You see them on trade show floors and the local sales rep is constantly touting their quality and speed. Trade books, such as D.O., tell you how great they are and how far the technology has come in terms of quality. Digital Presses have truly come into their own in the past few years, with images that now rival their true offset cousins and lower cost-per-image pricing makes them a valuable resource to add to your setup.
What exactly is a digital press? For the purposes of this particular rundown, we defined them as those machines that are able to accept jobs straight from the computer to the plate – CtP. We have excluded inkjet machines because, while they could be considered digital, they are not technically presses. Large format machines have also been excluded, but will be looked at in-depth in our July issue.
In today’s world of high competition and an uncertain economy, digital presses have entered "must-have" territory for most shops. They will allow you to take on jobs and run lengths that were previously just not cost effective – you can even accommodate those last-minute requests! We have brought together a sample of the machines that are available in the digital press arena. As always, this is meant to be a starting point in your hunt for the perfect press. Once you have an idea of the features, speed and quality of the machines available, you can decide which one will best suit your specific needs.
Nipson
The Nipson 8000 is a black-and-white press that offers the ability to print on a variety of materials and makes use of the latest developments in print engine components and toner technology to provide low maintenance and consumable costs. It will accept media widths up to 20.5-inches with weights up to 100 pounds. It is capable of printing up to 229.5 feet per minute, with resolutions up to 600dpi.
ADAST
The DI family of printers, which includes the 547 and the 557, are 15x20.5-inch and use CtP technology produced by PRESSTEK. Both machines feature offset-quality printing, and have competitive price points for runs ranging from 500-5,000 prints. They use a unique design that declutches the plate cylinder to allow imaging while the rest of the press is idle - this reduces press wear while imaging, and allows for high speed imaging. They use no chemicals for plate development, making them environmentally safe. The 547 uses four colors, while the 557 uses five.
IBM Infoprint Line
The Infoprint 3000 is a continuous form, production printer that can print up to 344 duplex impressions per minute for a monthly maximum duty cycle of 8 million impressions. It can accept 240 or 300 dpi data streams and print them at 480 or 600 dpi.
The Infoprint 4000 family of printers offers a broad range of capabilities with expanded functionality and user-friendly control for highlight color, MICR and direct mail applications. The Infoprint 4100 offers continuous form printing with 19-inch wide print line for digital publishing and statements printing. Speeds are up to 762 two-up, duplex letter or 718 two-up, duplex A4 impressions per minute with 480x600 dpi resolution. Simplex and duplex models are available.
The Infoprint Color 130 includes a RIP server, a high-performance press server and a full-color digital printer designed for variable data printing. It prints up to 138 full-color letter-size impressions per minute with a monthly maximum duty cycle of 700,000 impressions. Designed for variable data, full-color printing, the Infoprint Color 130 Plus allows each copy of the print run to feature individualized images and data. It has classic screening at 600 dpi with up to 300 lpi screen resolution on fully variable pages.
The Infoprint 70 Plus is a cutsheet printer that prints up to 70 impressions per minute and up to 600,000 impressions per month. It features print quality up to 600 dpi and offers flexible finishing capabilities. Offering print speeds of up to 85 impressions per minute, 600x600 dpi printing resolution and full-function duplicating capabilities, the Infoprint 2085 is a high-speed cutsheet printing solution. The Infoprint 2105 offers print speeds of up to 105 impressions per minute, 600x600 dpi resolution and full-function duplicating capabilities. The Infoprint 2000 is a customizable production solution that supports 240, 300 and 600 dpi and automatic conversion and has up to 8,000 sheets on board. It can print up to 110 impressions per minute.
Canon
Canon's digital printer line includes several models, including the CLC 5000+; the CLC 3900+; the imagePROGRAF W7200 and W7250; and the imagePROGRAF W2200.
The Canon CLC 5000+ has a suggested retail price of $89,500 with a 4000-sheet LTR-size paper deck and $90,800 with a 2,000-sheet oversize paper deck. The CLC 5000+ is a new version of the CLC 5000 high-volume, 50 page-per-minute production color laser copier/printer. The CLC 5000+ has the same architecture of the CLC 5000, with the added ability to automatically duplex up to 60-pound cover to 90-pound index media. It uses four-drum technology and the Color Automatic Image Refinement system for resolutions up to 800x400 dpi.
