Inkjet & Digital Printing

Data One reinforces partnership with Xeikon

Friday 03. December 2010 - Investment in two Xeikon 8000 digital presses to increase capacity for top-quality printing

Xeikon, a division of Punch Graphix, is proud to announce that Data One has reinforced its long-term strategic partnership with the purchase of two new Xeikon 8000 digital color presses. The new presses will deliver the extra capacity and superior print quality required by Data One to meet the growing demand for high quality full-color transactional and direct marketing documents.
Producing more than a billion direct marketing pages per year, Data One is one of Europe’s largest print service providers. The company, which is a subsidiary of the French Group Diffusion Plus, installed its first Xeikon presses in 1999, and since then has taken the leading role in the move from monochrome to full-color in the direct mail market – and more recently in the fast growing transactional and transpromo markets.
“We have been using Xeikon presses for over a decade now,” says Loïc Lefebvre, Head of Business Development for Data One and Group Diffusion Plus. “When the time came to upgrade, the Xeikon 8000 was the obvious choice for us – given its stability, exceptional speed and superb image quality for our toner based machines. The transactional and transpromo markets are evolving extremely fast,” continues Loïc Lefebvre. “Advances in full-color digital printing with variable data capabilities are now enabling our clients to deliver targeted, personalized, high quality messages to individual customers. To gain real traction, however, these documents must not only be in full-color; they must have the highest print quality with the best TCO.”
“Data One’s decision to further extend our partnership reflects the strong relationship between our companies,” says Jos Liekens, Managing Director Benelux and France at Xeikon. “Their clients demand top performance and this latest investment reinforces Data One’s trust in the Xeikon technology, our services and our people.”
Seamless integration with IPDS workflow
While delivery of the highest print quality will play a key role in Data One’s future business growth, the ever-increasing production rates continuously drive the need for improved productivity. With a top speed of 260ppm, the Xeikon 8000 enables Data One to meet the peak production loads with ease. Its ability to integrate into the company’s existing IPDS workflow combined with its continuous-fed operation also boosts productivity significantly.
“The seamless integration of the X-800 IPDS digital front-end with our existing production workflow was another key factor in our decision to further invest in Xeikon,” explains Loïc Lefebvre. “With variable data processing, the integrity of the data is imperative. For “Web to Print” applications (GOCAD), our clients enter their files directly via an extranet and the data then flows seamlessly through the process without the need for any data conversion. We are also moving away from cut-sheet for productivity reasons and the continuous-fed operation of the Xeikon 8000 plays a key role in this, particularly for transactional mail applications. The press also eliminates the need for human intervention at the finish of a print run – reducing the risks of mishandling. Quality and productivity are essentially the name of the game, and the Xeikon 8000 positions us well to win on both fronts.”
Ultimate combination of speed and quality
The Xeikon 8000 has been specifically designed to meet the most demanding high-volume transactional and document printing applications. With its top speed recently increased to 260 A4 pages per minute (19m/minute) combined with the 1200 dpi resolution at 4 bits per spot, Xeikon’s flagship printer delivers the ultimate combination of speed and print quality.
Capable of handling scalable print media widths up to 512 mm, the Xeikon 8000 also offers a 504 mm imaging width, enabling 2-up A4 and 3-up A5 printing on an unbeaten range of print media with weights ranging from 40 to 350 gsm (27 lb text to 122 lb cover).
The Xeikon 8000 comes with the latest generation of Xeikon’s unique X-800 digital front-end. Intuitive, modular and based on open standards, it enables the implementation of fully automated workflows in any production environment. The optional IPDS controller, which is supported in 5 colors, transforms the Xeikon 8000 into a high-performance solution for transactional and transpromo printing, producing highly personalized, full color documents at rated engine speed.