News Article

DIGITAL PRODUCTION PRESSES FACE OFF AGAINST OFFSET PRINTING AT PRINT ’09

 

By Marc Bussanich, Assistant Editor, October 16, 2009

 

McCormick Place in Chicago is the largest convention space in the country, which made it a fitting site to accommodate the heavy and sophisticated hardware displayed at the Print ’09 show. The production and graphic print industry’s seminal event ran from September 11 to September 16, and numerous print manufacturers and software developers that create print production workflows displayed their wares on 369,000 square feet of exhibition space.

 

Most of the office imaging equipment manufacturers were at the event, including Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Océ, Ricoh and Xerox. While the product managers discussed how their respective company’s production products matched up against the competition, they also stressed that advances in digital print technology are “nipping at the heels of the offset world” for short-run, variable data printing. In turn, product managers from offset press heavyweights such as Heidelberg, KBA, KOMORI and Muller Martini, along with some commercial printers, boasted that advances in offset technology are reducing the pre-press time to print shorter runs. Clearly emerging from the show was that commercial printers need to rely on both forms of technology because of their customers’ varied print requests. 

 

But some buyers at the show were in the market solely for digital print solutions. Representatives from major outsourcing companies that process customer transactions for the financial services industry included First Data (www.firstdata.com), DST Systems (www.dstsystems.com), Fiserv (www.fiserv.com) and CSG Systems (www.csgsystems.com), which serves the cable and communications industries. To attract those buyers, each of the office imaging manufacturers’ production divisions displayed unique hardware and software solutions.

 

Canon USA Highlights Workflow Solutions  

 

imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075C PRO Control Panel

Canon displayed one new color production device, which is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter. According to Jeff Tepper, product marketing manager for production systems at Canon, the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075C PRO (70-ppm color/75-ppm black) bridges the gap between light and mid production in Canon’s production portfolio. Tepper said that the new device “will be a nice fit for print shop owners that do not require an imagePRESS model.” According to Tepper, the device features a new controller and hardware platform, but the unit’s main functions and features are identical to the black-and-white imagePRESS 1110S series, and image quality is identical to Canon’s flagship production device, the imagePRESS C7000VP. 

 

While some of Canon’s production devices are compatible with EFI’s Fiery servers, Canon announced a new partnership with the Print On-Demand Solutions Group, an independent unit of Eastman Kodak Company, to equip Canon production devices with CREO Color Servers. The servers’ built-in JDF (Job Definition Format) capability allows it to communicate with other production devices and workflow solutions, as well as with customer relationship management (CRM) databases (Salesforce.com is a leading CRM developer) that track sales and customer information. 

 

“Let Your Business Run” was Canon’s theme at the show to emphasize the numerous workflow solutions that print shop owners can integrate with Canon production devices. Canon officials said that for print shop owners to maximize their equipment investment, they need to better manage the prepress (creating job parameters before submitting to the press) and printing and finishing workflows within their production print environment, as well as provide options to customers to submit print jobs.

 

The Duplo DC-645 can slit, cut and crease full-bleed applications in a single pass

To that end, Canon presented some new near-line finishing integrations. Based on instructions programmed into Canon’s Prepress Manager, a print operator simultaneously submitted a print job that contained four images on a single sheet of paper to the imagePRESS C6000VP Digital Press and the Duplo DC-645 Slitter/Cutter/Creaser, which can “slit, cut and crease full-bleed (ink does not stop short of the edge) applications in a single pass,” then cut the sheet into four individual paper strips.

 

Also on display for the first time was Agfa’s Apogee 6.0, a prepress workflow solution for digital presses, and Apogee DigitalPrint Link, which allows print shop owners to submit short runs to digital presses and higher volume jobs to traditional offset lithographic devices simultaneously. To expand print shop owners’ business opportunities, EFI’s Digital Store Front allows print providers to customize a Web site, hosted on EFI’s servers, whereby customers can select different types of products such as business cards, and then submit the order over the Web. Printable Technologies, also a Web-to-Print solution provider, was on display as well. 

 

Strategic Alliances Expands HP’s Digital Printing Presence   

 

A cut-sheet roll printed on the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press

HP’s Graphics Solutions Business used its 22,500 square feet of exhibit space at the event to announce and display a host of new solutions. The new HP T300 Color Inkjet Web press is the industry’s first 30-inch wide, high-speed, color inkjet roll-fed production device, according to the company. The device has a duty cycle of up to 70 million letter-size four-color images per month at a full press speed of 400 feet per minute, and it can print full-broadsheet (folded vertically to form four pages) newspapers or multiple-up documents. 

