Windowed Envelopes - Which machine?

[mrwho]

Sorry, this is just a repost of a thread started at the Duplicator's forum, but since I didn't get any answers there, maybe here I get lucky.

What could possibly be the best machine to recommend to a customer who wants to print on windowed envelopes? Of course, laser is out of the question, so we're getting out of my area of knowledge. Can anyone give me some recommendations?

Cheers!

[Jules Winfield]

I'm assuming by "windowed" you are talking about the little plastic "windows". I would recommend any cheap inkjet printer with an envelope feeder option. I say cheap because running this kind of stock will shorten the life of pretty much any printer. So basically you'll want a "disposable" printer for this purpose.

[blackcat4866]

You're not supposed to print in the window holes. You're supposed to print onto paper, fold it, then put it in the envelope. That's why it has a window.

Sorry. just being a smart ass. =^..^=

[tmaged]

My wife works for Meadwestvaco in the envelope division (I came from there). They have $80k Halm Jet Presses that they print on. I would recommend they buy them from a forms supplier that has an account with a company like Meadwestvaco. Most orders will be handled down to 1K envelopes which is pretty small. If they only want 50, buy an inkjet. The branch my wife is at prints about 1 million envelopes a day.

[msaeger]

Depends on how many. If they want to do a lot a duplicator works great. I was just at a place doing 1500 of them today on a duplicator it took about 5 minutes. If they only want to do a few I agree a cheap inkjet is the way to go.

[mrwho]

Well, we're talking about a customer that wants to do business printing those kind of envelopes, so yeah, a duplicator is probably what he wants. So, and since I'm not familiar with duplicators, can you do some recomendation on a brand and/or model of duplicator best suited for the job?

Thanks!

[JERRY D]

You helped me now I hope to return the favor...

We wanted to print return addresses on our blank window stock. The process is slow but we fashioned a 'Pocket" from a file folder to slip over the window section. Hand feed thru mp/bypass tray. Works like a charm.

[mrwho]

You helped me now I hope to return the favor...

We wanted to print return addresses on our blank window stock. The process is slow but we fashioned a 'Pocket" from a file folder to slip over the window section. Hand feed thru mp/bypass tray. Works like a charm.

Thanks for your kind feedback, but we need to propose a machine for a customer to print several hundreds of envelopes for his own customers. But I'll keep that hint handy for my own private use on my home laser machine.

[Morlock49]

Ricoh do some good duplicators that can handle this job, the brand is also sold under the Standard Business machines branding.

The only thing is if envelopes are the main print job then there is a modification for the paper clamp to grip the thicker envelopes with out skew happening.