Weekend Print Production Notes from 11/29/2010

- Hewlett Packard announced it sold five Indigo 5500 production color systems to C2 Imaging, a printshop in St. Paul, Minnesota.

- Xerox announced that customers who own some of their production monochrome systems can pay for a temporary speed upgrade. Details:
o Applies to Nuvera 100, 120 and 200 models
o Called the Xerox Flex Speed Program
o Entails field installation of firmware by technician
o Provides boost to speed for up to 90 days
o Customer can extend for another 90 days
o Maximum speed boost of 44ppm
o Cost for 90 day period runs from $2000 to $7500 depending on model
o Service contract pricing remains same

- Xerox announced a new option for its Xerox 700 Digital Color Press, the SquareFold Trimmer Module. Details:
o Also for the 1000 Digital Color Press, 4112 and 4127
o Option for the Booklet Maker Finisher or Light Production Finisher
o Provides square folding, and creasing of cover sheets in booklets
o Provides face trimming of booklets
o Minimizes toner cracking on the fold line
o Pricing not announced

- Xerox announced it sold 1000 Digital Color Press to Kellmatt, a printshop in England.

o Two other new Xerox models are based on the above, and are aimed at the light production market, and are called the Xerox Color 550 and Color 560. Differences are:
 550 offers 50ppm color and 55ppm b/w
 560 offers 60ppm color and 65ppm b/w
 Base MSRPs of $34,700 and $39,200
 Replace the DocuColor 252 and 260
 2400x2400dpi
 Comes standard with two 500 sheet paper drawers, 200 sheet letter drawer and 250 sheet stack bypass
 Auto duplex standard
 $2000 for letter size LCT
 $5995 for 13” x 19” LCT, or $9995 for dual drawer 13”x19” LCT
 Handles up to 300gsm (runs at half speed)
 10.4” color LCD touch screen on armature
 Document feeder holds up to 250 originals
• Top color scan speed of 50opm
• Can scan both sides of original at same time
 30K yield for black toner, and 34K yield for color
 Black drum yield of 85,700 pages
 Color drums yield 194,500 pages
 Does not come standard with a print controller so choices are:
• $18,000 for Xerox FreeFlow server
• $6995 for embedded EFI Fiery
• $25,500 for external EFI Fiery
• $16,000 for external Creo
 $999 for single line fax, can add two more lines for $1399
• $990 Internet fax option
 Finishing options include:
• $2995 finisher with 50 sheet stapling and hole punch
• $4995 finisher with 50 sheet staple, hole punch and booklet making of 15 sheets
• $6550 finisher with 100 sheet stapler, hole punch and cover inserter
• $11,800 finisher with 25 sheet booklet maker
o $5700 for trifold/z-fold option

Weekend Print Production Notes 11/21/10

- Do customers prefer printing color photos or viewing the on-line? In a recent study conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) about people’s preference to have their photos printed, or view online:
o 59% preferred to look at printed images
o 38% preferred to look at them on-line
o 3% preferred both
o 18% preferred print because they could see more detail
o 30% preferred print because they were easier to look through
o 36% liked prints better due to quality, and bright, shiny, saturated colors
o 56% who print photos spend more time looking at them than those who view on-line
o 31% prefer to print themselves
o 28% prefer a printshop to print

- Do customers prefer printing books or reading them on-line? Study conducted by Kuruniawan & Zaphiris showed that reading text from a monitor was 10 to 30% slower than reading from paper.

- Xerox announced it will spend millions to install giant interactive displays in a dozen airports to promote its partnerships with Target and Marriott. (Xerox also reported it has $9.5 billion in debt)

- Xerox announced it sold iGen4 production color systems ($640K each) to:
o CCG Marketing Solutions (bought two each)
o Concentrix (a division of SYNNEX Corp.)
o Ditto Document Solutions
o MagnetStreet
o Filmon of Turkey

-=Greetings from "The Hook"=-

Weekend Print Production Notes 8/22/10

- Fuji announced it sold a Color 1000 Press (made by Fuji but also sold by Xerox in U.S.) to Dashing Print of Sydney, Australia. It also sold a Color 1000 Press to Western Mailing of New Zealand.

- Xerox announced following production print system sales:
o Xerox Color 1000 Press and two Nuvera 144 b/w systems to Conlin’s Digital Print & Copy Center in Pennsylvania
o Xerox Color 800 Press to Alphagraphics of Cherry Creek, Denver, Colorado.
o Xerox Nuvera 288 to CMP of Dorsett, England
o All made by Fuji

- A survey conducted by WhatTheyThink of printshop owners, when asked “What’s Your Next Big Equipment Investment?”
o 16% = bindery
o 35% = digital press
o 10% = mailing
o 29% = production inkjet
o 10% = wide format
o 0% = offset press

- XMPie, maker of variable data software, announced it will have its annual Users Group Conference on 9/12-15/2010 in Orlando, Florida.

