied that also hasn’t done enough volume on the PageWide to really determine how dependable it is.
Question: What media work well with the printers?
Bryne said he uses mostly recycled-content 20 lb bond on his memjets. He said the calenderization on the recycled paper results in better prints than even virgin bond. He said the machines are “very forgiving” and that he uses many other types of media without problems, including photo grade media, vinyl, adhesive-backed media, and Tyvek.
Wingard said he uses bond paper up to 32 lb on the PageWide, but that thicker material is causing jams.
Question: Tell us about the service requirements of the printers.
Byrne said it’s important to clean the heads of the memjet printers fairly frequently when printing graphics, but not as often with CAD prints. Cleaning is important because there are a lot of “artifacts” -- otherwise known as banding and lines – when the heads clog. He said the manufacturers say that viewers are supposed to stand six feet back from the prints, which makes the artifacts less visible.
Byrne said the print heads on the memjet printers last through three liters of ink. They cost $500 per head, and there are five of them in the machine.
Wingard said the PageWide heads need to be cleaned and calibrated about every other day. Costs for the printheads have not been released, but Wingard said he likes the fact that HP owns the technology, because he believes the printheads may cost less than if they were supplied by a third party.
Stoneham said service for the Océ Colorwave is expensive. Service for the KIP C7800, on the other hand, is inexpensive, and it doesn’t need much maintenance. The KIP printer frequently needs to be color calibrated, Stoneham said, but “overall it’s the best color machine we have.”
Question: Will you buy the PageWide once it comes on the market?
Stoneham said, “I need to know more about the PageWide before I buy it, especially the costs and the waste.”
Wingard said, “There is a difference between being on the leading edge and being on the bleeding edge. I prefer being on the leading edge. But I like to have something new to show architects; I like to be able to go to the architects I don’t do work for and show off the new technology.”