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Production Print
As printer vendors struggle
with falling sales of office
devices, one area that
continues to offer welcome
opportunities for growth
is production print, a very
diverse sector encompassing
everything from ‘light, light’
production machines to multi-
tonne monsters suitable for
industrial printing applications.
Konica Minolta, well known
for its bizhub office MFPs,
is an increasingly important
player in the production print
sector where it has recently
strengthened its offering at both
ends of the spectrum.
As well as making a big
splash at drupa with its KM1 B2
inkjet press, the result of a joint
venture with Komori, it recently
introduced new entry-level
colour and mono production
devices suited to busy offices
and central reprographics
departments (CRDs) – the
bizhub Pro C754/654 colour
MFPs (up to 60ppm colour and
75ppm black and white) and the
Konica Minolta bizhub PRO 951
production printer.
Mark Hinder, Konica
Minolta’s Production Print
A winning
production
Konica Minolta launches ‘light, light’ production
devices to meet changing needs of office buyers.
Market Development Manager,
told
PrintIT
that he expects the
new additions to help Konica
Minolta maintain its growth
trajectory – sales grew 11% in
2011. “The growth we’ve seen
is massive. We are a young
company but we are growing
aggressively, primarily because
we have a great product line that
we’re developing all the time,”
he said.
Demand for Konica Minolta’s
production devices isn’t confined
to commercial printers requiring
digital technology for print-on-
demand, short-run printing
and personalisation. Corporate
CRDs are another key market as
organisations choose to bring
more jobs in-house and, in some
cases, to market their own print
services to external businesses.
“There is a shift occurring,”
explained Hinder. “Corporates
are tending to control the
marketing budget better
than before, so rather than
outsource work they want to do it
internally.”
He added that demand for
‘light, light’ production devices
that have the durability and
build strength of full production
devices but simpler built-in
Fiery controllers and restricted
finishing options was also being
boosted by managed print
services that involve a degree of
fleet consolidation.
“Sales of the Pro C754 are
doing well because of fleet
consolidation in offices. As
customers reduce the number
of printers deployed, they end up
needing more centralised hubs
linked to Follow Me printing.
That’s why we’ve developed our
‘light light’ devices,” he said.
“Where you have fleet
consolidation you still have the
same volume of print, so you
need longer-lasting components
than those found on office
machines, with finishing and
a controller that will meet the
needs of office applications,
but not necessarily the full suite
of Fiery services. Nor do these
devices have the full range of
finishing you would find on a mid
to heavy production machine.”
Konica Minolta’s new
entry-level black and white
production printer, the Konica
Minolta bizhub PRO 951, also
has applications in CRDs.
With a print speed of 95ppm,
average monthly print volumes
of 80,000-300,000 pages and
peak monthly volumes of up to
1.5 million impressions, it meets
the needs of CRDs with high
mono print volumes.
Highlights include a print
resolution of 1200 x 1200dpi;
a wide range of lines per inch
(lpi) options, from 40 to 300 lpi;
and the ability to handle media
from 40-300 gsm as standard
(350 gsm optional); a tone curve
utility that changes Raster Image
Processing (RIP) adjustments
such as screening and tone
curves; and finishing options like
stapling for up to 100 sheets,
booklet making, z-folding with
post insertion, GBC punching
and automatic ring binding.
Find out more about the
challenges and opportunities in
production print, both for CRDs
and commercial printers, at
www.digital1234.biz.
DSales (UK) Ltd, the UK
distributor for the Develop
range of multifunctional
copier-printers, has
launched three new Develop
mid-range colour multi-
functionals featuring a
smartphone-like 9in colour
touchscreen display.
Offering copy, fax, network
print and network scan
functionality, the ineo+ 224,
ineo+ 284 and ineo+ 364
have respective print speeds
of 22, 28 and 36 A4 pages
per minute for both colour
and black and white output.
They output at resolutions
of up to 1,200dpi onto a
wide variety of media up to
300gsm including paper
sizes from A6 to SRA3 and
banners up to 1.2 metres
in length. Finishing options
include booklet making (up
to 80 pages), stapling, hole
punching and various kinds of
letter folding.
All three systems are
available with a choice of
energy saving LED scanners:
the Reversing Automatic
Document Feeder can scan
80 images per minute, while
the optional Dualscan ADF
can scan both sides of a
document simultaneously at
160 images per minute.
The ineo+ 224/284/364
are certified to the computer
security standard ISO 15408
EAL 3 and come with IPsec,
S/MIME e-mail encryption, IP
filtering, hard-disk encryption
and, when required, data
erasure. Access control
options include PIN codes,
finger-vein scanning or
contactless smart cards.
www.dsales.co.uk
The bizhub PRO C75:
stand-out features
include a new 9-inch
multi-touch colour
screen and intuitive,
smartphone-like
‘touch-and-swipe’
interface; and single
pass duplex scanning
for faster throughput.
DSales launches new
office colour systems
Konica Minolta bizhub PRO 951