Page 22 - Print21 March-April 2020

Revolution in Print
It’s here – introducing the
AccurioPress C14000
New Konica Minolta 140ppm and 120ppm high-speed, high-volume production digital colour printers implement automation features for better efficiency, quality and enhanced productivity.
The commercial printing market continues to evolve in Australia with printers constantly looking for new ways to serve their customers better. They need to
find ways to meet customer demand for high-quality, high-volume jobs produced in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
This means providing higher quality prints with fast turnaround times at affordable prices. The old business adage was: “Fast, cheap, good – pick any two”. However, Konica Minolta says with new and emerging technologies having a massive impact on the commercial printing market, commercial print customers can now achieve all three.
Certainly, customers are demanding exceptional quality with short turnaround times and affordable prices. To attract and retain new customers, Australian printers will need to provide quality output at
high speeds, turning jobs around faster and delivering an outstanding customer experience. And, they will need to do all
of this while minimising the amount of intervention required by human operators, as well as reducing waste.
It seems like a tall order, but Konica Minolta says it has stepped up to the challenge with the release of its new AccurioPress C14000 and C12000 digital print systems. These presses are the result of more than four years of dedicated research and development (R&D) at a cost of more than US$70m with 1000 dedicated staff members working on them.
Sue Threlfo, general manager, production and industrial print, Konica Minolta, said, “Konica Minolta has been in the production print market for the past 15 years but, until now, didn’t have a machine specifically developed for the high-speed, high-volume production print sector. However, this sector is primed for strong growth now and in the future, so it was essential to develop a digital print system that would help both existing and emerging commercial printers grow, and to be able to provide this solution at an attractive price point.”
The new digital presses have been developed in response to customer demand for a faster machine with more inline
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finishing options and automation features which facilitate faster job turnaround. And, with many commercial print customers requiring high volumes, necessitating the use of two or three presses in the past, these new digital presses make it possible to consolidate and replace those systems with one efficient press.
Opportunities and
challenges
In developing the concepts for the AccurioPress C14000 series, Konica Minolta paid close attention to the opportunities and challenges facing commercial printers. While the demand for fast, high-quality printing remains strong, commercial printers cannot afford to invest in presses that take forever to pay for themselves. Printers need a strong return on investment, with presses that instantly take their capabilities to the next level.
“These presses will provide significant value to those in high-volume printing environments where deadlines are tight, quality is key, and efficiencies must be gained.”
– Sue Threlfo, general manager, production and industrial print, Konica Minolta
This means being able to provide customers with the high quality they’re looking for, with fast turnaround times. Consistency is key; printers need to ensure that their customers are constantly delighted with their print jobs rather than pointing out flaws and errors. The IQ-501 detection feature on the new presses can detect any flaws in the image and make adjustments to ensure the output is right on every sheet.
At the same time, commercial printers are seeking out automation technology that can reduce the amount of manual labour that goes into each print job. This lets
them get more done in each day, growing their profit margins as they grow their reputation for quality.
According
to Konica
Minolta the new AccurioPress
C14000 and
C12000 satisfy commercial
printer customers’ expectations, by providing better efficiency, exceptional quality, and enhanced productivity.
Better efficiency
The AccurioPress C14000 prints
140 pages per minute in full colour,
while the AccurioPress C12000 prints
120 pages per minute. Konica Minolta says this high speed doesn’t come at the expense of quality, with the colour remaining
highly consistent even with less operator intervention. And, because these presses can print so many pages in a day, it means jobs are completed faster and new jobs can be added to the queue, letting commercial printers satisfy more customers in less time.
These digital presses let printers print
up to 2.5 million pages per month at up to 450gsm on a large range of media. They also offer the ability to duplex a 900mm sheet, enabling printers to print four-up on A4, or A4 gatefold jobs, and finish inline. This means fewer restrictions on the types of print jobs commercial printers can handle. It also means that printers can take on new and different kinds of customers while still satisfying the ever-present demand for speed.
Time is saved on finishing, too, due to the AccurioPress C14000’s new TU-510 versatile trimmer. This is an inline, four- edge trimmer and creaser, that allows full bleed finishing support for banners, booklets, direct mail, and a dedicated business-card cutting option.
Instead of requiring workers to manually finish these types of jobs, they can be finished without human intervention.
This frees up staff to focus on jobs that are trickier, getting those jobs done faster while the simpler jobs just roll off the press.
Sue Threlfo said, “The new AccurioPress