Black-and-white Printing Still Strong

Users of monochrome devices say speed, quality and service are among their chief considerations when looking for equipment.

By Gretchen A. Peck

While many in-plants cite color printing as an emerging opportunity, black-and-white output is still their bread and butter. Many, if not the majority, of their digital jobs are monochromatic.

And since the speed of the printer largely determines how much work the in-plant can produce, this has become a very important criterion; it's typically the first specification a prospective buyer wants to know.

At Greenville, Texas-based L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, the in-plant uses an assortment of Konica-Minolta black-and-white systems to produce 500,000 impressions per month—two Di850s, a 7085 and a Di650. For Frank Shrode, supervisor of print, repro and microfilm, throughput was a very important consideration when he signed the lease contract with Konica-Minolta.

"With the two Di850 machines clustered, we are able to run at a rate of 170 sheets per minute," he says. "With the 7085 configured as we have it, we are able to scan documents to digital file at a rate of 85 pages per minute and then run the job on the Di850s at twice that speed."

Shrode says the company also has a Xerox DocuTech 6100 in another facility in Waco, Texas.

For Jim Trout, director of output services at Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), in Chicago, speed also tops his list of requirements for digital print engines. Sharp resolution and output quality take a close second place, though.

"High quality is critical, as we use 2D datamatrix bar codes on all print-to-mail applications, which enables our database-driven inserting equipment with optical readers and our Infoprint Workflow application to track every printed sheet generated," Trout explains. "This provides the quality and audit controls we need to comply with HIPAA and other regulatory audit requirements."

Trout's in-plant has eight IBM Printing Systems' solutions—seven of which are approximately four years old; the newest—an IBM TX Infoprint 4100—was installed a little more than 18 months ago. The checks, statements, bills and correspondence these printers produce are all based on variable-data input.

"Everything we do is variable-data," notes Trout.

Buying by the Brand

While speed may be the first and most obvious criteria to consider when buying a black-and-white printer, customer service ranks high on in-plants' lists, as well.

At Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp. (WPS), Geri Hart, manager of the corporate print center, oversees production of a range of print products, including correspondence, member guides, payroll printing and manuals.

"We have two Canon imageRUNNER Pro 150s and an ICR 3200 color copier. Between the two [imageRUNNERs], we probably average about two million pages per month," Hart estimates. "We hit a year on one of our machines in January, and the other one will be a year old at the end of March."

When she chose the two Canon solutions, she recalls, "I was looking for a cost-effective solution that would offer me process improvements, automation and the ability to upgrade them down the road. I was also very concerned about customer service and the relationship between the vendor and our company. Most importantly, we wanted equipment that we could be confident in. We wanted to know that supplies would be available and easily accessible. If equipment goes down and needs to be serviced, and I have to wait a day or two for parts, that's no good in a production environment."

Hart found the partner she was looking for—not just in Canon, but in the Gordon Flesch Co., a Madison, Wis.-based independent Canon dealer, which helped her select the right equipment, install it and maintain it.

The Lowest Bidder

While building a trusted and exclusive relationship with a single manufacturer may be important to some in-plants, it can be a luxury for others.

"Being a government organization, we have to do everything on the bid," explains Sam Thornton, supervisor of printing for the Jefferson County Public School System in Kentucky. "We're not typically allowed to specify a particular brand. We have to start by putting together a list of specs, and then ask the vendors to bid based on those."

That's how Thornton built his in-plant's stable of printing solutions, which now includes two Ricoh Aficio 2090s, a Ricoh 650, a Heidelberg (now, Kodak NexPress) Digimaster 9110, a Xerox DocuColor 2060 and a Konica-Minolta Di620. A Xerox DocuTech 135 is in a satellite shop. These devices enable Thornton's shop to produce forms, brochures, directories, school handbooks and calendars. While Thornton has seen an increased interest in color output, black-and-white remains the core demand of his customers.

A similar story is told by Tino Castro at California-based County of Riverside Printing Services.

"Color has increased dramatically," says Castro, manager—but black-and-white applications continue to thrive. "We have three black-and-white printers—a Xerox 6135, a Xerox 135 and a Xerox 4635 MICR printer. [They're] approximately two to three years old."

