Ricoh has announced a new series of dry toner colour production presses, the Pro C7200, which will replace the existing C7110 series of mid-range printers.
There are a number of improvements including a new toner formulation. The print speed is 95 A4 ppm, slightly up from the 90ppm of the C7110, though it can hold this speed on media up to 360gsm. It’s capable of 2,400 x 4,800 dpi. Eef De Ridder, director of Commercial Printing for Ricoh Europe, says that the colour stability has been improved with inline sensors for auto calibration and that the C7200 has also gained auto adjustment to improve registration.
The fifth colour station can be used for white and there’s also neon pink and yellow toners, as well as clear. In addition, Ricoh has announced a new invisible red toner which is suitable for a range of entry-level security applications.
De Ridder says: “We also the ability to print white and CMYK in a single pass which was not possible before.” He adds: “We can print the white first and the CMYK on top of it in a single pass, which gives a much enhanced capability because it’s only one click. Also, having white first gives a much better grading on the colours.”
It can handle longer sheets, up to 1260mm for simplex and up to 700mm for duplex. De Ridder says that this is something that customers have asked for, explaining: “There is a lot of demand for longer sheets where customers want to produce tri-fold brochures as well as long sheet posters.”
There are several inline finishing options, including the GBC eWire Binder, BDT Banner Sheet LCT and a Plockmatic banner sheet stacker.
There are two models in this line. The basic C7200 is a four colour machine that is aimed at inplant operations. Then there is the C7200X, a five-colour device targeted at graphic arts applications. Graphic arts customers can also start with the four-colour version and upgrade to the full five colours. The main distinction is the volume of work, with de Ridder explaining that graphic arts customers tend to have a much higher volume of work than inplants.
Ricoh expects the average print volumes to be between 30,000 – 100,000 A4 dependant on model, with a monthly maximum volume of 240,000 based on a 5 year contract. Both versions should be available this month.
De Ridder comments: “The systems address today’s market demands for greater complexity, faster turnaround times and varied run lengths. The enhancements improve quality, productivity and usability to ensure striking and engaging results can be achieved simply and smoothly. I am confident that progressive print businesses who make this investment in their creative capability will be rewarded by delighted, loyal clients.”
There’s a choice of digital front end servers including GWNX and the TotalFlow Print Server R62A from Ricoh.
EFI has separately announced two front ends for the C7200 series, the E-85A and E-45A, which are both based on the Fiery FS300 Pro system software. Both of these support the full range of toners available for the fifth colour station and allow users to add speciality toner to jobs without going back to prepress or changing the design file. They also give the option over whether to apply white toner over or under CMYK, and whether to mirror or invert any of the files.
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