Page 30 - Print21 Magazine March April 2021

Technology
can detect and adjust subtle tone fluctuations while printing. This is an enhanced feature which Ricoh says “reads” the printed image, compares it to the electronic ripped image, and makes adjustments as required, all automatically.
Ricoh has improved the ability
for handling long sheets, with the C9200 able to auto duplex sheets up to 1030mm long, and to print on single-sided sheets up to 1260mm long. It can also support media up to 450gsm in weight, with no penalty in performance for the heavier stocks.
The automation front
Konica Minolta has developed the IQ- 501 module, which automates various colour control settings. It’s included in the AccurioPress colour series.
According to Grant Thomas, product marketing manager at Konica Minolta, the IQ-501 reduces setup time by 40 per cent, boosting productivity and saving on labour costs. “One of the major time-saving automation features
it offers is the ability to provide accurate registration and perform front to back adjustment,” he 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.
Increasing automation will be
a focus for Konica Minolta, says Thomas, with an eye to increasing the IQ-501’s capabilities while reducing touchpoints.
“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. “It’s an all- around versatile machine that’s been awarded for its colour reproduction
30 Print21 MARCH/APRIL 2021
Sophisticated: Today’s digital toner presses, such as this Fuji Xerox Iridesse, offer a wide range of options, and come with precision engineering
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 touchpoints,” he says.
At the higher end is the AccurioPress C83hc, KM’s third-generation High Chroma colour print system for photography and graphic arts.
and Nexpress ZX that allows for sheets up to 1.2m long and substrates up to 610 micron thick.
Several presses now offer a fifth colour station that can be used to expand the colour gamut or to add special effects.
The Nexfinity has a fifth colour. Ricoh offers its mid-production Pro C7200 in both four-colour and five- colour versions. While the C7200 appeals equally to both in-plants and commercial printers in four-colour mode, this changes when the fifth colour is added, with some 80 per
cent of commercial printers taking that option, with most printers using either white or clear toner in the fifth station, although it does have some fairly esoteric offerings such as neons.
Step further
Fuji Xerox has gone a step further with its 130ppm Iridesse press, which has six channels for CMYK plus two channels for special effects such as metallic gold or silver. Depending
on how you configure them, it’s possible to print the metallic tints first with the colours on top, or you can put the metallic tint on last.
The metallic toners are said to have both a high sparkle grade and high reflectance. The clear toner can be used to add spot varnish or textured effects to the overall design. There’s also a white toner that can be used
to add spot effects. It can be layered under or over CMYK – or both for double impact – on a wider range of media including black, transparent
or metallic stocks, craft paper, and synthetics and polys.
Fuji Xerox has also addressed the need for media flexibility by recently adding the ability to print on extra- long sheets up to 1200mm and can auto-duplex sheets up to 729mm
in length. The press can run stocks from 52 to 400gsm and will take a variety of media including coated and uncoated papers, window decals, synthetic papers and polyesters. There’s a stock library that contains profiles and optimises settings such as fuser temperature for each media.
When it comes to mainstream commercial sheetfed work in the SRA3 format, electrophotography remains the technology of choice for short run jobs and those requiring high image quality and flexibility
in choice of substrates. There has also been a noticeable trend towards inline finishing, with printers are looking to automate more of their production, to cut costs. 21
“The machine will be able to do auto quality adjustment with no operator intervention.” — Grant Thomas, Konica Minolta
“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,” Thomas says.
Factors at play
Although image quality is always going to be important, there are other factors at play which reflects the fact that electrophotography is a mature technology, and the industry expects even the less expensive printers to produce high-quality images.
These days printers are also looking for features that will help them satisfy more applications. Most presses now can also print to longer sheets, which is handy for posters, dust jackets
for books, or for producing tri-fold products such as menus or direct mail. Even Canon’s new light production C910 series can also print single-sided banners up to 1300mm. Kodak sells an optional feeder for its Nexfinity