Johannesburg’s House of Print has purchased the first Xerox 1000i press to be introduced in sub-Sahara Africa. Supplied by Bytes Document Solutions, the largest worldwide Xerox distributor and Xerox Platinum Partner Compleo, the machine offers advantages such as the ability to print metallic silver or gold, and a spot or flood gloss.
Recently demonstrated for the first time at the Africa Print Expo in Johannesburg, the Xerox 1000i proved to be one of the stars of the show, demonstrating the flexibility, high performance and low cost of production which is essential for modern print businesses to meet the changing needs of customers.
It is, says House of Print MD Andre Bam, the ideal addition to the company’s already bustling digital print department. “The number of jobs coming in is the same, but the run rates are smaller, which requires the ability to efficiently produce outputs with a minimum of errors.”
As a company which believes in keeping abreast of technology to maintain competitiveness, Bam says House of Print prides itself on delivering to tight deadlines. “The Xerox 1000i joins another similar machine and will keep us ahead of the game. With increasing work in our digital department, introducing the Xerox 1000i means the ability to spread jobs over two presses, achieving the same colour consistency from similar technology within one department, while also streamlining our workflow.”
The capabilities of the new press coupled with the Xerox Igen it already has in place, says Bam, means House of Print can improve its production costs and pass that on to its client base. “The Xerox 1000i also has the capabilities of printing gold, silver and spot gloss; I was really impressed with the quality. We will be able to run the presses 24/7 if necessary, with the reassurance that we can move the operators from one press to the other, to meet customer demand.”
The Xerox 1000i allows print shops to migrate metallic jobs from offset to digital for applications like invitations, certificates, business cards, photo applications, posters, direct mail campaigns, speciality applications, and brand managed colour applications.
It also automates many of the time-consuming setup and maintenance procedures critical to short-run jobs, says Antony Oeschger, National Sales Manager: Production Systems Group at Bytes Document Solutions. “This is a first class press and it is capable of small jobs, large jobs, lightweight stock or heavyweight, with gold and silver giving your output print an easy-to-achieve, but unique finish.”
He adds that the gold, silver and clear speciality inks allow printers to attract new applications and revenues on short run work without losing productivity. “The press does not slow down when printing with additional colours; and the multi-pass technology is ideal for unique prints, adding a raised or texture to the print.”
Bam says that in addition to the quality of output, the availability of local support from Bytes Document Solutions played a major role in making the selection of the 1000i.
While he believes the cost of production from digital machines still has some way to go to match that of litho on substantial print runs, he says the rapid setup and ability to test longer runs before putting them into litho production is a considerable advantage.
“We need to be on our toes to give the client the best option. We always take quality, run length and cost per output into consideration; if you get it wrong, it can cost dearly. House of Print is fortunate enough to be able offer our client base the full spectrum, from runs as small as 500 business cards, to magazines, annual reports and other very large runs.
“The beauty of a press like the Xerox 1000i is that it means we can proof all our jobs on site, so the client can see what he is going to get before we set up a litho print run. And the quality is right up there,” he concludes.