- According to Howie Fenton of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), paper for digital color presses:
o when made have moisture content of 4-6% of its total weight
o in best conditions, paper is designed to be stable in a 45-55% relative humidity at 72 degrees Farenheit
o moisture content affects toner adhesion, paper jams and fuser roller temperature
o if paper is left unwrapped, it absorbs more moisture


-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Average selling price for offset press prints is 6-10 cents per page

- According to a study conducted by Kodak about the print for pay industry:

o Total print revenues grew from 2006 to 2007 by 1.7%

o Offset press revenue grew from 2006 to 2007 by 1.7%

o From 2007 to 2008, offset press shipments declined by 1.5%

o Total print shipments were down 13% in 2009, and 5% down in 2010

o Profit from digital print averages 20-40%
o Profit from offset press is 1-4%
o Average run length is less than 10,000 pieces per job
o Run lengths have decreased by 30% in last 5 years
o Average time to run a 1,000 piece job on offset press is 30 minutes for makeready plus 15 minutes for actual printing for a total average of 45 minutes
o Average selling price for offset press prints is 6-10 cents per page with profit of 1-4%
o Average cost per page for high speed digital is 10-14 cents per page
o Average cost per page for offset press job for 500-1000 run length is 35-45 cents per page

-=Greetingd from Sandy Hook=-

Xerox 800 Digital Color Press and 1000 Digital Color Press "Spec Review"

- Xerox, at the OnDemand show in Philadelphia, allowed the public to see their new color production print models, the 800 Digital Color Press and 1000 Digital Color Press featuring:

o Actually made by Fuji of Japan
o Base MSRPs of $350,000 and $395,000 respectively
o Xerox hired Frank Romano (famous RIT professor) to create video endorsing this product
o In same size frame as the huge Xerox iGen4 (74” high) and weighs 3,197lbs.
o Unlike the iGen units, these new models use polymerized toner (called EA for polymerized “emulsion aggregate” technology)
o Unlike iGen units, does NOT use fuser oil that can drip inside engine, so this unit has paper drawers underneath the engine for smaller footprint than iGen
o 80ppm and 100ppm top speeds respectively
o Advertised as offering “2400dpi” (not true 8 bits per pixel as Xerox takes a pixel from a 600dpi data stream and divides it into 4 quadrants to get 2400dpi effect)
o 4 tandem OPC drum design with expected life of 800,000 impressions per drum
o Uses dual corotron grids that are self-cleaning
o Uses 5 toner cartridges, as the fifth is clear toner, for optional flood gloss or spot gloss applications (this is first color toner unit with in-line gloss coating, as the Kodak NexPress’s NexGlosser is an off-line device)
o Uses a mylar film transfer belt called a “Intermediate Belt Transfer System” or “IBT Technology”
o Uses fuser belt system instead of traditional fuser rollers, using a dual fuser to run thick stocks at same speed as plain paper
o “In-line Belt Cooling” along with paper decurl mechanism to reduce paper curl
o Requires a 240v/50amp outlet
o Recommended monthly volume of 300,000 pages per month
 Maximum duty cycle of 1.75 million pages per month
o Comes standard with two 2,000 sheet paper drawers
 Optional LCT adds two more 2,000 sheet paper drawers
 Maximum paper capacity of 8,000 sheets
 Auto tray switching with on-the fly paper add feature
 Maximum paper size of 13”x19.2” out of any paper source
 Heavy or coated paper out of any drawer
 Optional tray insert to handle 4”x 6” postcard media
 Maximum paper weight handling up to 350gsm
o Xerox promises back to front registration of 0.5 millimeters for auto duplex output
o Has “Customer Replaceable Unit System” called SMART technology, meaning the customer is responsible for replacing 40 different cartridges, even though they must have a service contract from Xerox.(this includes 5 different toner cartridges, 5 different drums, mylar IBT transfer belt, fuser belts, paper feed tires, etc.)(even though the customer will be responsible for performing most of the service, Xerox apparently has no plans for discounting the click charge)
 Customer is provided with a special screwdriver that allows them to open up the doors of the machine
o Xerox plans on submitting the units for certification (Pantone, FOGRA, etc.)
o Customers have choice of EFI Fiery, Kodak Creo, or Xerox branded FreeFlow print controllers
o Optional “Profit Accelerator” programs to teach customer how to market & sell output, includes DVD, templates, VDP samples and more
o Finishing options include:
 Interface Module (required purchase to attach any finishers)
 GBC hole punching system
 GBC punch and bind (up to 100 sheets with plastic bind)
 5000 sheet stackers (can have two maximum)
 Fold unit (C and Z folding)
 200 sheet post process cover inserter
 Booklet maker (25 sheet booklets maximum) with optional face trimmer
 Tape binding up to 125 sheets
 Plockmatic Pro booklet maker (30 sheet booklets) with face trim

-=Cheers from Sandy Hook"

Xerox now shipping the iGen4 220 Perfecting Press

Xerox now shipping the iGen4 220 Perfecting Press selling for $1,212,550.00. This is two iGen4 production color systems bolted together, so that it can produce two-sided color documents at 110 per minute.

- Xerox launched a new eCommerce site for their customers called “Xerox MySupport” offering:
o provided at no charge
o password accessed personal website
o security updates
o newsletters
o support updates
o meter submission
o usage patterns
o meter reads between billings
o export data to create usage reports
o apparently you can NOT place a service call or order supplies using this free portal

-=Cheers from Sandy Hook=-