The Ricoh devices are branded as Heidelberg Linoprint C901, Linoprint C751 and Linoprint C651 and come packaged with the German manufacturer’s Prinect Digital Print Manager workflow.

Heidelberg’s local managing director, Richard Timson, said customers were telling him that the vendor’s presence in digital was “a necessity, because everyone recognises they have to have both the digital and offset options, so they see it as positive that we’re in the game”.

“This is a great partnership between two forward-thinking companies and will undoubtedly benefit the market and help grow demand for quality print.”

Timson said Prinect could provide “true digital print integration into the offset workflow”.

[Review: Prinect packaging print workflow]

“It’s not about adding another machine that is independent to the workflow. Rather it is about print shops benefitting from workflow management advances which will turn the focus back to printing profitably by utilising the right press for the right job,” he said.

“From a productivity perspective, when Prinect Digital Print Manager is integrated into an existing Prinect workflow, it becomes a one-of-a-kind hybrid workflow that allows the customer to change easily and rapidly between offset and digital printing at any time.

“This delivers greater flexibility and optimisation of equipment, and that ultimately saves time and money.”

Ricoh Australia’s general manager of business solutions & production, Kathy Wilson, said the Heidelberg partnership was good news for the two vendors and their customers.

“With this partnership, the market has two extremely strong, well-regarded global businesses working side by side and that’s a very positive message to customers. We are very pleased to be working with Heidelberg in Australia on this solution.”

[Related: More news about print partnerships]

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