Ricoh Corporation

IBM extended its printer industry leadership with the introduction of a new set of production printers at the Hunkeler Innovation Days trade show. The company unveiled a new full-color, variable-data continuous web printer, a new monochrome continuous form printer and two new cutsheet printers. These new products build on the momentum generated by the recent announcement by IBM and Ricoh regarding their joint venture, InfoPrint Solutions, based on IBM’s Printing Systems Division. IBM’s new Infoprint 5000, a full-color, variable-data continuous web system fills a gap between previously available industry color offerings of very high quality but lower speed and and those alternatives with lower

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

Long a leader in digital office solutions, Ricoh is making a move into the production printing environment. It has formed a joint venture company with IBM, based on IBM’s Printing Systems Division. Ricoh will own 51 percent of the joint venture, to be called the InfoPrint Solutions Co. “For Ricoh it signals the beginning of new stage in our strategy for global growth,” said Masamitsu Sakurai, Ricoh’s president and CEO, speaking in Japanese at a New York press conference. “We believe we can adopt our existing technology and production known-how to the production printing field.” Trends like variable data printing and print on demand prompted

Ricoh has received Ingram Micro Inc’s Award for Excellence in the Imaging category. The award was presented on October 18 at Ingram Micro’s 2006 Marketing Symposium in Anaheim, Calif.  More than 500 people from national IT vendors and manufacturers were in attendance. Ingram Micro, which presented awards in 12 categories this year to its top manufacturers, recognized Ricoh and its Printing Solutions Division as its top imaging product manufacturer for 2006.  The manufacturer winners were selected based on their overall alliance with Ingram Micro, revenue performance, profitability, marketing programs and reseller support and services.

Features to Look For Finishing capabilities such as saddle finishing, hole punching, folding, binding and stacking can save time, labor and costs associated with dedicated offline finishing equipment. Also, look for features that allow you to assemble and build jobs electronically prior to copying/printing. Print controller options should be considered as well to optimize system performance. Digital document capture capabilities such as scan-to-e-mail and scan-to-file let you easily convert hard copy information to electronic format. —Paul Albano, Canon USA There is a color explosion taking place. In-plants should focus on faster, more affordable devices as color becomes more widely used. Fortunately, color-enabled

Is the word “copier” obsolete? After all, today’s multifunction products (MFPs) do so much more than just copy off the glass. And since most jobs arrive as digital files, isn’t “printer” a better word? Why, then, do people keep calling them “copiers?” “The term ‘copier’ is becoming a bit outdated,” agrees Paul Albano of Canon USA. But stopping users from uttering the “c” word may prove a bit difficult, he acknowledges. “These devices began as ‘copiers’ performing a single function,” he notes. “It will certainly be a hard task to rebrand the machine that many have known their whole lives as a ‘copier.’ MFP,

AT ONE time, the idea that an in-plant could take a document from start to finish on one machine was akin to science fiction. The advent of the multifunctional device (MFD), though, has enabled in-plants to provide more comprehensive service at greater cost savings. An MFD typically consolidates printing, faxing, scanning and copying into one device. Today’s MFDs offer even more features, such as finishing, variable data printing, scanning software that routes documents to various destinations, systems that track paper and toner usage, job status indicators, workflow features and customizing capabilities. Inline bindery features open more possibilities; perfect binding, saddle stitching, stacking,

IT MAY not be a new topic, but on-demand printing can still pack a room—or a trade show floor, as was the case at the recent AIIM On Demand Conference and Exposition. More than 20,000 visitors from 50 states and 62 countries traveled to Philadelphia in May for the annual event. Waiting to greet them were some 450 exhibitors, all displaying their latest wares. Despite the show’s successful two-year run in Philadelphia, though, the city will not be hosting next year’s event (and no, the annoying cab strike on the first day had nothing to do with it). Questex Media Group, the

Monochrome printers provide cost, productivity and flexibility benefits that color printers can’t touch. AS DEMANDS for color printing continue to increase, many wonder about the fate of black-and-white-only printers. Most industry experts say not only will they still be an integral part of a printing operation, they will include more features and improved workflow functions. Paula Balik uses the analogy of a stove and microwave oven. “If you’ve got a microwave now, should you get rid of your oven or does it specifically have applications that make your kitchen efficient?” poses Balik, worldwide product marketing manager for Kodak’s black-and-white printing systems. “That’s what