Monochrome Still Rules

WHILE DIGITAL color has been the hot topic in the printing industry for the past few years, digital black-and-white printing still accounts for the majority of the digital print volume. According to InfoTrends, black-and-white devices produced 874 billion impressions and generated $17.8 billion in retail value of print in 2005. Total equipment revenues (equipment, supplies and service) reached $7.41 billion.

Equipment vendors have not lost sight of this opportunity and have continued to introduce new and improved devices to replace existing digital black-and-white equipment, as well as to open new market opportunities. Vendors realize that selling equipment has become about more than feeds and speeds. It’s all about applications and capabilities that broaden the horizons for the in-plant. While digital black-and-white printing is deemed as a mature market, there are seven key trends that in-plant managers should evaluate as they add new equipment or replace existing devices.

1) LIGHT PRODUCTION ALTERNATIVES

Light production means smaller, lower-cost machines that are not designed for the same duty cycle on a monthly basis as their production counterparts, but may be just as fast. High-speed monochrome digital printing came into its own with the DocuTech, running at 135 pages per minute (ppm) and with a price point of $250,000. While Xerox is still the primary player in this high-duty cycle space, there are also cut sheet options available from Kodak, Océ, Canon and Ricoh.

New suppliers are offering light production options that are viable alternatives for the in-plant. The primary players in the light production market are Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta and Xerox. They have monochrome presses available at speeds of up to 135 ppm with price points below $100,000.

There are two basic strategies emerging in the in-plant environment for high-speed monochrome today.

• Rely on a single very high speed, robust duty cycle monochrome press.

• Utilize multiple light production devices. Buyers of light production devices are prepared to accept the lower duty cycles and have duplicate presses to address higher peak volumes and for back-up security.

2) SPEED AND QUALITY

The most recent monochrome digital printing announcements at Graph Expo 2006 focused on enhancements in both speed and quality. The quality emphasis taking place in the production color market is spilling over into the monochrome world. IBM demonstrated its InfoPrint 4100 HD 3/4 production monochrome printer. This was designed to deliver enhanced images with smoother half tones and sharper contrast at 230 feet per minute (fpm) or 1,002 impressions per minute (ipm). In discussing the product, IBM emphasized the hardware changes it was making for print quality enhancement to provide graphic arts print quality.

Xerox unveiled a new twin engine design for its Nuvera cut-sheet digital printing system line that has a maximum 228 ppm rated speed. Two engines are physically connected in one device rather than utilizing a bridge between dual print engines. Should one engine go down, its “Pass Through Programming” technology lets the other unit continue to operate at 144 ppm. From a quality perspective, the system can produce books and brochures at a resolution of 4,800x600 dots per inch (dpi), the highest resolution of any black-and-white digital production system on the market.

Océ highlighted its VarioPrint 6250 cut sheet duplex printer. Using the new Océ Gemini Instant Duplex technology, the new machine images both sides of a sheet at the same time at 250 A4 or letter-size prints per minute. The new technology uses transfer belts to press toner into both sides of a sheet at the same time. This means the sheet is heated only once, reducing thermal stress on the sheet and lessening the tendency of pages to curl. Combined with a new Advance Active Registration technology, imaging both sides at once helps ensure that the pages retain tight front-to-back registration, an important factor in applications like book production.

Kodak emphasized its capability for speed in the monochrome market with ink-jet technology. The VJ1000 printing system uses continuous ink-jet print head technology and offers throughput of up to 500 fpm or 2,180 (8.5x11?) ppm, and resolutions of 300x600 dpi. This system can also be upgraded to spot and process color. While high-speed ink-jet devices don’t offer the same level of quality as toner-based engines, the operating costs and speed make them a good alternative for several applications. The quality is acceptable for transactional documents and the ability to add color means users can migrate into the “transpromo” market. “Transpromo” refers to the inclusion of promotional marketing messages directly into transactional documents such as statements.

3) SUBSTRATES

Across the board, vendors are focused on media latitude. With the introduction of the first digital black-and-white presses, the stocks were limited to a smooth, premium white paper. Some ivory stocks gave good results. Press owners were told to avoid recycled “confetti” stocks and those with especially heavy textures because toner wouldn’t stick.

As a result of the careful R&D of both substrate and equipment manufacturers, combined with new production processes, companies have launched or expanded their digital paper and substrate product lines. Many of these substrates were initially designed to run on digital color presses. There has been a strong drive to ensure that these same substrates are supported in the monochrome world as well. The ability to print on coated and uncoated stocks with a variety of thicknesses opens up more applications and more volume for in-plant printers. Paper weights range from 13 lb. to 150 lb., coated and uncoated, for a number of the monochrome devices on the market. This accommodates everything from thin book page printing to posters. The range of substrates directly affects the range of applications that you can produce in your in-plant.

4) FINISHING

While digital monochrome press manufacturers are emphasizing speed, quality and media latitude, they also understand the importance of an efficiently configured bindery. Finishing capabilities help in-plants differentiate their services and distinguish themselves from external competition by demonstrating the power and flexibility of digital workflows from prepress to finishing.

Vendors in the market are offering options for monochrome presses including high-capacity stacking, perfect binding, in-line folding, in-line stitching, folding and trimming for booklets, and punching stations.

In addition, monochrome devices all incorporate insertion units to accommodate the inclusion of pre-printed materials into a document. An often-overlooked but key opportunity is leveraging the inserter to combine offset and digital by printing offset shells and imprinting variable text and graphics on a digital monochrome press.

