Konica Minolta claims the recently released New AccurioPress C6100 and C6085 Digital Colour production print systems represent the highest level of performance, print quality and colour consistency that deliver on high productivity for this demanding print space.
With these two models, Konica Minolta has introduced the Intelligent Quality Optimiser (IQ-501), this new technology was co-developed with the sensing division that has been primarily responsible for developing quality devices for colour, light and gloss reading in a multitude of applications as well 3D scanning systems.
The IQ-501 has two image sensors that scan both sides of the printed sheet and in combination with an in-built photo-spectrometer; Media Profiling, Colour Control, toner density, front and back and sheet to sheet registration, image position and centring can be easily set up operators creating an automated process that saves valuable time and labour while increasing productivity as a whole.
The IQ-501 is a closed loop system that continues to monitor registration, image position and colour densities making changes continuously throughout a print job providing next level consistency, without loss of productivity, with Konica Minolta saying it delivers colour quality and registration on par with offset printing, with an average delta e value of three or below.
At 100 ppm and 85 ppm respectively, both models are built on the same solid frame platform engine, which is now in its third generation. With average capable volumes of up to 480,000 prints per month and a monthly duty cycle of 1.8 million prints.
These systems include enhanced media capabilities, now at full rated print speed on standard paper sizes with all types of stocks from 52 to 400 gsm duplex. Expanded capabilities for envelope printing are catered for with a dedicated envelope fuser unit that guarantees high speed quality envelope printing and for long sheet, they are able to print sheet lengths up to 762mm auto duplex and from 763 mm to 1300mm simplex sheets, delivering a major expansion in print capabilities!
A full range of inline finishing developed and designed by Konica Minolta, with proven capabilities are available for these two models, designed to maximise digital finished output. These include large capacity stackers, punch/fold and stapling units as well as perfect binding, auto-binding and booklet finishing.
The 100ppm Canon C10000VP is targeted at commercial printers and inplant printing departments. It prints in CMYK at full rated speed on the uncoated stock from 60-350gsm, and on coated grades from 70-350gsm. It handles a maximum paper size of 330x488mm and also handles specialist media, such as synthetics. The resolution is 2,400dpi.
Duplex A4 speed is the same as for single-sided, and the monthly duty cycle is 1.5m pages. While the device uses the same Consistently Vivid (CV) toner as the existing Imagepress C800 model, it has a new developer unit and reduced fusing temperature for improved colour consistency and accuracy.
It actually has two fusing units and the Dual Fixing Technology means it runs at 100ppm even on heavy or mixed media jobs. If you are printing uncoated 150gsm it will go through one fusing unit. Or, if the stock is over 150gsm or you are printing on coated media, it will go through the second. The Dual Fixing Unit automatically routes heavier and coated stocks to a second fixing station. This enables full production speed, regardless of media weight, and high productivity, even for long runs and mixed-media jobs
Also new is an inline spectrophotometer for colour calibration, the built-in spectrophotometric sensors are used for post fuse engine calibration measurements, including Auto Gradation Adjustment and Auto Correct Color Tone.
The use of a second transfer belt means there is no material deformation and improved registration accuracy. New registration control technology delivers front-to-back registration tolerance of 0.5mm.
As the focus is on higher speed and productivity, it is pertinent to have a hyper-RIP, which can handle heavy files hassle-free. The C10000VP is driven by EFI Fiery FS200 Pro controllers: B4000 and B5000 servers.
The Océ credentials in wide-format are well known, but its digital print technologies for the cut-sheet market are no less impressive, with the award-winning VarioPrint i300 inkjet cut-sheet press bridging the gap between the application flexibility and efficiency of sheet-fed presses, and the economy and productivity of web-fed systems, without compromising quality.
“Again, the impetus for the Océ iSeries of digital presses can be found solely in our customers’ changing requirements in a rapidly evolving print market,” Nethercott says. “The trend towards ever-shorter runs and quicker turnarounds has been with us for some time now, but print service providers are also now having to meet demand for an increasingly diverse range of high quality colour products at very keen price points.
“Both quality and productivity are equally impressive on the i300, which features Océ iQuarius inkjet technology to produce outstanding 600 x 600dpi imaging – equating to a 1200dpi perceived image quality – and production speeds of up to 300 A4 images a minute, or 10 million A4 images a month.”
