Ricoh Europe’s research and development has achieved a double endorsement from the European Digital Press Association (EDP).
Two of the global technology company’s newest production print solutions, the Ricoh Pro VC60000 and the Ricoh Pro C7100X, have respectively been awarded first place in the Best Production Printer Web-fed category of the official EDP awards and the Best Production Cut-sheet Printer Light Production category.
“The market is opening up to the possibilities that the VC60000 offers,” says Jean Lloyd, director of production print solutions at Ricoh SA. “Inkjet presses are replacing Web-fed offset presses and hybrid print production for direct mail, books and newspapers. Commercial print work volume is also growing. The inkjet presses offer better quality, flexibility and productivity and the judges of the award agreed.”
The modular Ricoh Pro VC60000 next-generation continuous feed colour inkjet press uses Ricoh’s latest generation drop-on-demand print heads and high density pigment inks. These new long-lasting, high quality stainless steel print heads are capable of physical resolutions up to 1200 by 1200 dpi. With the optional Undercoat unit, commercial printers can run a variety of offset coated stocks, achieving output quality comparable to what they expect from offset presses. An optional inline Protector Coating unit provides scratch and scuff resistance to protect critical documents.
The Pro VC60000 is designed to excel in direct mail, commercial print and book printing, and has a rated speed of up to 120 metres per minute. Based on an open standard architecture, the Pro VC60000 uses a new Ricoh state-of-the-art Digital Front End that provides native support for PDF, PDF/VT and AFP, together with JDF/JMF and advanced colour management support. This high performance DFE, optimised for complex data-driven graphic communications, includes an easy-to-use operator interface and advanced colour management capabilities.
The Ricoh Pro C7100X series of digital colour cut sheet presses delivers print speeds up to 90ppm and supports media up to 360gsm. Optimum image quality up to 1200 x 4800 dpi is achieved with Ricoh’s enhanced Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology. It is available with either the EFI Fiery E-43A or the faster and more powerful Fiery E-83A print server while Operator Replaceable Units (ORUs) enable trained operators to replace more than a dozen parts key to reliability and image quality to help optimise uptime and performance.
“The VC60000 is ideal for small to medium-sized graphic arts businesses, direct mailers, service bureaux, digital printers and centralised reprographic departments,” says Lloyd. “The Pro C7100X series also includes a fifth colour station that can be loaded with clear or white toner. The extra colour station can be used to spot or flood coat and the white toner enables very high quality printing on transparent and dark substrates, adding significantly to the range of applications this press can produce.”