Digital Checklist

Castro says he has five primary considerations for choosing a digital printer:

1. Quality

2. Simplicity/user friendliness

3. The ability to print on a wide range of stocks and substrates

4. Whether it's a reasonable or feasible initial investment

5. Whether the economies of running and maintaining the printer can be justified

"There's nothing scarier than buying or leasing a machine and basing it only on the volumes you have now," Castro cautions. "Later on, it may fall, and you'll be stuck with high payments but not enough production to justify them. Buying a printer should be a lengthy process. We consult with Xerox for many months before we choose a machine, and we study our own operations."

Inline binding has made many of these black-and-white devices even more valuable to in-plants.

Thornton, of the Jefferson County Public School System, has equipped one of his Ricoh 2090s with an inline trimmer and bookletmaker.

"This has taken a large load off of our bindery, in the area of saddle stitching and trimming short runs of saddle-stitched booklets," he says. "We anticipate a steady increase in on-demand printing and binding needs, which will cause us to add more of this type of equipment."

At Health Care Service Corp., Trout says, "We use Roll Systems' pre-/post- paper unwinders and folders/stackers. They serve our needs and require minimal service."

"Attached to our Canon equipment, we have in-line perfect binders and cutters," remarks Geri Hart of WPS.

"[WPS] membership guides used to be done off line," recalls Ray Rokosz, production systems analyst for the Gordon Flesch Co. "Each membership guide had a color routing sheet that would alert the operator as to any special instructions that had to be followed for perfect binding the books—or not binding them, as the case may be. When WPS decided to move to more automated, in-line finishing, that became a challenge. If you go in-line, now, the blue sheets were going to be bound in the book.

"Canon has a really neat feature in the way they handle process queues," Rokosz continues. "We're able to parse through the document, looking for those separator sheets and allocate those to the top tray, but send the rest of the booklet in-line to the perfect binder—without asking anyone to reprogram anything upstream."

Automation and bringing off-line finishing in-line has helped WPS save approximately 20 percent on most jobs, according to Hart.

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On the Front End

According to Sam Thornton, supervisor of printing for the Jefferson County Public School System, one of the most important criteria in selecting a printer has almost nothing to do with the print engine—it's the front end that matters. He's sold on a digital front end that's based on an EFI server with T/R Systems' MicroPress.

"Any [future] printer I choose has to be able to be driven by that or a similar front end," he says. "We chose that front end for a number of reasons—all of which were very important to us—and so we want printers that will connect to that workflow.

"It will drive up to 12 printers," Thornton continues, "so I can run production jobs all over this department. And we're doing that a lot now. I've got all of the printers and copiers networked."

Though currently only the shop's two Ricoh Aficio 2090s are driven by the MicroPress, all of the copiers are networked. During the busiest times, he says, the in-plant may send jobs digitally to all of its copiers.

"The front end has some great editing software, too. It used to be, if I had a problem with a job—if I had to flip a page or add a blank page, or add some tabs—I'd have to go back to the artist. Now, I'm able to do a lot more formatting and fixing. It's given the print shop a lot more control over the jobs, and taken some of the burden off the graphic artists."

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Monochromatic Solutions

Canon U.S.A.

usa.canon.com

Canon imageRUNNER Pro 150VP: Capable of meeting monthly duty cycles of between three and five million impressions, the Pro 150VP is a multifunction solution with 600x600-dpi resolution. It prints up to 150 pages per minute (ppm) and has standard automatic trayless duplexing. It comes with a standard Basic Finisher, but options include a puncher, stacker, bookletmaker and in-line perfect binder.

Canon imageRUNNER Pro 125VP: This system supports monthly duty cycles of 4.25 million prints. It produces 125 ppm at 600x600 dpi. Standard features include a 4,000-sheet paper supply with variable paper size capabilities and variable pitch printing support that allows users to print odd paper sizes without a significant drop in machine-rated speed. The solution can be upgraded to support secure Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) printing applications. A puncher, a saddle-stitch booklet maker and a perfect binder are all offered as optional in-line finishing solutions.

IBM Printing Systems

www.printers.ibm.com

IBM Infoprint 2000 Multifunctional Production System: This high-volume cut-sheet printer outputs 110 images per minute (ipm) at 600 dpi. It allows for up to 8,000 sheets input, and in addition to printing, can perform scan-to-print and scan-to-store.

