Speed adjustments for Canon IR110 to IR125 to IR150?

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

Hi.

Can a Canon IR 110 have the engine speed, among other things, increased to essentially become and IR 125 or IR 150?

I ask because an old Xerox techie friend once said that certain series of analog and I believe some series of their digital copiers/printers are the exact same machine but operate at different speeds and that Xerox would merely "sell a license upgrade" if the customer wanted the faster version. Everything else was identical hardware wise.

So I got to thinking, the IR 110/125/150 look identical and are probably very identical internally. Therefore, is an IR 110 a slowed version of the 125/150? What would be involved in "upgrading" an IR 110 to the faster versions? Is it possible?

I can imagine this is where manufacturers make super lucrative profits and is something they don't want the word to get out on since the concept does exist and is an artificial way to make more expensive/faster machines of a slower/cheaper model.

Just curious. Thanks.

[djbass]

Not likely, and even if you could it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

Canon are very particular about protecting their machines from exactly this sort of exploit. From memory I think it was some early GP models that were same machine just geared down a little, and people eventually realised they could order a couple of boards and a new door and effectively upgrade them cheaper.

Yes, in short many of the iR series machines are the same engine internally but artificially limited. However Canon this time paid special attention to engineering them from the ground up so they couldn't be exploited this way. It is the reason many now have seperate counter pcbs and hardware dongles that wont allow you to change parts in the machine in such a way that would allow you to upgrade it, and why even if you could it would be prohibitively expensive.

I also wouldn't call it making an expensive/faster version of a slower model, rather making a gimped version of a more expensive/faster model so they don't have to spend more money engineering and manufacturing a lower class product while still keeping the ability to remain competitive in the budget market.

[Canuck]

Cannot be done on the ir110....can be done though on some other Canons....ir 2200.....uses jumper. Misrepresentation though...like setting back a meter.

[KenB]

Did Canon even actually build the iR110?

I thought it was made by Heidelberg, and is "re-skinned" for Canon, Kodak, and IBM.

[Canuck]

Correct....its not made by Canon

[mrfixit51]

Did Canon even actually build the iR110?

I thought it was made by Heidelberg, and is "re-skinned" for Canon, Kodak, and IBM.

Hi KenB!!

It was actually manufactured by Kodak, and sold to Canon, IBM, Heidelberg, sporting different trade dress. IBM's was in black... Wish I was still with Kodak! I believe the division is NexPress.

The 110 came out much earlier than the 135/150. I was trained on the 110. I have to assume with each upgrade in speed the systems on the front end of these boxes changed dramatically.

[KenB]

Hi KenB!!

It was actually manufactured by Kodak, and sold to Canon, IBM, Heidelberg, sporting different trade dress. IBM's was in black... Wish I was still with Kodak! I believe the division is NexPress.

The 110 came out much earlier than the 135/150. I was trained on the 110. I have to assume with each upgrade in speed the systems on the front end of these boxes changed dramatically.

Hi, MrFixit!

Shame on me for forgetting - for some reason I thought it was made by Heidelberg.

I went to iR110 analyst school (the 2 week version) back in 2001.

I have an iR150 out there that prints just over a million W2 forms (in triplicate, each on a different color paper) each year. After remming out a line on the controller, and getting the PCL5 driver set up right, it cranks these out on legal size - all 150 pages per minute, and no delays. Gotta love feeding legal size SEF!

Out of all the Segment 6 machines I've dealt with (other Canons. Ricoh, and Konica Minolta) the iR110 series is still my favorite. GRET is a wonderful thing. Nothing like the halftones and solids that come off of that puppy!

[djbass]

Hmm.. I was thinking a very different animal.

I have to say I am very jealous that I've never had the chance to work on any of Canons' Image Press style machines, simply was never the market for such a machine in my area.

[mrfixit51]

I never got to work on them either...

My brother and I got trained on them, 10 man/weeks of time, $30,000 of expense, and the sales deal fell through. We were supposed to get 6-7 of them in one location. It was going to be it's own territory. That was in 2001. My brother is in re-training right now for the 135, he has one he is going to support, by himself. I no longer work for Danka, Konica-Minolta now, my brother still does. So I won't get to play with it either...

[KenB]

Hi, MrFixit!

Gotta love feeding legal size SEF!

Oops, meant to say LEF. It just goes against what we know as copier / printer folk to see legal size feeding 90 degrees roatated!

[KenB]

My brother and I got trained on them, 10 man/weeks of time, $30,000 of expense, and the sales deal fell through. We were supposed to get 6-7 of them in one location. It was going to be it's own territory. That was in 2001. My brother is in re-training right now for the 135, he has one he is going to support, by himself. I no longer work for Danka, Konica-Minolta now, my brother still does. So I won't get to play with it either...

That's a bummer.

One thing about big iron machines - once you get a taste of them it's hard to go back to fast plastic. Plus with the iR110 family, you get to keep your UNIX (translation: an old version of Solaris!) skills honed, at least a little.