Page 36 - Print 21 Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

Digital Printing
the ability to provide accurate registration and perform front to back adjustment,” he says.
“It takes into account any shrinkage in the media – digital stocks do get shrinkage due to the fusing process, but this machine can compensate for it. The IQ-501 hybrid scanning system can do all of this on the fly, including registration and colour.”
Increasing automation will
be a focus for Konica Minolta in 2019, says Thomas, with an eye to increasing the IQ-501’s capabilities while reducing touchpoints.
“The machine will be able to do auto quality adjustment with no operator intervention – if it identifies inferior quality of print, such as lines or bands, it will try to rectify that itself.
“Our auto inspection unit will inspect every sheet to ensure output quality, so the customer is guaranteed that every sheet will have the expected quality from beginning to end,” he says.
One compatible machine is the AccurioPress C3080, which won a BLI Pro Pick Award in 2018. “It’s an all- around versatile machine that’s been awarded for its colour reproduction and its consistency,” says Thomas.
Built for the medium to high-volume colour print sector, the C3080 is an 81ppm machine capable of printing on stocks from 62-350gsm. According to Thomas, the press has more than 30 different configurations available.
“A lot of those are for in-line finishing, so the whole job can be produced on the machine with minimum touch points,” he says.
At the higher end is the AccurioPress C83hc, KM’s third-generation High Chroma colour print system for photography and graphic arts.
“This is a market which needs to reproduce accurately what’s seen
on the screen. The C83hc produces realistic images in the RGB space as opposed to CMYK – the magenta and cyan toners are different, so it is able to produce a higher RGB colour gamut,” says Thomas.
Lastly, Konica Minolta has envelope printing units, which Thomas says
“Our customers can swap in the dedicated envelope fusing unit for envelope printing jobs. For most of our clients that creates another revenue stream.” – Grant Thomas, Konica Minolta
have been taken up by printers in large numbers.
“Our customers can swap in the dedicated envelope fusing unit for envelope printing jobs. For most of our clients that creates another revenue stream printing HQ envelopes,” he says. “The envelope fuser expels air to avoid creasing or imperfections.”
Ricoh colours its world
Colour has been a focus for Ricoh in its latest toner presses aimed at the graphic arts world: the Pro C7200 and Pro C9200 series. These machines can run a wide range of stock types, weights, and sizes, says Henryk Kraszewski, senior product manager for commercial and industrial print at Ricoh.
“Fundamentally what we’re doing is providing evolutionary benefit
to printers, expanding the range
of finished products they can offer their customers. Printers can run an almost unlimited range of stocks on our machines, including coated, uncoated, textured, synthetic, coloured, envelopes.”
The Pro C7200X series can run white toner in a single pass, and also has options for clear toner, neon pink and yellow, and ‘invisible red’ which fluoresces under UV light, explains Kraszewski.
“The neon colours allow you to add pop to a job or expand the gamut
– neon pink plus yellow making a brilliant orange, for example. Invisible red opens up applications in things like security ticketing and posters for events,” he says.
Both the C7200 and C9200 series will run long sheet sizes of up to 1260mm simplex, and the C7200 series can handle 700mm duplex.
“This means it can create A4 landscape or six-panel A4 jobs. The Pro C9200 series will take it a little bit further, with auto duplex up to 1030mm – for eight-panel jobs – and will run stock up to 470gsm or 600 microns. That takes it almost into the packaging space, with stock of that thickness,” says Kraszewski.
At the entry level, Ricoh has also launched its Pro 5200S series – which can still compete with the big boys, says Kraszewski.
“It still has a huge range
of capabilities. They all have
great image quality and stock compatibility,” he says. “The Pro C5200S series can also run a huge variety of applications, it just takes a little more time and effort. Even at the entry level, you can run a virtually unlimited stock range.”
Investing to impress
It is clear that the manufacturers of digital toner based printing systems are investing as strongly as ever to deliver impressive print production power to the market, with printers the beneficiaries of the increasing functionality and quality of the latest generation. 21
Above:
HP Indigo 12000
Right:
Konica Minolta AccurioPress C3080
36 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019