Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
OEM Launches Ricoh 8220s Series Focusing on Book Printing Flexibility
The lack of a new launch by Ricoh in the last month was quite conspicuous for us. You see, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) has launched new products for three months in a row starting June 2016. In June, we reported on the launch of the Ricoh 3D printer AM S5500P, in July, we announced the launch of five new Ricoh MFPs, and in August we informed our readers of the launch of Ricoh MP CW2201SP.
However, after the September absence, the OEM has announced the new Ricoh Pro 8220s series. The series consists of no less than six different models, each of which is designed to give book printers more options and flexibility to play with. A large part of the flexibility being provided by the printers in the Ricoh Pro 8220s series revolves around fast print times or shifting deadlines. While this is important, an even more crucial flexibility feature of the Ricoh Pro 8220s series has to do with substrates. The printers in the Ricoh Pro 8220s series have the capacity to print on either coated or thick substrates, which widens the potential market book printers can tap into.
The Ricoh Pro 8220s series provides these flexibility features on the back of the new High Capacity Interposer (HCI) and tighter registration capabilities. The HCI has a maximum capacity of 1,750 sheets per tray and it is a two-tray system. This gives printers multiple options including post fusing insertion of various elements including colour inserts or front and back covers. The tighter registration system offered by the Ricoh Pro 8220s series will allow users to ensure a cleaner output with heightened precision. Tighter registration will also allow quality prints at high speeds, regardless of the nature of substrates being used.
Specifically speaking, printers in the Ricoh Pro 8220s series boast of high print speeds ranging from 96 pages per minute (ppm) to 136 ppm. These printers are also no slouches when it comes to scanning speeds as they can handle 120 images per minute (ipm) for simplex and 220 ipm for duplex prints measuring up to 210mm x 297mm. The Ricoh Pro 8220s series is capable of producing prints at a resolution of up to 1200 x 4800 dots per inch (dpi), irrespective of the nature of media being used.
Possibilities include long sheets measuring up to 698.5mm, 256 gsm sheets on duplex, 350 gsm sheets on simplex, and coated media of various types. The printers in the Ricoh Pro 8220s series are available with a Single Pass Document Feeder that is distinguished by the fact that it can scan up to 220 ipm in duplex full colour. This scanning speed is one of the best in the industry.
The printers in the series are built to last and are very durable. This durability is supplemented by Ricoh’s preventative maintenance programme known as the Trained Customer Replaceable Unit (TCRU). The TCRU is incredibly useful since it reduces scheduled servicing downtime to only 30 minutes. The industry standard for such downtime is between four to eight hours. As a result, the Ricoh Pro 8220s series can be expected to become a workhorse for many printing businesses.
Four New PageWide Web Presses with HDNA Technology Released by HP
HP Inc.’s presence in the media shows no signs of slowing, whether the reasons are positive or negative. In fact, the OEM has consistently featured in five of our last seven posts through various product releases (2 Positive news nuggets) and backlash from users over software updates (3 Negative news nuggets). Now, the ratio of positive to negative is all set to be balanced owing to the recent launch of four new PageWide Web Presses from the OEM.
The new web press models are the T390 HD, T380 HD, T370 HD, and T390M HD. The new models will be replacing the older T300 series of inkjet web presses. Each of the four new PageWide Web Presses can print on media as wide as 762mm and boasts of High Definition Nozzle Architecture (HDNA) technology. The difference between the older series launched in 2008 and the new series, launched at the Graph Expo in Florida, US is actually the HDNA technology. The purpose of the HDNA technology, in the words of David Murphy, Worldwide Director of Marketing and Business Development of HP PageWide Web Press Division, is to deliver “increased image quality and enhanced productivity”.
The new printer models can handle a wide array of media including ColorPro media, coated media that has been optimised for inkjet uses, the usual uncoated offset media, and offset coated media in conjunction with HP Priming Solution. The media thicknesses that the printing models can support range from 40 gsm to 350 gsm. Furthermore, the new models rely on water-based HP pigment inks in combination with a bonding agent.
The maximum printing resolution of these printers is derived from the HDNA technology at 1,200 dpi. This printing resolution is achieved through a spread of 2,400 nozzles per inch. The print speeds of these models differ. The T370 HD has a maximum speed of 183 metres per minute which is achieved in the Performance mode. In the same mode, the T380 HD is capable of churning out media at 244 metres per minute while the T390 HD and T390M HD can print at speeds of 305 metres per minute. When the mode is changed to Quality, then the print speed of all printers slows down to 152 metres per minute.
The four new PageWide Web Presses are expected to become commercially available by the spring of next year. It is also worth noting that HP has offered users of the existing T300 printers the chance to upgrade to the new devices at 20 percent of the market cost.
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