Page 35 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

Print events
Clockwise from left:
Australians: the largest group ever
to go through the Ricoh Customer Experience Centre in Rayong, Thailand.
Customers first: (l-r) Ricoh staff George Fryer, general manager of sales; Simon Lane, national manager for commercial and industrial print; and Paul Thompson, BDM for direct to garment and visual display solutions.
Stunning: the event invitation was printed on Allkotes stock with the Ricoh Pro C7200x series Graphic Arts Edition toner-based press.
The Ricoh Pro C7200x Series press.
Following a look at the continuous- feed VC60000 high-speed inkjet machine, which prints at up to 150 metres per minute and takes up an entire corner of the room, we are introduced to the toner-based C7200x series cut-sheet graphic arts press.
This is one of the star attractions of the CEC – it printed the stunning invitations we received to the event – and has many of the same capabilities as the C9200, according to Lane, with a few additions for the graphic arts sector. “The C7200x has the benefit of offering interchangeable white and clear toner,” he says. “We have been able to demonstrate that you can produce high-quality differentiated work in a single pass using white and four-colour on particular substrates.”
The C7200x also offers options
such as neon pink and neon yellow to expand the colour gamut, and invisible red, which shows up clear but turns red under ultraviolet lighting – ideal for security applications, says Lane. “It is aimed at areas such as ticketing for events, and it adds another string to the bow for our customers.”
After lunch, we are taken through
the Ricoh factory itself. This site manufactures a range of devices, and the scale of the place is jaw-dropping. Our guides show us through what
feels like miles of floor space filled
with bustling workers, some of whom offer a friendly smile and a wai – the traditional Thai greeting involving placing your hands together and bowing – as we pass.
The factory hums along like clockwork, and I often overhear others in the tour group wondering aloud at the scale of the task required to keep everyone organised. It is one of the more impressive sites I have seen in my two years at Print21.
Alive with Colour is not just about Ricoh showing off its kit to customers. The event has also been designed for the customers to give the supplier feedback, and an entire day is set aside at the Holiday Inn Pattaya before the flight home for guests to meet individually with Ricoh staff in face-to-face sessions. “Our aim is to be the premier provider of production printing
solutions in Australia, and we understand that many of our guests are not familiar with the Ricoh heritage,” says Lane. “As a result, we welcome their feedback on how Ricoh can better support their ambitions, and their insights as to where we can further improve our technology and support offerings.”
Lane is delighted with the amount of input Ricoh has been offered, especially considering the time guests have had to take out of their
busy schedules to attend. “We had customers who willingly
threw themselves into this, and who took
themselves away from their businesses for a
few days. That’s a big investment of time for people who run small to medium enterprises,” he
said. “You can’t ask for anything more, because time
is the most valuable resource people have.
Feedback was positive, according to Lane, with
customers praising the willingness of Ricoh staff to listen to their concerns. “The
thing we heard is that people who work in the printing industry want to be listened to, and they are looking for partners who will work with them to be successful,” he says. 21
Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 35