A Future Of High Speeds

Xerox recently invited IPG to its Rochester headquarters to show off a host of new color and black-and-white products.

by Bob Neubauer

What's 30 feet long, 6-1/2 feet tall and very fast?

The future, according to Xerox—or more specifically: the iGen3 Digital Production Press (formerly called FutureColor), the latest high-speed digital color printer from The Document Company.

Xerox recently gave IPG a preview of some of the color and black-and-white technologies it will soon debut. Among them was the much-touted iGen3, first shown at Drupa last year. Outputting an impressive 100 pages per minute (ppm), at an expected cost of 5¢ per page, iGen3 incorporates some of the latest imaging technologies.

For example, it boasts a single toner transfer point—all four colors are applied to the paper at once. This enables a straight paper path, allowing the machine to print much faster and use less toner, Xerox says.

Tucked away in a locked room within a locked laboratory in one of Xerox's Rochester, N.Y., offices, iGen3 is an impressive sight, if only for its size. Its got four paper drawers, with 2,500 sheet per drawer, plus four feeder trays and two stackers. Officials say it was designed to offer the same performance and reliability as an offset press.

It can handle a variety of paper, including coated, uncoated and textured stock, from 7x7˝ to 14.33x20.5˝, with weights from 60 to 270 gsm. Once the operator inputs the paper attributes, the device treats each type of sheet differently, even if different papers are mixed. Sensors check each piece of stock; if it's curled, the tray will be tilted accordingly. Toner bottles can be replaced while printing.

Though Xerox showed iGen3 at Print 01 in September, it's not scheduled to launch until the second half of 2002.

Black-and-white Market Growing

Though iGen3 was the most impressive piece of technology shown to IPG, Xerox has not been neglecting the black-and-white side, which the company says continues to grow.

The latest new monochrome device is the DocuTech/DocuPrint 75, a 75-ppm printer developed because of the great response received by the DocuTech/DocuPrint 65. Xerox officials touted its increased duty cycle (up 50,000 impressions a month to 450,000), and increased toner yield (up 5 to 10 percent). The DocuTech/DocuPrint 75 has 250 customer replaceable units (CRUs), so users can take care of some maintenance themselves. Top tray capacity has been increased to 250 sheets. It can handle stock sizes from 5.63x4.13˝ to 12x18˝, and from 16-lb. bond to 110-lb. index. Other features include auto tray switching and variable pitch printing.

The DocuTech/DocuPrint 75 uses the DocuSP controller, which Xerox is promoting as a common controller that can be used to drive all of its printing systems, whether color or black-and-white. Though slightly different RIPs are needed for color and black-and-white machines, they look the same from an operator perspective, making training much easier, and allowing users to maintain consistent workflows.

Xerox also presented its continuous feed printers, part of the company's effort to move into this market in the U.S., after some success last year in Europe. New models include the DocuPrint 350 CF, 500 CF, 700 CFT and 1000 CFT, most of which are debuting at Print 01. Xerox is also selling the Scitex VersaMark.

Xerox DigiPath Professional Production software has also received some upgrades. With 10,000 installations since its introduction in 1998, DigiPath is ready for the color world, Xerox says. Version 3.0, to be available in the first quarter of 2002, will allow full color scanning at production speed, which will be more than 50 ppm.

It will have improved Web viewing and submitting capabilities, with the ability to compress color files into jpegs. Integration with Photoshop is planned. Resolutions of 600 dpi will be possible from the glass, and 400 dpi through the document feeder. Existing DigiPath users will be able to upgrade to version 3.0.

With its RIPs and scanners, plus its new continuous feed printers and high-speed color and black-and-white models—not to mention its direct imaging offset press line—Xerox is making an effort to become the one vendor customers can use for all their graphic arts solutions.