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March 2001 Page 5
Color Business Report
a guillotine cut is made, and one must prevent a new
page from arriving at the guillotine while the previous
page is still being cut.
MGIs software examines files to be printed,
calculates percent coverage, and provides a supplies cost
figure, including the cost of paper. The ticket we have
included for subscribers (printed on roll-fed Bristol 94
lb. cover stock) cost $0.016 to print. The price is slightly
higher if cut sheets are used for the same job, since some
stock on an 8 1/2" cut sheet is not useable.
The Economics at the Back End
The MGI Digital Carte Master Color can take on
work that no other color laser printer can touch,
extending the range of jobs that can be considered for
digital demand printing. Much has been made of how
digital technology changes the economics of pre-press
prep work, making short runs possible. The Digital
Carte Master Color addresses the economics at the back
end. Three rails hold perforating, scoring, and slitting
wheels (see photo). Transverse or horizontal cuts by the
8 1/2" guillotine are automatically adjusted after
computer-controlled pattern verification. While the
MGIs built-in finishing station can slit, score, perf, and
trim in a single pass. Source: Color Business Report
Digital Carte Master Color changes the economics of
post-press, the product does not remove finishing
overhead altogether. This is a product for a press room,
not an office. Most jobs involve some set-up and testing.
With the $54,000 price of the unit comes three days of
operator training, an indication that there is a knack to
getting the cuts exactly where one wants them. In
addition, the finishing unit is a sophisticated machine.
Maintenance is not rigorous, MGIs Michael Abergel
explained, but it is very important. Thus a portion of
the training is dedicated to making sure that customers
are familiar with maintenance procedures.
In addition to the maintenance routines, customers
have to learn which media the printer will handle. We
spoke with a 7-person commercial printer that has been
using an MGI printer for about two years. As long as
they stay with a single stockHammermill Accent 80
lb. Coverperformance is predictable and reliable.
Different stocks perform differentlythat is,
unpredictably and unreliably. The printing company has
yet to do well with highly textured stiff stocks, preferred
by many customers, for example. MGI asked to see
samples of the troublesome paper, so it could test the
material and recommend settings. Since one cannot
expect ones print customers to stand by patiently while
MGIs technicians experiment, the commercial printer
tends to stick to the stocks they know will work well.
MGI has been responsive enough, sending
technicians from its U.S. headquarters in Florida to the
printers New England location several times.
Nonetheless, discovering the limits of the Digital Carte
Master Color one at a time has been daunting enough
to have caused the printer to give up. Their Digital Carte
Master Color now is used almost exclusively as a
business card and post card printer. With such limited
use, the company does not feel its investment in the
Digital Carte Master Color has paid off.
Nonetheless, MGI has made an important step with
the Digital Carte Master Color, since the configuration
addresses the ultimate user need for finished
documents. A tighter media design specification may
have resulted in more predictable performance. (That
being said, early Xeikon users complained about the
limited media selection. Designers of documents that
are to go to commercial printers like to specify the paper,
not vice versa.) A more open specification, the path MGI
has chosen, provides a product with more latitude on
paper, but with more workboth in settings and in
testingfor the customer. MGI expects to release
another product during the first half of this year. One
would expect that lessons learned from servicing the
present installed base would provide valuable guidance
for subsequent iterations.
(continued on page 6)