The result, Nethercott says, is that this machine fills an important gap between traditional sheet-fed production and the established digital print environment.
“Offset has traditionally been the undisputed leader for high quality and low costs on long print runs, yet it struggles to deliver cost-effectively on short runs and, of course, customisation simply is not possible. In contrast, digital has offered the flexibility of almost limitless personalisation and far more affordable options for very short runs, but has struggled to compete on other metrics.
The Océ VarioPrint i-series, including the i300, redefines the cost, productivity and throughput equation by using advanced inkjet technology to offer high productivity and low running costs, with sheet-fed versatility, and adding a suite of innovations like intelligent automated quality control and maintenance functions which reduce set-up and maximise productive up-time.
“The Océ VarioPrint i300 is one of the first sheet-fed inkjet colour presses released to the market, and it is helping drive the transition from offset to digital by providing with a productive, high quality, economical digital print alternative which allows PSPs to cater easily for the diversity required by today’s print buyer,” Nethercott explains.
“In practice, this technology means you can easily consolidate several digital workflows – mono, spot colour and full colour – into one production printing system, with the Océ Prismasync workflow allowing virtually non-stop productivity. It means PSPs no longer have to take a hit on some jobs in order to retain more profitable work – the i300 makes just as much sense to profitably produce a high-volume mono job as it does for the higher value, higher margin quality short run colour work.”
Fuji Xerox has a new toner-based digital press, the six-colour Iridesse Production Press (Iridesse), offering speeds of 120ppm with substrates up to 400gsm, with print resolution of 2,400dpi. The company says the new high speed Iridesse offers printers new levels of flexibility and versatility, and will enable them to increase their product range to the market. Iridesse is able to print specialty colours including metallic with a single pass, by housing up to two additional specialty dry inks of gold, silver, clear and white. The newly launched print engine enables CMYK dry ink layers to be processed on top of the special dry ink layer. An overlay of another specialty dry ink can be processed on top of CMYK dry ink layers, a feature made available with another Fuji Xerox digital printer, the Color 1000i Press. Fuji Xerox says that while conventional offset printing requires mixing silver ink to make metallic ink, this new product allows for simultaneous printing of several metallic colours during a single printing process.
CMYK dry inks are made of High Definition EA Dry Ink (HD EA Dry Ink)—one of the world’s smallest particle size toners. The HD EA Dry Ink fuses quickly at low temperature and is evenly fused onto the paper by through our marking technology that achieves even transferring of six layer of dry inks.
The standard colour library contains Pantone+Metallic and Pantone+Premium Metallic, which are swatches of metallic colours commonly used in the printing industry. With these colour swatches, the operator can reproduce colours similar to Pantone metallic colours on printing materials by designating the colour codes.
Finishing options include Fuji Xerox’s Finisher D6 with Booklet Maker, Crease/ Two-sided Trimmer D2, and SquareFold Trimmer D1, which can be connected to the Iridesse press, allowing for automatic production of professional booklets and folded leaflets. The company says the finishing options expand the possible printing applications by enabling to produce complex folded leaflets including accordion-fold and gatefold.
The HP Indigo 7r is a new concept from the company, essentially 7r is a high-performance reconditioned Indigo press at what the company says is an unmatched price.
Supplied by Currie Group in Australia and New Zealand the HP Indigo 7r Digital Press is a productive and reliable HP Indigo press, result of a carefully crafted and executed reconditioning process.
The press is capable of producing 4 million colour pages a month, at a top colour speed of 160 pages per minute in Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM). It can be leveraged with various options that will increase the capability to print high value applications as well as enhance productivity. Optional extra colour stations can be used for special inks such as White, Fluorescent Pink, spot colours and many more. The Optimizer, an on-press production assistant can ensure non-stop printing.
Enabled by HP Indigo’s liquid ElectroInk technology and digital offset process, HP Indigo says prints from the 7r are of the highest quality. The company says 7r prints match or even exceed offset, allowing them to be used interchangeably. HP Indigo ElectroInk has the widest digital colour gamut, in addition to special inks, using up to five ink stations on press.