IBM Infoprint 4100 Advanced Function Printing System: This continuous-form printer can print up to 280 linear feet per minute at 600 dpi. It may be configured in simplex or duplex arrangements, and it delivers true three-up pages with an extra wide format (19.5˝ paper width/up to 19˝s of print width).

Kodak Versamark

www.kodakversamark.com

Kodak Versamark DS6300 Printing System: It is available in two models, one that prints up to 500 feet per minute, and one that prints up to 325 fpm. Maximum resolution is 300x600. It is suited for variable-data imaging applications, including tags, labels, direct mail, forms, booklets and transactional statements.

Kodak Versamark VJ1000 Printing System: This continuous ink-jet system has variable resolution (300x300 or 300x600) and may be configured as a two-up simplex, one-up duplex or two-up duplex. It accepts pre-printed or blank pin-fed or pinless roll-feed paper, and may be equipped with a number of finishing options, including roll-to-roll, roll-to-fanfold and roll-to-sheet.

Konica Minolta

www.konicaminolta.us

Konica Minolta Di850 Digital Imaging System: The Di850 enables users to print, copy and scan at up to 85 ppm. Two bizhub PRO Di850s can be configured for tandem operations, for up to 170 copies per minute (cpm). Five exposure modes enable users to adjust reproduction quality; it's capable of producing true 600x600-dpi print resolution. Finishing options include a bookletmaker, punch kit, z-fold/punch kit and booklet trimmer.

Konica-Minolta FORCE 75 Digital Imaging System: The FORCE 75 offers a monthly duty cycle of up to 1 million impressions and throughput of up to 75 ppm. This system has a 6,150 maximum sheet capacity.

NexPress Solutions

www.nexpress.com

Kodak Digimaster 9110 Digital Production System: This solution supports monthly duty cycles of up to two million impressions and prints at up to 110 ppm (55 ppm for wider formats). It offers trayless duplexing and comes standard with three paper drawers, which can be expanded up to a total of nine, enabling a maximum capacity of 12,000 sheets. The Digimaster 9110 supports Adobe PostScript 3, Adobe PDF 1.5 and TIFF group IV image printing, with optional support for HP-PCL 6.

Océ Printing Systems

www.oceusa.com

Océ VarioPrint 5000 cut-sheet family: The Océ VarioPrint 5000 is available in four configurations, to meet the needs of specific applications—scan-to-print, document production, graphic arts and conversion environments. Depending on the configuration, VarioPrint 5000 printers can produce between 180 and 155 ipm. The printers come standard with a Scaleable Raster Architecture controller, but may also be partners with an Océ PRISMAproduction print server.

Océ VarioStream 6100: This continuous-form printer supports volumes of up 2.75 million images per month. It outputs 106 ipm and offers variable resolutions of 240, 300 or 600 dpi. It can print on adhesive-backed stocks, super-light paper grades, recycled papers, thick card stock, plastic cards, labels and electronic forms.

Ricoh

www.ricoh-usa.com

Ricoh Afício 2060: It has an 8,300-sheet maximum paper capacity from up to five sources, as well as a 100-sheet, one-pass duplexing automatic document feeder. An optional interposer allows users to insert covers or special pages into a document. The copier and printer components produce at up to 60 ppm at true 1,200-dpi resolution.

Ricoh Afício 2075: This multifunction solution produces 1,200-dpi images at up to 75 ppm. It has a 8,300-sheet capacity from up to five sources and comes with a 100-sheet, one-pass duplexing automatic document feeder. Finishing options enable users to collate, number, stamp, multi-position staple, saddle stitch, Z fold or hole punch.

Xerox

www.xerox.com

Nuvera 120 Digital Production System: Equipped with Xerox's DocuSP programming and admin software, this solution is for high-volume production print applications and produces up to 120 ipm. It has an integrated controller and a total feeding capacity of up to 17,000 sheets.

Nuvera 120 Digital Copier/Printer: For mid-level production environments, this MFP copies, prints, scans and finishes at up to 120 ipm. It offers DocuSP software, the ability to scan documents up to 12x18˝ and integration of hard copy originals and digital print files.

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