Product of the Month: Ricoh Pro C7100x
This Ricoh device features fifth colour station for either white or clear toner, for companies wanting to get into digital production print. Dibyajyoti Sarma finds out how.
10 Apr 2015 | 5330 Views | By PrintWeek India
It was in November 2014, during the Eastern Print Pack in Kolkata, that Ricoh gave an India launch to its latest digital printing option with a fifth station, the Ricoh Pro C7100x. This was the same exhibition, where the company also unveiled a new alternative to click charges with its lifetime warranty plan.
Ricoh says the Pro C7100x series is aimed at companies that are looking to enter new digital print markets including graphic arts businesses, direct mailers, service bureaus, digital printers and in-plant print centres.
“The ability to apply spot or flood clear gloss and white, and to quickly switch between the two, is unprecedented at this price point,” says Anjana Saha, national business and marketing manager, production printing – BU of Ricoh India adding, “We believe this will be a game changer for Ricoh customers.”
This seems true when we look at the installation numbers. It has been only four months since the launch and Ricoh India team has already picked up orders from 20 customers. This is because “the product price is very competitive for the Indian market,” adds Saha.
The Ricoh Pro C7100x series prints at speeds of up to 90ppm, and supports paper weights of up to 360gsm in both simplex and duplex.
“The main difference with this device is now we have white and clear toner, so this innovative feature will allow printers to do things that they have not been able to do before, for instance print on black with digital print,” he says.
The paper size that the machine can take is of 13x27.5inch. An optimal image quality of up to 1200x4800dpi is achieved with Ricoh’s enhanced VCSEL.
What is VCSEL?
VCSEL stands for vertical cavity surface emitting laser technology (pronounced ‘vixel’) refers to the type of laser diode used to create the image. This class of laser is economic to manufacture, offers high power and, because it can be built in 2D arrays of multiple-beams, enables printing machines that combine high resolution with high speed. Ricoh first introduced the technology in the C751.
According to Saha, the advantage of the 4,800dpi along the length of the sheets is that it enables the printer more adjustment latitude and the ability to register the image to the leading and trailing edge of the sheet.
The Pro C7100x supports an extensive range of media including new textured media technology, and applications include light packaging, demo packaging, direct mail, books, brochures and business cards. Saha says it is also suitable for banners, point-of-sale, signs and marketing collateral.
Pune’s Dezigner leverages C7100x
Dezigner Enterprise, located near Shaniwar Wada in Pune, is a boutique digital print shop, whic has installed India’s first C7100x. The company, besides this new machine, has a Ricoh Pro C901 production press which it acquired last year.
Imtiyaz Shaikh, director of Dezigner Enterprise, said, “We wanted to offer some unique products to the market. Though we had an option of choosing between the new Xerox Versant and the Canon ImagePress C7011 VP, acquiring any one would eventually lead to producing normal products in this ever growing competitive digital market.” Shaikh reinstated, “With the new Ricoh’s fifth colour option, we plan to go premium.”
Ricoh C7100’s white, the fifth colour, has a shade close to that of silver. According to Shaikh, when printed on a special black or a blue paper, the white colour gives a silverish effect. “This would be ideal for event posters or wedding cards, or even show and event tickets, which cannot be replicated by other print processes,” says Shaikh.
After months of study, anti-counterfeiting and security printing are fields which Dezigner plans to enter into with the new Ricoh machine. Speaking of anti-counterfeiting, the unique thing about the fifth colour according to Shaikh, is that the machine can offer effects like vignettes, screens and dots with high resolutions which will be difficult on any other digital or screen print machine.
The other advantage of this machine is that the manual feeding has been totally eliminated and converted into automatic feeding. “Such a setup has eliminated shifting of paper during printing and improved registration is possible,” adds Shaikh.
Shaikh, a Ricoh loyalist, booked the machine during the Eastern Print Pack 2014 (EPP14) in Kolkata with the Ricoh’s new alternative to click charges under a lifetime warranty plan. Ricoh’s life time warranty plan is offeredin two packs – Ricoh Power Pack and Ricoh Service Pack. Under the Ricoh Power Pack scheme, the customer will get a click charge of less than Rs 0.50 for an A4 print excluding toner.
The Ricoh Service Pack offer customers the option to enter into an AMC for one, three or five years at specified costs for unlimited usage. Saha said that the Ricoh power pack is aimed at jobbers who are facing problems with reconditioned machines, as well as in-plant and offset only
printers.
“The lesser the coverage, the lesser is the toner usage, which results in saving.” She added, “The offset printers are used to this kind of model of buying inks and consumables. With this model, they can build their business while increasing print volumes.”
| SPECIFICATIONS |
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Speed 80ppm/90ppm
Duty cycle 600k/700k per month
Substrate up to 360GSM and 49.6 inch Banner printing
Contact Anjana Saha
Ricoh India Anjana.saha@ricoh.co.in
+91-9910991477
www.ricoh.co.in
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| THE ALTERNATIVES |
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Canon ImagePress C7011VP
The USP of the Canon colour digital press includes the superior media handling; with offset-like paper feed mechanism; 12-bit smooth shades with 1200x1200dpi print resolution; air flow unit for better smoothness of halftone images for offset feel print quality, and density stabilisation technology and hygro-thermal sensor for better density consistency. The press offers best in class intelligent registration technology for perfect front and back print registration while the straight paper path results in maximum uptime. The duty cycle of the machine is upto one million prints per month. It has tandem fusing unit for consistent productivity on different thickness of media.
Speed 70 A4 ppm, colour/mono
Paper size 330x487.7mm
Paper gsm 60-325gsm
Contact Gurjit Singh Dhingra
Canon India
gurjit.dhingra@canon.co.in
www.canon.co.in
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