Xerox unveiled a new inkjet printer, the Rialto 900, at this week’s Hunkeler Innovation Days. We first saw this printer at the last Drupa show as the Project Genesis concept on the Impika stand and its now become the first jointly developed product since Xerox bought Impika.
Paul Morgavi, formerly CEO of Impika and now COO of Xerox’s inkjet division, says that the Rialto has benefited from feedback from customers since its Drupa outing, and now has a high density pigment inkset and a front end from Xerox.
The Rialto is a rollfed machine but with an integrated finishing unit that cuts the prints into sheets and stacks them. Morgavi says that the integrated finishing is a key part of its value proposition as it means that one operator can control the whole process from a single point. Xerox is planning to develop other finishing options.
It’s a surprisingly compact machine, taking a web up to 250mm and printing a 220mm wide image. There are two sets of printheads, with the paper following an S-shaped path for full duplex printing with no need to physically turn the paper over. It uses Kyocera printheads with 600dpi resolution and variable drop sizes of 4, 7 and 11 picolitres. It can automatically detect and map around missing nozzles. It includes IR dryers and chill rollers to optimise the conditions for the paper. It takes paper from 60 – 160 gsm. It prints to uncoated untreated media as well as inkjet treated and matte coated stocks. It runs at 48mpm and can produce 320 A4 ppm in duplex
The printer is aimed both at commercial offset printers looking for an entry-level digital machine with good throughput and at those customers that already have a high speed inkjet press but need something for shorter runs. The main target markets are direct mailing, transactional printing and the book sector. Xerox says that it should be able to handle 1.5 to 5 million impressions per month.
It has both IPDS and PDF controllers. Dustin Graupman, vice president and general manager of Xerox’s Inkjet Business, says: “We see a lot of mixed environments being the next advantage of inkjet because customers don’t have the investment costs and we see the versatility of being able to change from one application to another as necessary to justify the cost.”
The price will start from $6-700,000 for a base configuration though Xerox says that it expects most customers to opt for a fully featured configuration. There doesn’t appear to be a click charge though costs will vary depending on ink usage.
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