Ricoh teases Z75 B2 inkjet

Ricoh has released more information on its upcoming sheetfed inkjet press, the Pro Z75, which takes B2 plus sheets measuring 585mm x 750mm and includes an automated perfecting unit. 

Ricoh’s Pro Z75 is a B2 sheetfed inkjet press.

Naturally it uses Ricoh printheads, with 1200×1200 dpi resolution with water-based inks. The Z75 can take uncoated media from 60-400gsm and offset coated substrates from 73-400gsm. Ricoh says that it will produce 4500 sph on one side in four colours and that this speed halves at 2250 sph for duplex printing. This is equivalent to 75 B2 ppm or 300 A4 ppm single sided, and 37.5 B2 ppm or 150 A4 ppm. For comparison, Xerox claims that its sheetfed Baltoro inkjet press, launched in 2019, will produce 302 duplex ipm on an A3 sheet.

Naturally it uses Ricoh printheads, and is able to print 1200×1200 dpi resolution at the above quoted speeds. It uses highly pigmented water-based inks. It has a cast iron and steel mainframe, and appears to have a long drying tunnel. Ricoh says that it can cope with a maximum duty cycle of 2.6M B2+ impressions/month, and an average range of 250K – 1.25M B2+ impressions/month. It uses an EFI front end. 

There’s no word on pricing, either for the press or its running costs, so it’s too early to draw any conclusions on how effective this press will truly be. Ricoh is planning to start beta testing with a US customer over the summer with commercial availability likely to be Q2 2022. A European launch is likely to require a separate beta test to account for the different substrates in use on this side of the Atlantic. 

For now, there are several existing competitors, including: Fujifilm’s Jetpress 750S, which is not as fast at the 1200 dpi resolution and lacks the automated perfector; HP’s B2 Indigo range, which uses liquid toner rather than inkjet; and Konica Minolta’s AccurioJet KM-1e, which uses UV rather than water-based inks. Prospective customers should also consider any of the various B2 offset presses, which are considerably faster and can also handle short run work if paired with a decent imposition and job management system. In the meantime, you can find more information on Ricoh’s production printers, but not the Z75, from ricoh.co.uk

NB: The text was edited to change the speed comparison in the second paragraph from the Xerox iGen to Xerox Baltoro. 


…with a little help from my friends

If you value independent journalism then please consider making a donation to help support Printing and Manufacturing Journal. There’s no advertising or other income attached to this site as my aim is to provide impartial and in-depth information to all readers. However, it takes time to carry out interviews and check facts so if this site is of interest to you then please support my work. You can find more information about me here.


Posted

in

,

by

Syndicate content

You can license the articles from Printing and Manufacturing Journal to reproduce in other publications. I generally charge around £150 per article but I’m open to discussing this for each title, particularly for publishers that want to use multiple stories. I can provide high res versions of images for print publications.

I’m used to working with overseas publishers and am registered for VAT with the UK’s HMRC tax authority but obviously won’t charge VAT to companies outside the UK. You can find further details and a licensing form from this page, or just contact me directly here.

Support this site

If you find the stories here useful then please consider making a donation to help fund Printing and Manufacturing Journal, either as a one-off or a repeat payment. Journalism is only really useful if it’s truly independent and this is the only such news source serving the print/ manufacturing sectors.

However, there are costs involved in travelling to cover events, as well as maintaining this site, not to mention the time that it takes to carry out research, check facts and interview people. So if you value this work, then please help to maintain it and keep it free to read.

Subscribe

Never miss a story – subscribe to Printing and Manufacturing Journal to receive an email notification every time an article is published here. It’s completely free of charge and you can cancel the subscription at any point without any hassle. There’s no need to provide any information other than an email address and subscribers details are not for sale so there’s no risk of any further marketing spam.

Related stories

Comments

2 responses to “Ricoh teases Z75 B2 inkjet”

  1. Alex avatar
    Alex

    Ricoh G6 print heads or new models?

    1. Nessan Cleary avatar
      Nessan Cleary

      Hi Alex,
      Ricoh haven’t discussed the printheads yet and there’s not enough information yet to draw any conclusions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *