Manufacturers are putting themselves under more and more pressure

Digital printing Big players bring updates to their systems. The updates offered by leading manufacturers
Laser printing systems, which we are talking about here, are among the
page printers. So far, the main products from these manufacturers have been
Black and white range for many of these printers also integrated
Production lines available. In addition to merging/supplementing or
also punching of preprinted or separately printed sheets can be
these systems, which are supplemented by finishing equipment, also produce brochures inline (in
one pass), bind or staple them in various ways.
In the following, new products, solutions and also strategies of some
leading providers are presented. It quickly becomes apparent that, in addition to
the established providers, but also increasingly large corporations such as Canon, HP
and Kodak are turning to the digital printing business, and with great pleasure
and a lot of commitment.

Canon places first ImageRunner production system
The Japanese Canon Group, which is active in the business areas of
Solutions, Professional Printing Solutions and in the areas of
Photography/Imaging both technologies and solutions for the
business as well as the home and office sector, also wants to be a
digital printing segment to grow. To achieve this objective, the
the company employs people around the world, including in Switzerland.
recruited.
As part of this new strategy, Canon has expanded its offering in the field of
professional printing systems and Canon Europe with the
digital production systems iR125VP (125 pages*) and iR150VP (150
pages) already launched printers for high production volumes on the market
brought. Both models have been designed for printing on-demand
This has been developed for "print(ing) on demand" environments (e.g.
for in-house printers, for printing bank transactions or other
separations) and for traditional offset printers. The two
ImageRunner models are also especially suitable for the
One-to-one marketing.
With the installation of a first digital
Black and white production line in Switzerland has Canon (Schweiz) AG
has now laid an important foundation stone for the local market. For the
Interlaken-based company Schlaefli
& Maurer AG is the fast black & white production system iR125VP
incl. PrintShop Mail software (for variable data printing) and
Balance (for data preparation) the entry into a new
Market segment.
Siegfried Alder, Product Marketing Manager Professional Printing
Solutions, comments on the venture: "For Canon Switzerland, the
Installation of the iR125VP at Schlaefli & Maurer the first step
into the professional market. That this together with a far more than
partner that is known beyond the region and is an innovative
demonstrates that Canon can offer competitive products for the
professional market. The customers of Schlaefli & Maurer
can benefit from a broader range of services than before.
The company can respond more flexibly to their wishes overall.
Respond."
The introduction of the iR125VP/iR150VP systems marks Canon's entry
into the professional market. The logical and consistent next
The next step is to take place in the spring of 2006 in Birmingham.
trade fair Ipex with the launch of a revolutionary new
production color system are undertaken.

HP grows in digital printing segment through acquisitions
At Hewlett-Packard (HP), an increasing interest in the
Digital printing on. The computer manufacturer and originally pure
Supplier of office and large-format printers and proofing systems has
The acquisition of Indigo (new: HP Indigo) in the fall of 2001
a blow to the technology also a very well-known in digital printing
brand incorporated. Particularly interesting is a message from mid
August, according to which HP would acquire the leading large-format printing
supplier Scitex Vision plans to massively expand its product portfolio.
The large-format printers from this Israeli manufacturer are used before
mainly used by companies that are active in the display, labeling and
packaging market are active.
But at the heart of HP's digital printing range are the
HP Indigo presses: From a technical point of view, these are similar to the
laser printing systems, because they also transmit the
image information onto an intermediate carrier (printing plate). The difference
of HP Indigo systems to other digital printing systems lies with the
or liquid ink (ElectroInk) is used.
"The ElectroInk comes close to the always used for comparison.
offset printing is closest to the 'look & feel'," explains Bruno
Brechbühl, head of the digital printing department at Chromos AG, which is the
HP Indigo printing systems in Switzerland.
There are four sheetfed systems from HP-Indigo (HP Indigo press s2000, 1050,
3050 and 5000) and three web-fed printing systems (ws2000, w3200 and
ws4050). The latest product, the HP Indigo Press 5000, HP calls
also known as the "digital press for the printer". It prints 4000
A4 pages in full color per hour and processes a wide range of
of coated and uncoated substrates, labels, films and foils
and other materials. This machine was presented at the drupa trade show
presented in May 2004 and has been available since the successfully implemented
Beta testing available since early 2005.