The press is reconditioned at the HP Indigo factory where it undergoes an extensive parts replacement and testing process designed by HP Indigo’s experts. It achieves print quality equivalent to a newly manufactured press and comes with a factory warranty. The programme is part of HP Indigo’s effort to reduce waste and minimise impact on the environment.
Printing speed is 120 four-colour A4 pages per minute (two-up), or 160 A4 colour pages per minute in EPM (two-up), line screens are 144, 160, 175, 180, 180m, 210, 230 lpi on a maximum sheet size of 330 x 482mm. Paper weights are 80 to 350 gsm for coated, 60 to 320 gsm for uncoated with the option for a thick substrate kit to be added.
The Kodak ZX3900 Nexpress digital cutsheet printer launched at drupa has new offerings like opaque white ink and can support up to 530gsm stock with thicker paperboards and select heavy weight synthetics, which the company says will open new opportunities for printers, including short-run packaging applications like labels, tags, and small folding cartons, as well as differentiated commercial and publishing products.
It prints a maximum sheet size of 356 x 1000mm at 7850 sheets an hour, or 131 per minute. Minimum sheet size is 279 x 200mm, with four standard feeders handling 11,000 sheets. Imaging is dry electrophotography, producing 600 dpi on standard substrates weights 60gsm to 350 gsm, up to 530 gsm with the upgrade kit.
It can meet critical client needs for surface finishes like, matte, CMYK, UV coating and gloss. The new front end software can handle complex jobs such as photo services, high-end direct mail, and demanding variable data jobs without slowing down the press.
The core imaging technology is electrophotography which uses multi-bit LED image writers exposing five imaging cylinders, which in turn transfer the image blankets onto the substrate. The imaging LED technology can enable 256 levels of exposure on one 600×600 dot and can be adjusted to maintain consistency, resulting in photographic image quality that Kodak says is beyond offset.
The NexPress Opaque White Dry Ink complements the already available nine specialty inks, delivers opacity in a single pass.
With the Kodak NexPress Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions, you can print gold, opaque white, dimensional raised print, accurate spot colours, clear, security features with red fluorescing dry ink or MICR, watermarking or a protective coating. These solutions can be swap in and out within 10 minutes with no need of mask, learning and contamination risk. Laminate like gloss can be achieved with glossing unit to create higher impact on cards, photo books, brochures, menus.
Offering image quality and the ability to handle a wide variety of media, Ricoh says its Pro C5200S digital colour production printer offers high-end features at an entry-level price.
The company says compact Pro C5200S delivers high print speeds and first-class colour quality together with a variety of finishing options. The printer can produce full-colour and black-and-white documents at up to 65 and 80 pages per minute at 1,200 x 4,800 dpi. Accurate colour and smooth, subtle gradations are delivered through the use of the latest Ricoh imaging technology.
The Pro C5200S supports media up to 360 gsm simplex and 300 gsm duplex at 330 x 488mm standard, with optional oversized media support of up to 330 x 1260mm. Output quality is further boosted through the use of an enhanced fusing belt that provides more consistent transfers and toner adhesion on specialty and textured stocks.
Compact in size, the Pro C5200S can readily fit anywhere and quickly produce output that is distinguished by what the company says are crisp, clear text and colour-rich images. Operators can maintain high quality standards with tight registration thanks to technology that minimises colour shifts.
With a total paper capacity of up to 8,250 sheets and four paper trays provided as standard, operators can maintain long stretches of uptime even when switching between a variety of media types. This feature, combined with the printer’s saddle-stitching, embedded Paper Library, and folding capabilities, makes the Ricoh Pro C5200s ideal for booklet production as it doesn’t slow down for covers or inserts. Optional cover interposers and booklet finisher options are also available.
Print jobs can be completed quickly and easily using the standard and intuitive control panel. This is supported by an innovative light pole that instantly shows the status of the machine from anywhere on the production floor. Active tray indicators show which tray is in use, allowing other trays to be filled while the system is running. There is also an optional media identification unit that can locate the closest available media match automatically when replacing media from one job to the next.
With so many features in a single device, printers are able to offer a wider set of services to customers, producing everything from menus and postcards to point-of-sale displays, brochures and books.
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