 

HP also announced a significant partnership with Pitney Bowes whereby Pitney Bowes will sell the T300 to complement its mailstream processing solutions. According to Scott Schiller, director of marketing for Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions at HP, the partnership leverages the strengths of both companies. “With this new agreement, Pitney Bowes can offer its customers a highly reliable inkjet press to provide an end-to-end solution and HP can expand its presence in the transpromo market, which is the single largest business opportunity for digital production printing,” he said. Schiller also noted that HP will sell T300’s consumables to Pitney Bowes and Pitney Bowes will be responsible for servicing HP’s digital presses. 

 

Pitney Bowes' Flexible Productivity Series SD 12 prints variable data using HP ink heads onto envelopes fed from a cut-sheet roll produced on the T300 Color Inkjet Web Press.

When two or more companies with distinct technological solutions merge together, some may question the efficacy of one company’s technicians servicing another company’s product. But Schiller was quick to note that HP and Pitney Bowes had been discussing a possible partnership for a number of years and during that time Pitney Bowes’ technicians learned how to service HP’s digital presses. In fact, Pitney Bowes was involved in the T300’s product development because of the company’s mailstream expertise, said Schiller. HP also announced a new partnership with RR Donnelley, a commercial printer that buys and builds digital production devices. The alliance calls for both companies to collaborate on developing solutions for inkjet-based digital presses, such as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) printing for high-speed and secure reading of checks. 

 

The HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press, which made its debut at the Drupa 2008 show, is now commercially available in North America. The dual-engine press prints at 240 full-color pages per minute and is capable of processing “highly variable data,” which means that every page or file sent to the press contains different types of content, unlike traditional offset machines that print “static content,” albeit at high volumes.

 

Other highlights included ColorPRO Technology, a new media solution that is being licensed to Domtar, a Canadian-based paper manufacturer. According to HP, the technology is incorporated into the paper-making process in order to produce enhanced image quality at full press speed when used with HP pigment inks. In addition, the company announced HP Exstream 7.0; HP acquired Exstream in 2008 because document automation is a “high growth market.” Used widely in the finance, insurance, telecom and government/public sectors, the enterprise software solution, installed on a separate network server, essentially collects all the data or “personalized documents” across the enterprise and routes it to a digital front end (loads files from different network sources and processes them) before printing on an HP press.

 

Konica Minolta Showcases Monochrome Print Production Models

 

Konica Minolta displayed the new monochrome bizhub PRO 1200 Series, comprised of the bizhub PRO 1200, bizhub PRO 1200P (print only version) and bizhub PRO 1051 devices. With speeds of 105 ppm and 120 ppm (letter size), the units are targeted to commercial printers looking to “replace bulky offset equipment with a relatively compact digital press.” Features include an embedded 2.0-GHz controller, 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB (or higher) hard drive, support for PCL, Adobe PostScript 3, TIFF and PDF printing and a maximum paper capacity of up to 14,000 sheets from eight paper trays.  

 

According to Mike Fego, product marketing manager at Konica Minolta, the Series features a “rugged construction with many metal component parts.” In addition, the paper trays feature a number of engineering features that maintain productivity uptime. For example, internal heating units help to eliminate curling from humidity and air blowers ensure that heavy and coated stock do not stick together when moving through the unit. Also, the optional high-capacity paper feed unit features vacuum-feed technology that enables the unit to support a wide range of media. According to Fego, over 40 different in-line finishing options are available, providing the modularity that commercial printers require.   

 

Rick DeCandio, production marketing manager for solutions products at Konica Minolta, presented a beta version of Printgroove 1.5 that is expected to launch in December. The new version incorporates a price list feature whereby a commercial printer’s customer can place orders for books, business cards or other items and the software will calculate the final cost to the nearest penny.  

 

Océ Targets Digital Printing With Toner And Ink    

 

Océ’s VarioPrint 6000 Ultra Line

Océ showcased the VarioPrint 6000 Ultra Line, which consists of four monochrome models, the VarioPrint 6250 Ultra, VarioPrint 6200 Ultra, VarioPrint 6160 Ultra and flagship model VarioPrint 6320 Ultra. The units’ target applications include books, course materials, catalogs, variable data and transpromo. The fastest of the four, the VarioPrint 6320 can duplex print letter-size sheets up to 306 ppm. According to the company, the 6320 is 25 percent faster than the VarioPrint 6250, and has a monthly duty cycle of 1 to 10 million impressions. 

