Kyocera: Proficiency Breeds Experience

The recent PRINTING United Expo in Atlanta, among many thinks, served as strong testament to inkjet’s continued movement into the commercial printing sector, and Kyocera Document Solutions, has a defined space in that area. According to Dustin Graupman, senior director, inkjet division, with Kyocera Document Solutions, the deep experience it holds in the inkjet space – as the developer of print head technology for many equipment OEMs – has given it an advantage in the development of its cutsheet inkjet document printers.

Systems and Benefits

The company’s TASKalfa Pro 15000c printer, released last year, now has more then 250 units in the field, and Graupman says feedback from users have been very positive. He reports that inkjet technology is more stable than inkjet and is not subject to the image fluctuations more common with toner-based printing systems. Further, users report an uptime of 96%, which allows more of the day for the production of saleable work.

In today’s labor market, where ease of use become necessary given the lower levels of experience of those entering printing’s production environment, Kyocera drew on its many years as a producer of office printing system. The controls make sense and running the machines is easy to learn and do.

After the introduction of the TASKalfa Pro 15000c, Kyocera’s product development team heard that some users were seeking to expand their finishing technologies in the manufacturing of booklets. In response, the company has added a Plockmatic BM4000 booklet maker, which Fred Morrone, Senior Marketing Manager - Production Inkjet at Kyocera Document Solutions, described as a “great fit for the 15000c. We’d wanted to include it since day one. The customer demand was there, and we worked with Plockmatic behind the scenes.”

At this year’s PRINTING United Expo, Kyocera also showed its new TASKalfa 550000, which builds off of the quality and usability of the 15000c and provides even wider substrate choice. About the new system, Morrone said it is “the most affordable entry point for printing on coated and high-gloss with no pre-treatments. The system opens possibilities for printing companies seeking an edge.

For customers who need reliability and affordability the 15000c and 55000 offer great quality and a low cost to print. There are lots of applications being done with toner that are better when done with inkjet – we’re working to demonstrate that. Regarding low cost to print, Morrone adds that once users realize, “the math on inkjet just works,” the compelling case for Kyocera inkjet becomes even more clear.

Asked if there is one common misconception among users considering cutsheet inkjet, Morrone says it is the belief that image quality would be somehow lacking. Pointing to a wall of printed samples in Kyocera’s PRINTING United Booth, he said seeing the systems’ strong output quality very quickly disproves their concerns.

Sample prints from Kyocera's FOREARTH textile printer.

A Taste of a Different Space

Also at PRINTING United, Kyocera provided a preview of FOREARTH, a new, waterless system for textile printing. The new system uses a water-free imaging concept. Though not yet for sale and presented at this year’s Expo as a technology demo, sample output provided vivid colors on a range of textile materials. “We’re studying how to bring it to market,” Morrone said. “We want to build it out properly to serve the segment in the United States.”