Xerox has launched a new printer, the Versant 80, which is essentially a lower end version of the Versant 2100. Thus it benefits from a similar level of automation, and uses the same low melt EA toner.
It runs at up to 80ppm and takes stocks from 52 up to 350gsm. It’s capable of a duty cycle of around half a million pages per month though Brian Segnit, Xerox’s worldwide product marketing manager, says the sweet spot is around 80,000 impressions.
There’s also an optional Performance Package, though this has to be ordered at the same time as the printer. This can run at the full rated speed on the heavier stocks and also includes a spectrophotometer for colour management.
The actual resolution appears to be 1200 x 1200 dpi, though it is capable of producing Ultra HD resolution of 2400 x 2400 dpi, though this is only supported by EFI. Consequently it’s only available with a Fiery-based EX80 front end, or the faster Fiery EX-i 80. Xerox has said that it will produce its own FreeFlow version later.
It should be available from April and will replace both the C75 and J75 models.
Xerox has also updated its Colour 800/1000 printers to the 800i/1000i, which mainly gain new gold and silver metallic toners, whichare Pantone matched, as well as further automation.
There’s an optional Specialty Dry Ink Station that can be used to apply either the metallic gold or silver toner and can also be used for clear toner for varnishing effects. This is a fairly significant feature as it will allow companies to offer a fairly wide range of effects in a single print operation that would otherwise require additional processes such as foil stamping. It also opens up some high value applications such as invitations and certificates.
Strangely, Xerox insists on referring to its toners as ‘inks’, which presumably means that somebody in its marketing department believes that customers are no longer interested in printers that use toner technology. Or maybe that English is not their first language. Either way, it’s a little disquietening when a company doesn’t have enough faith in its own products to use the correct terminology.
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