Challenging The Status Quo

Indigo's new digital presses directly challenge the mainstream commercial offset market and the domain of black-and-white xerography.

In a swirl of colored lights and exotic music, Indigo N.V. Chairman and CEO Benny Landa unveiled several impressive digital printing devices at his company's headquarters in Nes Ziona, Israel, recently—devices sure to draw the attention of industry stalwarts like Heidelberg and Xerox.

As a crowd of journalists and consultants from around the world took in the scene, Landa discussed the technologies Indigo plans to debut at DRUPA—technologies intended to bring digital offset color into the heart of the commercial printing market. New products include:

• A digital web press that prints 272 letter-size color pages per minute (ppm).

• A digital sheetfed press that prints 136 letter-size color ppm.

• Indigo's first black-and-white digital press, running 136 ppm.

Landa made no effort to mask his enthusiasm for digital printing, which he feels will eventually replace offset—perhaps by the decade's end. Already, he said, the quality of Indigo's digital printing is at least on par with that of offset, and in some cases it's even better. Plus, he added, the ability to personalize makes digital printing a superior choice. He forecasted the end of high-volume publications and a waning need for super high-speed presses.

On a stage behind Landa, bathed in colored lights, stretched the showpiece Indigo Publisher 8000, a four-engine digital web press able to print on even the lightest weight stocks. Created to bring offset-quality digital printing to mainstream commercial printing and high-volume direct mail markets, the 8000 prints 272 letter-size color pages per minute, and 8000 four-color A3 images per hour. It comes with in-line finishing. Another product, the Publisher 4000, has two engines and offers half the speed of the 8000.

"Each of our engines creates the entire image," Landa pointed out—this means seven colors at once. The result, he added, is virtually perfect registration. Therefore, multiple engines multiply productivity, he said. The printers also use Indigo's trademark electro ink, a liquid ink that dries as soon as it touches the paper.

The big news for in-plants, however, was the debut of the Ebony, Indigo's first black-and-white product. The fact that it runs at 136 ppm—just one page faster than the Xerox DocuTech 135—is pure coincidence, Landa insisted.

"That happens to be the speed of the engine," he said.

Describing the Ebony as a "workhorse" Landa said the sheetfed device is targeted at corporate and in-plant markets, and will offer "high-volume production with a total cost of ownership lower than any xerographic alternative." Like other Indigo devices, its engine transfers images from a photo imaging plate to a blanket and then to the paper.

"The Ebony is not just a stripped-down TurboStream," noted Landa, referring to the 34-ppm, six-color successor of the Indigo E-Print 1000. "This engine is a black-and-white engine."

The Ebony offers 800x800 dpi resolution. It will utilize a new ink, Landa said, and optional in-line bookletmaking and finishing will be available in 2001. Optional will be Indigo's SNAP (Swift Native Accelerated Personalization) technology and 800x2,400 dpi High Definition Imaging. Indigo's upgrade policy allows buyers to upgrade later to a color device. The Ebony will be sold primarily through third-party channels.

Another new press, The Indigo UltraStream 2000, is a twin-engine sheetfed press outputting 4,000 four-color A3 images per hour, or 136 ppm. This makes it twice as fast as the new single-engine UltraStream 2000, which runs at 68 color ppm, or 272 black-and-white ppm, and is geared towards small to medium print shops. Each has two paper feed trays. The 2000 is now shipping, while the 4000 will be available in 2001. IPG

For more info on new Indigo products, see our Web site: www.ipgonline.com.

Standing in front of the new Publisher 8000, Indigo Chairman and CEO Benny Landa said digital printing would dominate the printing industry in the near future.

Bob Neubauer