KIP Plotters and Oce Potters ?

[Anonymous]

I have been searching trying to find some relevant info on anyone using a high volume KIP plotter, but haven't come across anything recent or new. We are looking ot replace our Xerox boxes with something new. KIP and OCE appear to be the two players in the market.

I have heard positives on both, but keep hearing KIP is a pain when it comes to support. Getting parts, etc. can be a pain. Not sure if that is accurate or not. The software and interface for a KIP also appears to be excellent.

Oce they say is built really well and rarely breaks down. Handles large plot volumes well, etc.

Our Xerox's are always broke down, something I would like to stay away from moving forward. Looking at either a couple of KIP 7900's with a scanner on one - or a couple of Oce TSD750's with a scanner on one.

We will be printing from Revit a lot - not sure how either of them play with that, and also dumping large amounts of DWFs and PDFs to them when we run mulitple sets.

Any feedback would be great, wasn't sure which forum to put this in, but thought I would start here, hoping some of you have expericences with these plotters and how they play with Revit or Cad.

thanks,

Jim

[BrianBenton]

We have a Kip 7100 b/w printer/scanner. Our service techs are terrible. That's my biggest complaint. They are slow to respond and when they do it takes to repair. One day the tech gave up and just left without telling anyone. We had to call the tech service to ask where he went and what was going on. We have struggled with the toner working properly and print quality. If we have a printing deadline the machine fails in some way, or so it seems. This is my first experience with a Kip so I'm trying not to blame Kip, but it is difficult. I have had great success in the past with Oce.

[murray-clack]

When I first replied to this thread, we had a KIP 5000, and I HATED IT from day one.

In March 2017, we bought an Océ Plotwave 500, and I LOVE IT.

Would you believe that within a year of having this machine, we've only had TWO paper jams? (both "self inflicted" 😉 ).  With the KIP 5000, I was fixing an average of two paper jams per day.

I will NEVER go back to KIP.  The Océ Plotwave 500 has so many nice features / better functions compared to the KIP. Most importantly, the Océ is RELIABLE.

When I refill the toner, or replace a roll of paper in the Océ, the plotter warms up again in less than 30 seconds.  The KIP always took ten minutes.

Another nice Océ feature is that the plotter will stop spitting out drawings when the upper tray gets full so that nothing starts falling on the floor.

Changing paper rolls is super easy (no more "hand cranking" the spindles like in the KIP 5000).

The scanner is supper easy to use.  Unlike the KIP 5000, you don't have to have your drawing centered "just right", the scanner will automatically detect the edges.

Plot quality ALONE is worth the price of admission with the Océ.  If you're plotting 100 drawings, drawing #100 looks just as crisp and clean as Drawing #1.

The ONLY gripe I have with it is the toner and waster toner.  Océ needs to fix this design because wisps of toner powder tends to dirty-up the machine (luckily, not the drawings).  I have my maintenance guy come in once every other month just to give the machine a good vacuuming. But this MINOR annoyance does not distract that it is an awesome machine compared to any KIP.

[RGrandmaison]

We just installed an Oce Colorwave500 today. Haven’t had much of an opportunity to use it yet, other than to set it up and do some test plots, but the machine is built like a tank. Scanning was ridiculously simple. Roll change, etc. all very easy. 

The thing that wasn’t so easy, and always a bit of disappointment with Oce (was a user of an Oce TDS700 for many years) is their software. Right now we’re fighting an alert message that pops up when printing from AutoCAD. Instead of simply passing the plot along to the printer, midway through the AutoCAD print progress bar, the Oce driver’s print manager pops up and asks for on “OK” or to allow for additional adjustments. We’ve even set it to “NOT SHOW” for alerts and it just won’t go away. And it seems there’s no AutoCAD specific drivers from the newer Oces...so there’s that too.

It’s rather strange to me. I don’t understand why a company that make such excellent hardware, fails so much on the software side. It’s like they have to separate teams who don’t really talk to each other much...let alone talk to their users!