Océ launches Platinum versions with new toner technology
Smaller multifunction systems are very much in vogue. These are printers,
which manage around 30 pages and can be used with additional functions (scan,
copying, faxing) cover the needs of small workgroups.
At the end of June, Dutch-based Océ launched the Océ CS230 and CS181
for this medium to high-volume color market two 35-page
printing systems have been introduced. Both can also be used for the
black-and-white range - the CS230 model then prints
up to 45 pages, while the smaller model also has a performance of
35 pages. In addition, the CS520 model is another
Multifunction device for printing 51 pages - in color or
Black and white.
With the CPS800 (copier and printer) and the CPS900 (printer only)
Océ has recently introduced new printing systems for use in graphic arts.
companies and in-house print shops; they solve the
predecessor model CPS700. Both models have also been
Available as "Platinum" models - these use a new toner
and are used in the processing of the substrates (paper sizes and
paper grades) more flexible.
Urs Maute, Product Manager Color at Océ Switzerland, explains: "The
Platinum printers CPS800 and CPS900 enable, among other things, through the
new toner enables the reproduction of finer screens. In contrast to the
multifunction devices, with which ideally only normal
copying papers, the Platinum system can be used to print papers
between 80 and 300 g/m2 can be printed at full speed."
Its ambitions for the more demanding graphics market have Océ
recently documented at the X'05 trade fair. At the Sihl + Eika booth
The CPS900 color printing system was used as a live demonstration of the fact that
also have creative papers printed in digital printing.

Epson rolls up the office segment from below
Suppliers such as Epson make it clear with their products that the
The traditional digital print is probably slowly coming under (market) pressure. The
latest example from the Japanese group is the AcuLaser C4200.
This printer manages a remarkable performance in its segment: up to
up to 35 pages in black and white and up to 25 pages in color land per
minute in the delivery. Even in duplex printing (standard), the
New from Epson still up to 20 pages. According to Epson, you can print up to
brand new model up to 90000 pages per month.
Back in May, Epson launched the AcuLaser 2600, a new
monochrome laser printer, which was made possible by the acquisition and the
Inserting color toner cartridges quickly into a color printer
can be transformed. This allows companies to cost-effectively invest in the
Enter black and white range and upgrade to color if needed. Who
can also order the device as a color printer (AcuLaser C2600).
Epson draws particular attention to the low cost of ownership of its AcuLaser printers.
acquisition and operating costs, their network capability, the high
flexibility in use and brilliant print quality.
This also makes the printers ideal for single workstations or small
Working groups.

Kodak expands production printing segment
After HP entered the digital printing business in a big way, now also
the Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak), which came from the photographic business, the
ventured into digital printing. In addition to the acquisition of
Encad (large format printer) and Scitex digital printing (high volume
inkjet digital printing), Kodak last year added to its 50 percent also
Heidelberg's 50 percent shareholding in the
Joint venture company Nexpress acquired. Within a very short time
The film manufacturer has thus become a leading digital printing company.
Company emerged, which with the Kodak digital color printing machine
NexPress 2100 and the optional fifth printing unit together with new
Application solutions Print service providers new, innovative
services for their customers: Kodak NexPress intelligent
color for the precise reproduction of spot colors and a
Color space expansion, intelligent coating for the application of a
protective layer or printing watermarks and other protective and
jewelry features as well as intelligent glossing for refinement through
High gloss finish in conjunction with the Kodak NexGlosser
Glossy finisher. For the Digimaster black-and-white printing systems, there were
last fall, we made changes to our portfolio. Most powerful
The new printing system is the 150-page Digimaster E150 press.

Xerox expands portfolio
The European division of Xerox Corporation, which is based in
Kloten-based Xerox Switzerland, has unveiled new products. More
For information, see page 23.

Jürgen Franck