MPC 5000

[fotocom]

We have a rep thinking of upgrading a customer to a MPC 5000.
They will be mostly printing to the machine but do require copying and scanning functions.
Quality doesnt have to be first class but reliability does.
At present they print/copy about 65k a month, with a ratio of 70/30 colour/b&w.
I have experience working on MPC 2500 and 3500 and find them very good, reliable and fairly o.k. to service.
However I have never worked on the larger 5000 or indeed the MPC 6000, which I would prefer he recommend considering the volumes they will doing.
The Ricoh launch guide suggests that a max monthly volume for the MPC 5000 should not exceed 50K.
Any thoughts?
Does anybody out there have any MPC 5000 doing high volumes, and what are their experiences?
Thanks.

[aabarnes1]

We've an mp6000 in Christchurch doing around 55k per month and we havent had a problem since the day it went in

[stephend]

My colleagues who are in the low volume team are complaining a lot about banding in the environments with high color coverage. Except this fact the residual toner pumps that are clogging some time the machine it's good.
In a high volume environment your service cost will go up but this can be fixed through a good service agreement.

[TonerMunkeh]

From the experience I've had of the Apollon / Athena you're best off sticking to the volume life guides given by Ricoh, as evidenced by an MPC3000 I visited once that had done.... wait for it.... 785k in 10 months. I nearly collapsed. How the machine hadn't caught fire is beyond me.

Anyway, back to the subject. It's possible an MPC5000 will take this kind of stick however if you think about it the machine will go through:

1. A set of PCU's a month
2. A full set of dev units, ITB cleaning unit and a rebuilt fuser every two months.

Explain that to the sales monkey and see if the cost of fitting the spare parts look good against his profit margin.

[MrPeAsE]

I have a bunch that i work on. I would say it they are doing 65k a month the device will need PM after PM. Black PCU is only rated for 120k, 240k for dev. It can do it but it will be down every month for drum or dev. this is not "high volume" device. i think the target on this is only 14k month 7k b/w 7k color


Product support guide has all info.

tscweb.net

[fotocom]

Thanks for the info and input guys. Common sense has prevailed (for once) with our sales rep.
He is going to install an MP C6000.

[Cipher]

Thanks for the info and input guys. Common sense has prevailed (for once) with our sales rep.
He is going to install an MP C6000.

I personally would of stuck with the MPC5000 it's a better and more reliable design imho.

The MPC6000 may be higher volume but it's a time consuming box to service, the paper path is more complex and jam removal can be a real shit.

[tcs04]

I personally would of stuck with the MPC5000 it's a better and more reliable design imho.

The MPC6000 may be higher volume but it's a time consuming box to service, the paper path is more complex and jam removal can be a real shit.

I agree, MPC6000 pm = £££££ ($$$$$?) + TIME (Compared to MC5000)

[Avalon]

Couldn't agree more,the MPC6000 is a total crock of s**t,I would sooner replace drums and devs every month on a MPC5000 than have another MPC6000 in the field.

[fotocom]

Sometimes I can get a bit confused with these forums.
I dont know what to think now. You think your making an educated informed decisions but other peoples experiences tend to reveal another story. Thanks again for some of the informed, constructive and helpfull comments.
However telling me that a particular machine "is a crock of shit", is in no way helpfull, I have no experience working on either the C5000 or C6000 so a little more elaboration on the problems experienced on these machines would be greatley appreciated.