Large Format Plotters

[AutoCUD]

We are in the market for a new large format CAD plotter. Currently we have a KIP 5000 that has been absolutely horrifying. Does any one out there have any recommendations for any other manufacturer? We need a four roll setup, ability to do B&W and Color scanning, batch plot capabilities for PDF, JPG, BMP files and would like it to be able to integrate with our color plotter so we can make color copies as well. We do about 10,000 linear feet per month so it needs to be able to handle a large volume as well. Any suggestions would be grately appreciated. Thanks in advance to all who respond. We are located in the WNY area and would like to have local service done. We are also looking at leasing this time as opposed to buying.

[Mistress0fTheDorkness]

We've historically used HP's here for plotting (with an Oce copier).

Recently, I've started purchasing Canons because they're so much cheaper. I haven't got as many miles on them as all of our HP's saw, but, they seem to do okay so far.

Not a high volume producer here, though.

You might find more applicable opinions in the posts in this forum:

http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?36-Hardware

[Hammer.john.j]

We still have an OCE 9600 that is 13 years old and it's printed 5.4 MILLION SQUARE FEET.... it is FINALLY being retired, but it still prints, copies, and scans... quality is not there though.

Our primary is an OCETDS600 that is 7 years old and it has 4.3 MILLION SQUARE FEET on it, we are just taking it off of service because we have a new OCE TDS800 coming in.

in that time we have replaced our HP750c's and 1050c's (which are by far the most reliable HP's of all time) with an HP4500m that sucked so bad we are replacing it with a T1500.  Our T1200 is a very good printer but the mechanical setup (roll location and output) is strange.

We are also very happy with our Ricoh.

We've never owned KIP's but there are plenty of copy centers and blueprint companies with short horror stories about toner and the mess they make plus maintenance for us to STEER CLEAR OF KIP.

fyi, OCE is now Canon.

[rkmcswain]

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@Anonymous wrote:

We still have an OCE 9600 that is 13 years old and it's printed 5.4 MILLION SQUARE FEET.... it is FINALLY being retired, but it still prints, copies, and scans... quality is not there though.

Our primary is an OCETDS600 that is 7 years old and it has 4.3 MILLION SQUARE FEET.

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FWIW - our previous TDS800 clocked 6.6 million sq. ft. of printing during it's 5-yr lease. We had one month during that span with over 160,000 sq. ft. As impressive as some of these numbers are, my rep told me she has some of these machines (in her territory) that she knows run basically 24/7, only stopping for media and repairs.

Our current TDS860 hasn't seen quite that volume due to the slowdown. Only 2.5 million sq. ft in ±3 years

[street.preachero]

We are currently using an Xerox 6279.  Prior to that we were using a Xerox 8825, which only had two rolls.  We upgraded as I was tired of having to exchange rolls when trying to make copies (all our check prints were 17"X22" so we used that and 34X48 for the most part).

The 6279 scans to TIFF and PDF(that I know of), both in color and B&W with multipage or single page copy capability.

The only issue I have found is with the powersaving feature.  Leave it for too long and you will have to reboot the machine.

[Hammer.john.j]

the service agreements with OCE are HEAVTY to say the least.... but you get what you pay for.