Business News

Ricoh and InfoPrint Solutions launch Pro C901/C901s Graphic Arts Edition

Wednesday 06. October 2010 - A full colour powerhouse for production printing with high-end enhancements.

Ricoh Europe PLC and InfoPrint Solutions Company today announced the launch of the Pro C901/C901s Graphic Arts Edition, an advanced best-in-class system designed specifically to meet the exacting standards of the professional production print environment. The new Pro C901/C901s is an impressive addition to Ricoh’s and InfoPrint’s strong existing and extensive range that supports both graphic arts and corporate printers.

New powerful features include:
The market’s fastest press in its class, printing at rated speeds of 90 A4 pages per minute on media up to 300 gsm in duplex mode;
New chemical (oil-free) PxP toner for improved accuracy, reliability, flexibility and ease-of-use delivering offset-like results;
New Operator Replaceable Units (ORUs) for easy on-site maintenance and maximum uptime;
New Media Library automates media settings for high quality output and fast production workflow.

This new solution addresses the needs of commercial printers, in-plant printers and data centres seeking to grow into a high quality, colour environment without a major financial investment. It can produce a wide variety of output, including Print on Demand (POD) manuals and books, and also enables marketing initiatives such as direct mail, as well as Precision Marketing tools including TransPromo.

Easily the fastest engine in mid-production, it prints at rated speeds of 90 A4 colour pages per minute in duplex mode. It accepts paper sizes up to SRA3 with a maximum weight of 300gsm without compromising speed.

PXP oil-free toner assures consistent offset-like quality, smoother shading, and improved colour registration. With the new toner technology the system achieves consistent toner coverage in high colour areas and produces a wider range of colours. Photo rendering is exceptionally accurate with colours that are consistent and repeatable.

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New ORUs help reduce cost and maintenance requirements and maximise productivity. Trained operators can, for example, replace key imaging components without waiting for a service engineer. Long-lasting supplies and consumables, such as toner bottles that can be replaced while the machine is in use, minimise disruptions and downtime.

New Media Library holds up to 260 profiles tested and proven at the time of launch. A custom library function lets users add their own profiles and a back-up area has capacity for an additional 1,000 media settings. This is regularly extended by the European Media Qualification Centre, which is based at Ricoh Products Limited in Telford, UK, while the printer remains in use. Simple to manage and operate, any user can set complex printing jobs, applying settings by selecting a preset or custom media type integrated with a paper library connected to an EFI Fiery E41, E81 or Creo C-81 print server that provides advanced colour and job management tools. These tools, in conjunction with the Media Library’s advanced features, deliver outstanding colour reproduction.

“The professional production printing market is evolving more rapidly than ever” says Peter Williams, Executive Vice-President of Ricoh Europe and Head of the Printing Production Group, “and Ricoh is committed to a constant programme of research and development to ensure we keep pace with changing trends and exceed the market’s needs. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Pro C901/ C901s Graphic Arts Edition, the latest addition to our highly successful professional colour range, which already includes the popular and versatile Ricoh Pro C900 Series.”

Benoit Chatelard, Senior Vice President and General Manager of InfoPrint Solutions Company EMEA adds ”Our European customers consistently demand affordable colour as they look to expand into production environments. With the addition of the Pro C901 Graphics Arts Edition to our award-winning colour portfolio, we’ve addressed these needs head on. The Pro C901, combined with our professional services team and best-of-breed software solutions, will continue our focus on helping customers expand their offerings with new revenue generating services such as TransPromo that enhance their business advantage.”

The Pro C901/C901s also features Air-Assist technology, available on all input trays and makes paper feeding smooth and simple. It also reliably feeds media types of all sizes with integrated full-colour scanning, copying and document storage to meet image capture and print on demand requirements.

A new fuser unit delivers improved fusing on all media types including heavy and textured, providing reliable paper separation and good separation for lightweight coated media. The engine also now ensures accurate registration on heavy 300gsm media – ideal for direct mail, postcards and business card printing.

Production is integrated and user-friendly; the engine automates the entire production workflow. It also offers what is currently acknowledged to be the most complete array of finishing options that can be combined in one device. Options include a new all-in-one saddle stitch finisher that can produce fully-finished brochures with up to 40 pages and fore-edge trimming, plus a high-capacity stacker. A Ring Binder automates the entire binding process by punching, collating and applying the ring bind without any manual intervention while a Perfect Binder produces professionally presented books from 10 to 400 pages in duplex mode.

Together with the Pro C901 series Ricoh is launching the new Stream Punch PRO unit for advanced heavy duty environment punching on coated media. A new two side trimming module compatible with the existing Plockmatic booklet maker makes brochure production workflow even easier then ever before. Full three sided trimming can be achieved with no intervention from print operators. All options guarantee complete and cost-efficient solutions for complex jobs.

A true best-in-class device the Pro C901/ C901s Graphics Arts Edition is equipped to produce an incredible variety of printed materials with a digital colour production system that brings versatility, scalability and performance to the most demanding professional production print environment. The Pro C901/C901s supports a full range of class-leading workflow solutions chosen specifically to enhance customer capabilities and broaden customers’ service offerings from submission to output. This includes software that helps customers capture client print and finishing requirements, prepare files for production, manage jobs across multiple machines and manage colour consistency across devices. Ricoh software enables customers to add value, maximise efficiencies and streamline production.

To assist customers to make the most of their investment in the Ricoh Pro C901/C901s, Ricoh offer the unique web-based Ricoh Business Driver programme. The programme helps customers in production print grow their businesses and accelerate their profits by providing them with tailored advice, tools and a wealth of practical business development material.