The future of graphic arts production is now.

Ricoh Pro VC60000

Ricoh Ireland has revealed what it terms ‘the future of commercial print’ with the announcement of the Ricoh Pro VC60000, a new generation, continuous feed, inkjet technology platform for graphic arts, designed to outclass its competitors at direct mail, book printing and marketing materials. The company claims the modular based system is the most versatile colour inkjet system on the market.

Ricoh believes the Pro VC60000 will set a new benchmark for quality in its class as a result of its unique multi-drop ink technology. This achieves a physical resolution of up to 1200x1200 dpi with a dynamic variable drop size within each pixel, providing significant additional perceived print quality. The Pro VC60000 has been developed to meet the high productivity needs of commercial printers with a duplex system offering fast speeds, producing nearly 100,000 A4 images per hour. Ricoh added that it is the ideal investment for medium to large graphic arts printers seeking to future-proof their business and to reach new clients with new innovative applications and accelerate offset to digital migration. Shipments are expected to start in EMEA in early 2015.

Stephen Palmer, head of production print, Ricoh, said, "The wait for graphic arts businesses seeking the optimum inkjet platform and partner to grow their business is at an end. At Ricoh, we've combined our 25-year experience in print head and ink development with our software and services expertise to ensure we can work closely with our clients as they grow and change for the future."

Apart from delivering high end image quality, the Pro VC60000's long lasting print heads and high viscosity water-based pigment inks are central to ensuring that graphic arts businesses can control costs with a reliable system that delivers maximum uptime while minimising the environmental impact. Flexibility, essential for a busy print operation, is met with its ability to produce premium output on a broad range of media that includes uncoated, coated offset, digital, treated and recycled. The optional protector coat unit provides a durable "scratch & scuff resistant" layer. Fast set up times and easy to produce personalised print runs ensure clients get their messages tailored to who they want and on time, as the Pro VC60000 can meet tight deadlines faster than traditional printing methods.

Whether integrating into a fully digital or hybrid offset workflow, the Pro VC60000 Digital Front End, the TotalFlow Print Server R600A, ensures native support for PDF, PDF/VT and AFP/IPDS together with JDF and advanced colour management support. It also comes with a new user interface designed specifically for the challenges of graphic arts production.

Palmer continued, "We've successfully been developing our digital front end print servers for almost 40 years, giving us a deep insight into what clients need to operate effectively.  Our success is based upon our approach to providing scalable print servers that are flexible enough to handle integrated workflows in mixed environments.  The latest DFE builds on this success, coming fully equipped to handle the demanding needs of fully digital and hybrid offset workflows."

The Pro VC60000 is further supported by Ricoh Process Director and Process Director Express, powerful modular software that allows print services providers to automate the flow of jobs through production smoothly and with complete integrity, while retaining flexible control of their print and mail production processes.

The Pro VC60000 complements the existing InfoPrint 5000 series of inkjet presses and extends Ricoh's comprehensive range of inkjet solutions into graphic arts. The Pro VC60000 will also follow the same strategy as the successful InfoPrint 5000 series, whereby the investment is future-proofed with an on-going development plan and continuous upgrade path. Like the InfoPrint 5000 series, it will easily integrate with third party finishing devices. Ricoh will also continue to enhance the InfoPrint 5000 series to meet future customer needs.

Palmer said, "We know that technology-led change has been reshaping the graphic arts industry rapidly over the last decade. We firmly believe that one step for graphic arts businesses seeking to future-proof their business, keep pace with the speed of change and adapt to evolving client requirements is to invest in a leading technology system like the Ricoh ProTM VC60000.  Printing on offset coated papers in class-leading resolution, they will be able to transfer offset jobs to this digital system. Our clients, many of them primarily offset printers, will gain enhanced productivity while carefully controlling costs and creating new ways to service their clients."

Ricoh's continuing commitment to innovation means that commercial and corporate print clients can select the optimum blend from the company's fast expanding portfolio of production-oriented products and solutions to support the profitable evolution of their businesses. In addition to the introduction of the Pro(tm) VC60000 continuous feed that extends the existing portfolio of inkjet presses, the colour cut sheet offer is growing fast with today's ProTM C7100X series launch to meet medium to high volume print production needs, along with the ProTM 8100 mono press. The hardware portfolio is completed by wide and large format printers, configured for graphics and for architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) requirements. Ricoh's software solutions deliver supreme connectivity and performance across the spectrum of workflow needs that professional production printers have, whether in mixed or digital-only environments.

Ricoh Pro VC60000 Features Summary

• Premium print quality with Ricoh print heads and fluids, using multi-drop ink technology and physical print resolutions up to 1200x1200 dpi with dynamic variable drop size within each pixel
• High productivity with fast speeds able to produce up to 40 million impressions per month
• Versatile with a broad range of media support that include uncoated, coated offset, digital, treated, recycled papers.  The optional undercoat unit allows the Ricoh Pro VC60000 to print on offset coated stocks. The optional protector coat unit provides a durable "scratch & scuff resistant" layer.
• The Ricoh developed Digital Front End, TotalFlow Print Server R600A with native support for a wide range of data streams together with JDF and advanced colour management support
• Future proofed with ongoing development plan and continuous upgrade path
• Compatible with Ricoh Process Director and Process Director Express

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.ie

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