In an exclusive media tour of its Epicenter at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney this week, the company showed off several fresh releases, including the iGen4 Press, the 700 Digital Color Press, the DocuColor 5000AP Digital Press and the DocuColor 1257GA Digital Press, as well as the updated 4127 Copier/Printer.
Click here to see pictures of Fuji Xerox’s new and updated products.
The iGen4 has been at the epicenter only a week, and was still in the process of set-up during the tour. Simon Lane (pictured, right), Fuji Xerox’s national manager for production services business, described the press as “a very exciting product for us”.
With the press set for an official release next month and installations set to commence in January, Lane said the iGen4 features “more automation than its predecessor” and “roughly 400 changes to the engine”.
The main three changes Lane cited, however, are a full-width sensor which automatically detects and corrects density variations and streaks, a carrier hopper which eliminates the need to manually replace developer, and an inline spectrophotometer which calibrates the engine for colour accuracy automatically.
Lane also has high hopes for the 700 Digital Color Press, which he believes has the potential to become the company’s highest selling commercial product.
“For people who have been wondering about digital, this is the answer,” he said, placing a hand on the 700.
Colour production marketing manager Henryk Kraszewski (pictured, left) believes that the 700’s ability to run coated stocks, in addition to the custom profile capability that can be used to optimise the settings for certain stocks, justifies calling the 700 a “press”, despite its size.
The company also showcased updates to its workflow software suite, FreeFlow, which now includes Express to Print, described by Lane as a “very simple prepress program, but very sophisticated in terms of what it supplies to our customers”, adding that it provided “genuine labour savings”.
Lane later confessed that despite the hype surrounding the iGen4 and 700 presses, it is actually Express to Print he is most excited about, with the program geared towards entry-level digital print providers.
First shown at a technology demonstration at this year’s drupa, Express to Print automates frequently repeated jobs and routine job preparation tasks in order to increase productivity.
The 4112 Copier/Printer has also been updated, giving birth to the 4127, which features new controller application features, a high capacity stacker and a booklet maker.
The company also announced it has adopted Australian Colour Print Standards, with its range of colour print servers now being installed with the ISO Coated ICC profile as the default CMYK colour space.
Fuji Xerox appears unperturbed by the current economic downturn, with Lane citing the number 40 as a significant figure for the company, as it posted 40 per cent year on-year growth in four areas: colour print volumes, installed base of iGen3 digital production press, installed base of entry production colour print engines, and production colour AMPV.
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