Page 28 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Inkjet Webfed
Eating into offset
VC70000 is designed to take over much of the offset print market. RPrint21 editor Wayne Robinson checks out the claims.
The Pro VC70000 uses piezo printhead technology, able to generate a range of droplets sizes from 2pl to 23pl at four grey levels. Maximum speed is 150 metres a minute, though slower according to the paper used. The paper range is from 40gsm to 250gsm.
With the high-speed printer capable of printing close to 130,000 A4 pages an hour, and designed to produce between one million and
40 million pages a month, is there
a market in Australia, which is far smaller than Japan, the US and
the major European countries? Kraszewski says, “For sure there
is opportunity here. Catalogues,
for instance, can be versionised in
a way that is just not possible on offset presses. Books, manuals, direct mail would all work with the Pro VC70000. With no makeready between jobs, instant on demand printing, variable data, no waste the Pro VC70000 fits well into today’s Australian business environment.”
Although best known here for
its cutsheet, toner, digital colour printers, Ricoh has in fact been manufacturing inkjet printheads for industrial printing for almost half a century, as well as inkjet inks, and nozzles. Its leading Gen5 heads are found in multiple machines for multiple applications. Kraszewski says, “The Ricoh inkjet technology has been proven over decades. Vast resources have been pumped into developing the technology.” 21
Henryk Kraszewski at Ricoh says the continuous feed Ricoh Pro
icoh says its latest high- will eat up all day long.
speed continuous feed “When you look at the three factors inkjet printer, the Pro of commercial print – image quality, VC70000, is designed productivity and ability to print
to enable commercial on standard offset stocks – the Pro
printers to switch from offset to VC70000 has them all. Its multi-drop
digital printing and capture the bulk of the market.
The Pro VC70000 has essentially the same chassis as the Pro VC60000, which is still available, but a new ink means it will adhere to offset papers, without the need for
a primer, undercoat, or post-print coating to be applied.
The new pigment inks have
higher viscosity with less water
than previous inks, giving a higher concentration of pigment, which reduces bleeding into the substrate. Using standard offset papers reduces the cost over optimised inkjet papers by between 20-40 per cent.
Henryk Kraszewski, product marketing manager at Ricoh, says, “The new Pro VC70000 will produce the majority of commercial work,
at least 80 per cent, to a highly satisfactory standard. Magazines, catalogues, books, direct mail are all applications that the Pro VC70000
Above
Multiple applications on standard stocks: Ricoh VC70000
1200x1200dpi resolution is high; the new water-based pigment inks have
a higher density and broader gamut than anything that has gone before. It will print on offset stocks both coated and uncoated, as well as inkjet specific stocks.”
The Pro VC60000 will still be available from Ricoh, suitable for the transactional market as well as offset replacement, but it can be retrofitted with the new inks.
The Pro VC70000 has a new patented drying system, the drying module has 10 heat rollers that are only a fifth the size of the previous model, which are designed to put
the paper under tension to eliminate cockling. Then the paper goes through seven fluid-chilled cooling rollers to bring down the temperature.
Kraszewski says, “What sets Ricoh apart is the fact that it manufactures everything; the engines, the heads, the inks, the controller, it is all us.”
28 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020