 

The cut-sheet, digital perfecting units’ main features include the Océ PRISMAsync Controller, Océ Gemini Instant Duplex Technology, 4,600-sheet standard capacity from four paper trays (upgradeable to 13,800 sheets from 12 trays), 15" color touch screen user interface, PCL 6 printing, 6,000-sheet high capacity stacker and integrated multi-format stapler (up to 2,000 sheets). The units feature a number of finishing options suitable for different print environments, such as booklet making, perfect and document binding and punching. Optional workflow solutions include Xerox DigiPath (production software for paper/digital document integration, file storage and digital prepress automation), Kodak SmartBoard (for job setup tasks such as job ticket creation) and optional IPDS and Printer Job Language (PJL) printing, which supports switching printer languages between jobs without operator intervention

 

Océ JetStream 1000

Océ also debuted the full-color, inkjet-based, continuous-fed JetStream 1000, which the company claims is the smallest inkjet footprint in the industry. Expected to ship in the first quarter of 2010, the unit’s targeted applications include transaction, direct mail, books and transpromo. With speeds of up to 1,070 ppm (letter-size) and designed for up to 24 million prints per month, the unit features integrated MICR capability for printing full-color checks.

 

Expected to launch in 2010, the color inkjet JetStream 3300 (with speeds of up to 492 feet per minute [fpm]) and JetStream 2800 (427 fpm), which print onto 30" rolls, are targeted primarily to newspaper and book publishers transitioning from offset to digital. In addition, the company announced the toner-based ColorStream 1000 Flex digital press that enables print providers to print the first few pages of a document in color and the remaining in black. Targeted to print providers that print transaction documents, direct mail and books, the device can print up to 1,515 ppm letter-size sheets in black and 172 ppm letter-size sheets in color. In addition, the company announced a new digital front end, based on CREO Color Server Technology, for the Flex press, which supports both offset and digital workflows.

 

The company also showcased the PRISMAproduction True Cost Tool (2010 launch), which records color ink coverage for the JetStream family of devices and provides print providers with “accurate cost calculations for each color job,” according to Océ officials. In addition, the tool integrates with PRISMAproduction Accounting, which enables print shop owners to learn about all the variables that make up the “true costs of printing per page,” i.e., paper, clicks, labor and power. 

 

Ricoh Takes Steps to Penetrate Production Market  

 

Ricoh Pro C900

Ricoh’s Production Printing Business Group (PPBG) did not announce new hardware at the show, but the company did launch a Fiery Server (EB1357) that will integrate with the PRO 907EX/1107EX/1357EX monochrome devices that launched in July. In addition, PPBG announced that a CREO Color Server will integrate with the group’s flagship color production device, the Pro C900.

 

The PPBG organization is only three years old, and Ricoh executives acknowledged that the company has a lot of ground to make up in the production space, especially against Xerox. To help the production group speed up development of new production devices, Ricoh announced that PPBG and California Polytechnic State University’s (Cal Poly) Graphic Communication Department signed an agreement whereby Ricoh and Cal Poly staff will work together “to shape the future of the commercial printing industry,” according to Dr. Harvey Levenson, head of the Graphic Communication Department.

 

According to Carl Joachim, vice president of marketing for production at Ricoh, Ricoh had considered two other institutions, but noted that Ricoh ultimately picked Cal Poly as a partner because “it just felt right.” Essentially, the partnership’s significance is that both institutions will benefit using the resources and training of the other. The partnership calls for Ricoh to donate a fully configured Pro C900s digital color production system to the school. Ricoh’s IKON division will provide training (to the department’s students) and service. Levenson said that the donation will fulfill the school’s emphasis on “learning by doing,” because students will be able to “learn everything they can about Ricoh’s digital printing technology.”

 

The benefit to Ricoh is the company will have access to the resources of the Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Institute (grci.calpoly.edu), which receives funding from the graphics print industry. Joachim noted that Ricoh staff will be able to consult with the department’s industry experts and faculty, authorize the institute to conduct or sponsor research projects and receive seminar trainings in quality control, marketing, sales and project management.

 

Xerox Targets New Growth Opportunities    

 

Xerox’s 28,000 square foot exhibit booth seemed to steal the show from the other digital print vendors, as the booth contained 14 digital presses and office products, as well as the “Real Business Live Theatre,” where commercial printers discussed how Xerox’s digital print technology has helped their print shops transition from offset to digital for certain job types. 

 

490 Color Continuous Feed Printer

Demonstrating its commitment to provide new growth opportunities to print providers, Xerox displayed a new customized packaging solution powered by Stora Enso Gallop, a Finnish packaging company. The Xerox Automated Packaging Solution, which was integrated with the iGen4 Press, can print a variety of personalized packages in multiple languages such as folding cartons used by retailers. According to Xerox, the market for packaging and labels is expected to grow to $6.75 billion by 2014. Tracy Yelencsics, vice president of production marketing for the Global Business Group, said Xerox is currently waiting for Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA) approval to print packaging for the food industry.