Océ, for example, with its 6250, feels that in-plant productivity clearly requires abundant and varied paper supplies, including preprinted stock. The VP 6250 can be equipped with 12 paper drawers with a total capacity of up to 13,800 pages. Any of the drawers can be used for interposing preprinted pages into the finished document.

5) WORKFLOW

Equipment vendors have reached the realization that digital printing is not the answer for every print application, and they are making tremendous advances in integrating digital printers into existing offset workflows to expand application opportunities. They are evolving solutions so that within an offset or digital workflow, jobs can efficiently be directed to different technologies. Kodak has introduced its Unified Workflow; Xerox and its partners focus on FreeFlow; Océ emphasizes the capabilities of PrismaFlow.

While your in-plant may have an existing workflow, it is probably the most critical component in your operation and continually needs to be reassessed. An intelligent print infrastructure connects digital and offset workflows with the user community. It should provide lasting dividends including:

• The ability to shift workloads and adapt to change.

• Maximizing use of existing assets.

• Minimizing duplication of equipment, servers and human resources.

Workflow solutions have changed dramatically in the last 12 months. With the range of equipment at in-plants—black-and-white, digital color and offset—it may be time to make sure that the most efficient workflow is being implemented across the range of equipment in your shop.

6| SPOT COLOR

There is renewed emphasis on spot color as an application expansion tool. Suppliers are basically charging the same as black for spot colors. An in-plant can open up its range of applications and offer greater value for users, without any extra cost for the added color. Equipment vendors see the migration to spot color as a logical upgrade path for the monochrome press user. It’s an advantage to be able to print with black plus one color.

An example of an application could be a product user manual. Using highlight color to call out or indicate a key step or process on a page could reduce the number of calls to a customer support center, which can translate into lower service costs and improved end-user satisfaction. Full color may not be a necessity for this type of application.

Logo colors are also very important for brand identity. With the recently announced DocuTech 180 HLC, there are eight standard colors, but Xerox has also announced a custom-blended color program.

In the two-plus years since Océ introduced the VarioStream 9000 as a color-capable digital press, the company has added more color and capabilities on a regular basis. In 2006, the key addition was a third color, enabling the VarioStream 9230 to print in multiple shades of black and blue and red, substantially widening the available palette—and the ways the machine can be used.

Ricoh’s DDP 184 with tandem 92 print-per-minute print engines has competitive pricing for spot color and MICR. With six spot colors, user changeable consumables, a 184-ppm speed and monthly duty cycle of 1.6 million pages, it has proven itself a reliable workhorse.

7) UNIVERSAL COPIER/PRINTERS

In 2006, the market saw vendors begin to focus on making universal production an economic reality through service/supplies incentives and/or new product designs. A significant amount of monochrome volume is already being run on iGen3s because Xerox is making it economically feasible to do so. HP’s recent announcement of improved monochrome speed and running cost for the Indigo 5000 makes it the first true universal production device.

At the IPEX 2006 show, HP announced that the 5000 had been enhanced to reduce the monochrome printing costs to less than $.004 per page while producing double the monochrome print speed (1/0) with up to 16,000 impressions per hour. The HP Indigo press now enables printers to cost effectively use the same device and workflow for one- to seven-color applications.

Over time, vendors will continue to pursue such scalable product offerings to address users’ needs for mixed color and black-and-white documents. Manufacturers are tailoring equipment to meet critical market trends. While capital equipment and operational costs will always be an issue, in-plants need to assess the application opportunity and value that they can deliver with the right equipment. Speed, quality, finishing options, range of substrates and workflow should play a role in making the decision to acquire or replace monochrome printing technology.

Finally, assess the future. Understand the services you want to provide for your organization and align your acquisition decision with a supplier that can grow and evolve to meet your requirements for monochrome—as well as provide a migration path to affordable color. IPG

Barbara A. Pellow is principal of Pellow and Partners, a consulting practice that helps companies develop multi-media strategies.

Delivering Digital Conference Materials

Q Center is one of the country’s largest conference and training facilities. With 118 unique meeting venues in more than 150,000 square feet of meeting space, the Chicago facility can handle functions of all sizes. It even provides lodging for more than 1,000 guests as well as dining.

Q Center has a full-time in-plant publishing service center that has been in place for more than 25 years. Run by Mike Cabrera, Q Center’s Publishing Services Center is a full-service, one-stop conference provider offering on-site printing of customers’ meeting and training documentation, which is a key part of the value proposition for meeting planners. When an organization uses Q Center, it is looking for a professional business partner that delivers:

• Final Programs & Abstract Books

• Conference Proceedings

• Seminar/Course Books

• Session Handouts

• Pocket & Badge Agendas

• Presentation Folders

Typically, users have extremely short deadlines and strict budget parameters. In addition to demanding quality, these users want seamless integration with their training developers. Users of Q Center Publishing Services Center have complete access to this level of support. Cabrera’s team will accept files in hard copy or electronic form. They work with the client’s creative department to ensure that branding meets the client’s corporate guidelines. Using its Canon imageRUNNER 125 and 150, CLC 5000, and MicroPress for file assembly, the Publishing Services Center produces complex documents that include color covers, inserts and tabs. It also offers a full-service bindery operation.

The in-plant produced more than 19 million digital black-and-white impressions in 2006, up more than 20 percent over 2005.

“While color is becoming more affordable, black-and-white still provides the best cost advantage,” Cabrera insists. “Using our imageRUNNER technology gives us the ability to deliver combined color and black-and-white documentation. My view is that our demand for black-and-white digital printing will continue to be a mainstay for our publishing center.” IPG