People's impressions of KIP 6000 & 3000 Plotters

[bkagarise]

Hey everyone,
Our company is making the step from plotters (HP 1050c Plus) to large format printers. We have researched and demo'd KIP, Oce and Xerox printers. So far our pick seems to be the KIPs. Our main office will have the 6000 and the branch offices (6) will have the
3000's. We will be keeping some of the HP 1050's for color plotting.
We typically run between 50-150 sheets per set, 50 sets per job and 50 jobs per year at our main office (KIP 6000). Do the math and this amounts to 250,000 (83,000 L.F.)sheets per year. For the branch offices (KIP 3000), 108,000 sheets (36,000 L.F.) sheets is the norm. (BTW, this is just a guess).
Now to the question; how is the reliability of the KIPs in terms of maintenance? Also, do they use more or less toner than other machines?
I've read that the software is somewhat glitchy, but I guess we'll just deal with that. Also, at the demo, there was an issue with the grayscale linework from PDF's (It was dotted rather than shaded). Has anyone else had this issue?

[Olaf.Banckaert]

Ok, I’m not that familiar with the kip machines, so sorry. But why would you change? Bad support from HP and no I’m not working for HP. Did you see these setup of HP DesignJet 4500-42” (http://search.hp.com/query.html?cc=us&lang=en&qt=DesignJet+4500-42%94&la=en) + EsteFold 4211-HP (http://www.es-te.com/4211hp-factsheet%20englisch.pdf)? I was watching a demo for 2 weeks ago. And it worked nice and quick.
Just a thought.

[H-Angus]

Again not familiar with the KIP machines, but we use an HP 800PS and have done for the last 2-3 years with no problem at all although I don't think we print quite as much as the figures you have stated.

The ink seems to last forever, the main reason we chose this one is because wo have the A0 scanner aswell. But theres probably a newer model now.

What made you go for the KIP machines over other makes?

[rkmcswain]

You might take a look at http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=482868 also...

[Phil Ferguson]

Now to the question; how is the reliability of the KIPs in terms of maintenance? Also, do they use more or less toner than other machines?
I've read that the software is somewhat glitchy, but I guess we'll just deal with that. Also, at the demo, there was an issue with the grayscale linework from PDF's (It was dotted rather than shaded). Has anyone else had this issue?
We have a KIP 6000 along with a KIP 2080 scanner and an external (custom) controller here and have been running it for nearly a year. No significant problems to date but we don't have anywhere near the volume you do (maybe 45,000LF / year).

As far as maintenance, we have not had any issues other than the occasional cleaning. As long as there is some type of maintenance agreement that includes periodic maintenance based on your volume, you should be OK.

Toner usage has been reasonable, though I cannot compare to other makes since I have no experience with them. Be prepared to use a little more toner at first...I would expect it to use the first couple cartridges fairly quickly...I was told that there are a number of "nooks and crannies" that need to fill up with toner at first. Also you will need to find "the sweet spot" as far as how heavy you lay the toner down -vs- print quality.

I really like the software (Powerprint) we have. We plot all of our plans to file and have the ability to call up sets and print from every workstation in the office. It's nice to send a set of plans from here and walk over to the machine and they're sitting there waiting for me. Also, if everything is configured correctly between your offices, you can print to any printer on the network. Converting plotfiles to PDF or TIF (along with a few other formats) is very easy (this feature keeps me from having to "reprint" from ACAD to create PDFs).

Plotting PDFs has not been an issue. The issues that you experienced may have been a result of the way the PDF was generated or some type of scaling that was occurring...that one I can't help you with.

I hope this information (what there is of it) is useful. I guess, in this case, no news is good news.

[Mike.Perry]

Hi "bkagarise" ( Sorry, I do not know your real name )

Please note I have *moved* this thread from the AutoCAD Plotting (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34) forum to this one, as I feel this particular forum is a more appropriate place for such a topic.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Manager

[bkagarise]

Thanks so much for the replies. I do, however, have a few additional questions, particularly for Phil.
Do I understand you correctly, are you converting .plt files to .pdf files and if so, how?
Also, how are you generating your .pdf's?
Is the 2080 scanner B/W or color and how do you like it?

[tatriest]

We have a KIP 6000, which replaced a RICOH about 12 months ago.

I will batch plot drawings to PLT and save them on the server. I will go to the KIP printer and select the newly created PLT files into the print queue and print them.

There is no need to convert them to PDF, the KIP will print PLTs like the other images it can print (TIFF, PDF, etc.)

I also print sheets via this method. I generate a multi-page DWF. On my machine, open DWF viewer and print the sheets to the KIP printer like any other printer -- provided your IT staff enables you to connect to the printer through the server.

Terry

[jim.dahl]

I have heard that there might be an issue with the scanning and copying on the Kip 3000. We just started using it about a month ago and notice a lot of dots bordering the lines and text so gives a blurry appearance.

Jim

[tatriest]

I have seen that twice since we purchased the 6000 12 months ago. A service call was made and problem solved. I am not sure what the cause was.

I have read somewhere that the humidity can cause poor results...

Terry