Xplor

Xplor 2003 brought MICR and one-to-one marketing to the forefront in Atlanta.

By Mike Llewellyn

The exhibitors at Xplor 2003 were upbeat, talking about a market rebound and new ways for the printing industry to gain a foothold as new media proliferates. While attendee figures were down compared with past Xplor conferences, most exhibitors felt that those who had arrived were there to do business.

Continuing the show's tradition of education, companies like IBM Printing Systems and Océ set up their booths more like learning centers than equipment showcases. And with a greater focus on transactional printing and variable data, many companies rolled out their best MICR devices, along with software packages capable of bringing variable data to print buyers easily.

According to Xplor International Chairman Skip Henk, "We are extremely pleased with the overall outcome of this year's Xplor event."

The show drew over 5,000 attendees to check out more than 100 educational sessions and visit 110 exhibitor booths.

Here's a look at some of the new technology attendees got to witness in action on the show floor.

Center Stage

Near the center of the show floor, Barr Systems educated its customers about BARR/TOOLS for Xerox and BARR/PRINT SPLITTER, two additions to its Barr Enterprise Print Server (BEPS). BARR/TOOLS lets users view and reprint Xerox jobs, pushing the Xerox printers to their fastest rated speeds. BARR/PRINT SPLITTER sends a large file to multiple printers, maximizing existing printers and preventing a single printer from halting operations.

Coverbind introduced a short-run bookbinding solution, the 101 Document Finishing System. The machine binds documents containing up to 120 sheets with a heated adhesive at rates of up to 900 documents per hour, according to the company.

Heidelberg showed its recently released Digimaster 9110m, a high-speed digital printer with an adjustment that allows for MICR toner printing. At 100 ppm and 600 dpi, the new printer can switch toner stations when MICR is not required. It includes an Imagedirect 665 scanner, ImageSmart software, roll feeders, a booklet maker, a perfect binder and a stacker.

A new family of production printers was introduced by IBM Printing Systems, which unveiled its Infoprint multifunction production printers. The Infoprint 2090ES, 2105ES, 2060ES and 2075ES offer 1,200-dpi resolution and support IBM Intelligent Printer Datastream (IPDS) as well as PCL, PostScript and PDF.

On hand to showcase its latest offering, IKON Office Solutions talked up the IKON CPP 8050, a high-speed digital color copier/printer offering 50 ppm and featuring Simitri polymerized toner. The new copier/ printer includes an EFI Fiery S300 controller and color management tools.

Nipson hosted the North American debut of its 8000 SED digital press, highlighting the single-engine duplex machine's cold-flash fusing technology. The machine offers up to 600-dpi resolution combined with image enhancement software. It runs at speeds up to 70 meters per minute.

One of the busiest booths belonged to Océ, which announced the arrival of the new VarioPrint 3090 printing system, a digital cut-sheet printer. The 3090 runs at 85 ppm and has a targeted monthly capacity of 300,000 prints. The machine includes full-speed duplexing and online stapling. The company also announced the availability of MICR capabilities across all of its product lines, including VarioPrint and VarioStream.

Roll Systems exhibited the latest version of its TwoUp System, which unwinds rolls, and cuts, slits, merges and stacks sheets from high-speed continuous digital printers. New features include a running micro-perforator to create tear-out sheets and a strip cut/gutter cut combination to create four-sided full-bleed sheets from pre-printed forms.

Scitex Digital Printing unveiled the VersaMark JetBlack Printing System, targeted to meet the needs of high-volume transactional document and direct mail printing professionals. Scitex also expanded its VersaMark Vantage product line and introduced one of the new models to Xplor attendees.

Standard Finishing Systems was proud to show off its recently released BQ-270 perfect binder. The BQ-270 is a single-clamp binder that turns out up to 500 books per hour. The machine includes a touch-screen control console, a side-gluing system, job programming and automatic air suction cover feeding with in-line scoring. The device can handle sheet sizes ranging from 5.9x4.2˝ to 12.5x12.5˝, and can handle book thicknesses up to 2˝.

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Xplor 2004 will take place in Dallas, October 17-20. Find out more at: www.xplor.org

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