 

Xerox also showcased the new black-and-white Nuvera 200 MX/288 MX Perfecting Production Systems. Targeted to transactional applications, the two tandem engines use MICR technology to print checks, rebate coupons and financial forms. Finishing options available for the Nuvera 200 MX/288 MX include a Duplo DS 3500 stacker and DBM 5001 in-line booklet maker, as well as CEM DocCutt, which trims oversized sheets to book size. Also, the FreeFlow Print Server 7.0 is now available with Xerox MICR products.

 

iGen4 220 Perfecting Press

Targeted to transpromotional applications and expected to launch in 2010, the new Continuous Feed 4-over-1 Solution combines the 490 Color Continuous Feed Printer (launched May 2008) and monochrome 650 Continuous Feed Printer (launched June 2008) to allow customers to print marketing messages in full color on one side and black-and-white content on the other side. Also for 2010, the iGen4 220 Perfecting Press features two tandem iGen4 110 Presses (launched May 2008) that can print at 220 impressions per minute and up to 7 million impressions per month.

 

In addition to the impressive hardware showing, Xerox used Print ’09 to demonstrate that diversification is the key to competitiveness in the production print market. As the company has moved into services on the office side of the business (managed print services and document outsourcing), it has also done so on the production side. Regina Testa, VP for Graphic Communications for the Global Business & Strategic Marketing Group, discussed how a slew of new business development programs can help commercial printers win new business. “Xerox has had to transform itself away from a hardware-centric company to remain profitable and competitive. In turn, commercial printers need to tap new revenue growth, but they require knowledge and training to extract growth from new opportunities.” 

 

Some of the business tools and workshops Xerox offers to printers include Selling Variable-Data Printing Services, Selling Into Vertical Markets and Developing a Sales Management Plan. In addition, the company has expanded its ProfitAcclerator program with an Ad Agency Market Guide. Testa said that the program can help commercial printers “transform into communications companies” by becoming an ad agency’s sole printer for its communication materials.       

 

Xerox Office Group Update

 

Xerox was the only vendor at the show to provide an update on the office side of the business. David Bates, director of product marketing for Xerox’s Office Group, provided a status update of Xerox’s office product portfolio starting with the ColorQube Series. While he would not provide specific sales numbers, he noted that the ColorQube models, especially the 9201, “is displacing a lot of competitors’ color units.” He also noted that many pay-to-print shops and universities have been either buying or leasing the models.

 

On the managed print services (MPS) front, Bates said that Xerox Global Services, the document outsourcing arm, is currently managing over 70 billion pages produced by 2.5 million devices. He noted that PagePack 3.0 just launched in the U.S, which Bates stressed is a “channel” initiative that is separate from Global Services. PagePack is an MPS solution comprised of a single contract that covers pages printed, maintenance, services and consumables for MFP devices,” according to Xerox. Xerox sells PagePack to partners and resellers who have demonstrated the capability to manage a document output fleet. The reseller, in turn, sells PagePack to the customer. While the reseller retains the customer, Xerox processes order fulfillment and provides service.

 

There are three flavors of PagePack 3.0. The first tier is available for all Xerox MFP devices and printers. PagePack NX allows partners to manage and monitor both Xerox and non-Xerox devices (mainly HP), while PagePack FM can manage and monitor an entire non-Xerox fleet. Bates said that users are charged a fixed cost-per-page for consumables and prints and they receive a monthly itemized invoice for the number and types of prints made across the fleet. The obvious benefit to customers is that they know their monthly costs and only one partner provides consumables and service, according to Xerox. Bates added that 10 to 15 percent of the digital imaging market is MPS, and “we want to capture that entire market share.” 

 

Also highlighted was a feature that allows novice users to “adjust colors quickly and easily without impacting color in the rest of the document.” Color by Words is being offered for the first time with the Phaser 7500 desktop color printer. Via the device’s print driver, users can select from drop-down menu selections to make an object or area that is brown more red, or make the document “more punchy” without changing magenta for example.

 

On the environmental front, the new color desktop printer, the Phaser 6140, which launched earlier this month, produces 80 percent less waste than competitive products, according to Bates. He noted that toner is the only consumable that needs to be replaced because the unit’s drum and developer will last the life of the unit. In addition, Xerox expects to produce more color printers with separate toner and drum and developer units, as well as manufacture units with biomass-based plastics which ostensibly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.