Here are some of the innovative products that were on display at Graph Expo 16 in Orlando.
Though the debut appearance of the Océ VarioPrint i300 inkjet press was the highlight of the Canon U.S.A. exhibit at Graph Expo, the new imagePRESS C850 digital color production press was front and center at the booth. Designed to provide offset-like image quality through Canon’s Gloss Optimization technology, the C850 offers a new 190 lpi (lines per inch) dot screen. By using CV Toner and an advanced image transfer belt, the imagePRESS C850 — along with the other press in the series, the C750 — can print high-quality, consistent output on a variety of media, including textured stocks. The devices operate at print speeds of up to 85 and 75 letter-sized pages per minute, respectively, in color and black-and-white. — www.usa.canon.com
Xerox showed off two 2016 Must See ‘Ems award winners at Graph Expo: the Brenva HD cut-sheet production inkjet press and the Direct to Object inkjet printer. Named after a peak in the Mont Blanc region of the Alps, the Brenva HD incorporates technologies from the iGen, Impika, Nuvera, CiPress and FreeFlow families. It outputs up to 197 A4 pages per minute (182 letter-size ppm) on a variety of uncoated, untreated and uncoated inkjet-treated paper stocks, with 600x600-dpi quality. Key features include an in-line spectrophotometer; object-oriented color management to distinguish text, graphics and images and to optimize image quality; and K-only mode so it will run as a cost-effective monochrome press. — www.xerox.com/printing
Ricoh U.S.A. unveiled its new Pro 8220s series of monochrome production and multifunction printers at Graph Expo. They feature tighter registration, 1,200x4,800-dpi resolution and a High Capacity Interposer (HCI) — a two-tray system with 1,750-sheet-per-tray capacity for post-fusing insertion of front and back covers or color inserts. With speeds up to 136 ppm, the Pro 8220s series can print on a variety of substrates without sacrificing speed or quality, including coated media, up to 350 gsm simplex and 256 duplex. It is capable of long sheet printing up to 27.55”. — rpp.ricoh-usa.com/products
Presstek showed off a four-color, two-page 52DI ECO-UV waterless digital offset press with ECO-UV, an integrated UV curing system that dries sheets instantly. Chemistry-free imaging and printing occurs within one highly automated system. The press prints high resolution, 300 lpi on substrates up to 20-pt. thick, including plastics and vinyl. ECO-UV is available as a field upgrade or when purchasing a DI press. — www.Presstek.com
New Solvent Printer
Epson showed its Must See ‘Ems award-winning SureColor SC-S80600 production, roll-to-roll, solvent printer, featuring a Dual-Array PrecisionCore TFP print head and enhanced precision media feeding system. The 64˝ SC-S80600 leverages Epson UltraChrome GS3 solvent inks, including a new GS3 Red ink, and optional White or Metallic Silver ink. These inks allow for same-day lamination — just six hours after completing a print job. — www.proimaging.epson.com
The Challenge Machinery Co. introduced the CMT 330TC three-knife book trimmer, capable of trimming landscape-formatted, perfect-bound books (up to 12x12” and 2” thick) such as photo albums. The 330TC boasts a 10.5” color touchscreen control panel, an integrated barcode reader for automated setup, automatic book size detection and integrated in-line and near-line book feeding components. It will be available in the first quarter of 2017. — www.challengemachinery.com
Duplo USA introduced the DM Collating System at Graph Expo, which incorporates the Esper DM-230V Direct Mail Collator. The Esper DM-230V has been designed to collate a variety of marketing materials such as brochures, coupons, postcards and booklets. With 23 feeding stations, the DM-230V collates marketing pieces and delivers them into a wrap-around sheet ready for distribution. It can collate up to 9,000 sets per hour and features a small footprint and low energy consumption. — www.duplousa.com
A Smart Slitter
Standard Finishing Systems’ exhibit featured the Standard Horizon SmartSlitter, which can slit, gutter cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate and crease all in one pass. The skip perforation feature can produce T- and L-perfs ideal for coupons, tickets and business reply cards. The system is also capable of both matrix and rotary creasing, and for accordion fold applications or perfect bound books, up and down creasing can be performed in one pass. Print mark registration adjusts for image shift from sheet to sheet. The system also features a color touchscreen and a simple user interface for easy operation, including job setup via barcode. — www.sdmc.com
Neopost proudly demonstrated its MACH 6 digital color printer, which won a Graph Expo Must See ‘Ems “Best of Category” award. Using Memjet technology and a straight paper path, it accommodates 10x13˝ envelopes, stuffed envelopes, chip board, corrugated cardboard and flat cartons with an integrated heavy-duty feeder. Featuring a 6˝ color touchscreen interface, the MACH 6 offers two print modes: “Normal Mode” (60” per second at 1,600x800 dpi) and “Best Mode”(30” per second at 1,600x1,600 dpi). — www.neopostusa.com
Universal Prepress Suite
While demonstrations of its popular WebCRD in-plant Web-to-print software were prevalent at its Graph Expo booth, Rochester Software Associates also highlighted its newly updated universal prepress suite, ReadyPrint 2.0. It simplifies and automates workflows by enabling printers to use one tool for the entire shop to easily modify and enhance customer print requests. ReadyPrint sends jobs directly to production printers, with ticketing, even in multi-vendor environments. With the latest release, ReadyPrint now includes makeready and simple file submission, and new ReadyPrint Pro adds prepress automation and multiple document assembly capabilities. — www.rocsoft.com
Point-of-Sale Module
Avanti Systems showed the latest version of Avanti Slingshot Print MIS, which provides seamless integration with HP PrintOS. The new Point-of-Sale module enables users to spend more time servicing their customers and less time reconciling transactions with fast order entry, invoice generation and real-time, point-of-sale reporting. Avanti also announced its #AskAvanti social media initiative to foster collaboration and idea sharing. — www.avantisystems.com
Web-to-print Enhancements
Infigo Software demonstrated its MegaEdit Web-to-print solution featuring both a dynamic document editing tool (MegaEdit PRO) and an innovative photo gift personalization solution (MegaEdit PHOTO). This cloud-based software is said to deliver unrivaled flexibility and functionality. Both MegaEdit PRO and PHOTO use an HTML5 editor that is available on all devices without the need for any downloads. — www.infigosoftware.com
Cloud-based Job Estimating System
arifiQ showed a self-service, cloud-based estimating system called arifiQ PRO which makes instant quotes globally available. arifiQ supports digital, offset, wide-format, sheetfed and web presses, and it offers real-time price calculations and changes the press type used when different paper, quantities or effects are chosen. Hints appear at the bottom of the screen to suggest how to make a job more inexpensive and show the profit margin. Printers can automatically create a PDF or .doc invoice, hiding or grouping line items together. — www.arifiq.com
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.