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production print
Print.IT Reseller
30
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 Market Development Manager, told
PrintIT Reseller
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
A winning production
Konica Minolta launches ‘light, light’ production devices to
meet changing needs of office buyers.
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.
Resellers can find out more
about the opportunities in
production print at
www.digital1234ww.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