Time to Move On

Over the last several years here at My Father’s World we have used a toner-based color printer for our book covers, color portions of our student sheets, and any printing that needs to be done on glossy media.  The printer we currently have in house is a Canon C8000 production machine that requires 3 phase power due to the high heat needs to run the 2 internal fusers.  It has been an extraordinary machine and has provided some of the best color quality that I have seen in my time in the industry.  However, the moment is near when we have to say goodbye to this valiant warrior, as time and use has caught up to it.  This machine is reaching the end of its life cycle and is also now part of a discontinued line, which means it is becoming harder to keep the machine running at a consistent level and to secure parts when repair is needed.  We now begin the process of dialing in on what machine we will be bringing into our family of printers next, something we have done 4 times for color machines in my 14 years here at My Father’s World.

            This is a process that takes a lot of time and testing before we make the final decision.  Obviously, there is a cost aspect that will play into it.  There is the initial cost of purchase or lease to get the machine, but we also have to evaluate the cost to run the machine on a daily basis.  How much power does it consume, how much heat does it put off causing our a/c to run longer and harder, and many other factors that can add to the everyday cost of using the printer.  But what may be a bit surprising is that usually cost isn’t our deciding factor for the selection.  More of our decision will be based on production and performance - how fast the machine can run and what kind of quality it can produce at that speed. 

            As mentioned above the C8000 had 2 fusers inside the machine.  A fuser heats to certain temperature based on the type of media being run through the machine.  Since we have many Student Sheets that have multiple types of media in each set, and each media has a different temp setting, this machine was a big win for us. Each time the fuser has to reheat or cool down it causes a delay in the printing process.  So, with 2 fusers and the capability to have 2 heat settings simultaneously, it allowed us to run jobs much faster.   This higher rate of production outweighed the extra cost of electricity that this machine would pull.  

            Over the last couple of months and continuing through the summer, we have and will continue to meet with our trusted printing partner to finalize what will be next for us.  We are looking at what machines are available, checking testimonies and reviews of those machines, and we will be actually running and testing multiple machines to determine if they work for our needs going forward.  For each of the products that we print in house, we have gone through a strenuous testing process for our paper, and this makes it imperative that we not only hear what others are saying about these machines but that we actually test them ourselves using our files and paper to see how this compares to what we have had in the past.  This intense testing ensures that we are staying consistent with our finished product and that it meets the quality standards we have laid out for ourselves.   Our goal is to have this process completed by the end of summer, allowing us to have the machine on our floor and in production by early fall.  Stay tuned to find out what we choose!