Inkjet & Digital Printing
Konica Minolta at drupa – scaling up to new standards
Sunday 08. June 2008 - The final countdown for drupa 2008 has begun - it's only a few days until Konica Minolta presents its latest developments in the area of production printing systems and software solutions at drupa 2008.
Under the motto “Scale up” Konica Minolta is setting new standards: an extensive, unequalled range of monochrome and colour production printing systems, along with high-performance, highly integratable end-to-end software solutions such as the Printgroove POD Suite. Visitors to drupa 2008 will have the exclusive opportunity to see the new solutions for themselves at Konica Minolta’s exhibition stand A26 in hall 9, from 29 May to 11 June.
Konica Minolta, the international market leader for full-colour multifunctional devices, has tailored its new products to the requirements of the professional printing and graphic arts industry: High-performance printing systems – both monochrome and colour – together with innovative workflow solutions allow Konica Minolta to combine pioneering technology with the highest standard of quality and reliability. “Scale up”, the Konica Minolta motto at drupa 2008, is thus part of an all-embracing philosophy.
The latest product innovations for various bizhub PRO series due to be presented at drupa 2008 take Konica Minolta’s portfolio into the mid-production market. They produce high volumes extremely quickly, with outstanding quality and even greater durability, making them an attractive alternative or addition for large print service providers and companies in the graphic arts industry.
“We are not only going to present our new product range to our customers at drupa”, says Heike Börsch, head of Production Printing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “Our new international showroom in Langenhagen, which is due to open this summer, will be displaying our production printing systems in a real-life setting. There, the customer will also be able to find the latest office devices.”
Moving into the mid-production market with new hardware
At drupa 2008, Konica Minolta is presenting its new bizhub PRO 1200 to the public for the first time. The machine was developed inhouse and, complete with a new RIP (Raster Imaging Processor), it is intended to build on the success of the bizhub PRO 1050. The machine prints up to three million top-quality pages a month. Its exceptional, highly modular design allows a multitude of configurations. The monochrome printing system also has much to offer in terms of in-line finishing, including a multi-punch tool based on GBC technology.
Things get a lot more colourful with the bizhub PRO C5501, C6501 and C6501e/eP, enhanced versions of the successful bizhub PRO C5500 and bizhub PRO C6500e/eP. The main improvements have been to image quality and product life, to satisfy ever greater customer requirements.
The monochrome models bizhub PRO 1600P, 2000P and 2500P, due to be launched in autumn 2008, are the first systems of Konica Minoltas partnership with Océ. They can print between 160 and 250 images per minute in a single-pass process, enabling them to cope with high print volumes from 150,000 up to 4 million sheets per month. This also makes Konica Minolta’s bizhub PRO 2500P the world’s fastest single-pass printing system. These bizhub PRO series machines can process a wide range of different media; the bizhub PRO 1200P prints on media with weights ranging from 40 to 300 g/m2.
Konica Minolta offers complete, fully-integrated solutions
“This year’s Konica Minolta exhibition at drupa emphasises the fully-integrated solutions provided by our products”, explains Heike Börsch, “because besides the hardware – the printing systems – Konica Minolta’s strength also lies in our proprietary workflow solutions such as the Printgroove POD Suite. They automate internal work processes, make them controllable and enable them to be designed efficiently. This is something that our customers are coming to appreciate, because they increasingly realise that their crucial growth advantage lies in this area”, says Heike Börsch.
The extremely high reliability of Konica Minolta’s end-to-end solutions is another compelling factor. Their exceptional quality is also illustrated by the awards they have received – among them the “BERTLs BEST Award for Innovation” for Printgroove.
From 29 May to 11 June, visitors to drupa 2008 will have an exclusive opportunity to see the new product developments for themselves at Konica Minolta’s exhibition stand A26, covering an area of some 1,000 square metres in hall 9 of the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre. They will be able to experience the “Scale up” effect of the extensive product range first-hand, and can receive expert advice on how to implement it in their own business.