The CLC 3900+ is $54,990 with a 4000 sheet LTR paper deck and $56,290 with a 2,000 sheet oversize paper deck. It is a new version of the CLC 3900 39 ppm, entry-level production color laser copier/printer. The CLC 3900+ features the ability to automatically duplex up to 60-pound cover to 90-pound index. The CLC 3900+ features all of the technologies built into the CLC 5000+, but at a lower price.
HP Indigo
The HP Indigo Press 1000 features high-resolution imaging, up to six-color printing including spot and fluorescent colors and virtually unlimited substrate selection. Printing speeds reach 2,000 full color 8.5x11-inch A4 images-per-hour or 8,000 single-color 8.5x11-inch A4images-per-hour. The unit uses a liquid ink technology to produce offset-quality printing at 175 lines per inch.
The HP Indigo Press 3000 is specifically designed for production environments, and delivers up to seven-color printing and high definition images. Throughput reaches 4,000 four-color 8.5x11-inch A4 images-per-hour or 16,000 single-color 8.5x11-inch A4 images-per-hour.
The HP Indigo Press w3200, designed for high volume commercial printing, direct mail and publishing applications, is a seven-color, web-fed unit that features a print rate of 8,000 8.5x11-inch A4 color images-per-hour. The liquid ink system delivers 800x800 dpi resolution, at 180 lines per inch.
MAN Roland
MAN Roland's DICOweb is an offset system that prints without plates. It uses an imaging cylinder that’s laser imaged, then erased, so the press can print directly from digital data without the need for plate changes. It can print 12x20.5-inch web width with user selectable cutoffs and can produce up to 20,000 8-page copies per hour.
KBA
Koenig & Bauer AG's (KBA) 74 Karat has a maximum resolution of 2,540 dpi, with a print size ranging from 11.75x8.25-inches to 29x20.5-inches. It has a 15 minute makeready time from run to run and can produce up to 10,000 sheets per hour.
NexPress
The NexPress 2100 digital production color press, a joint venture between Heidelberg and Kodak, combines the reliability, durability and high image quality of an offset press with the flexibility of a digital printer. It is a sheet-fed, full-color, auto-perfecting system that produces 2100 full-color, A3+ sheets per hour at 600 multi-bit dpi.
Heidelberg Digital Trio
The name of the game in Digital Offset, for better or worse, has been shorter deadlines and declining run lengths. Heidelberg has had quite a few answers in various forms to this situation of late.
The Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 Network Imaging System offers rapid image processing and a 110-page per minute print engine. Heidelberg bills this as a unit that can be used for duplication, network publication printing and printing transactional documents. Up to six paper supplies, a maximum page size of 11x17-inches and finishing options that include booklet making, "all reduce operator involvement and post processing to save time and labor."
Important considerations in these times. The Digimaster 9150i, which enables 150-image-per-minute digital black-and-white printing, is an extension of the Digimaster 9110 print engine. It provides printers with more flexibility to configure the machine to their specific needs and is a more robust and faster solution.
Heidelberg has also positioned the Speedmaster 74 DI, "as a solution in mid-size 28-inch format that combines proven quality with innovative technology." Features here include 200 line screen, 5-color printing, 19.5x28-inch image area, Aqueous coating and the ability to accept 70lb. text to 18pt. board. They sell the Speedmaster with the push, "Ideal for runs of 500 to 20,000."
Lastly, the Heidelberg Quickmaster DI 46-4 Pro was released with several enhancements that include a new control console and operating interface based on the company’s CP2000 concept, a precision streamfeeder that allows the imprinting of a fifth or sixth color, and an optional infrared dryer.
Xerox
The DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press delivers short run, 4-color printing at 100 pages per minute,. The DocuColor 6060 Digital Color Press allows print providers to take on a wider range of applications for greater profitability. It prints 60 full-color pages per minute and can print on a vast array of paper and substrates.
At 60 and 45 pages per minute respectively, the DocuColor 2060 and 2045 have the ability to monitor image quality and make required adjustments continuously to produce consistent, high quality output. DocuColor 40 Pro prints at 40 pages per minute single-sided and 30 pages per minute double-sided. It also features an assortment of digital front ends and productivity-boosting accessories.
The DocuPrint 350, 700 and 1000 are continuous feed, black-and-white printers that produce 353, 708 and 1,002 images per minute, respectively. The 700 and 1000 models consist of twin print engines that allow duplex printing. The DocuPrint 500 CF is a continuous feed printer for print-on-demand, transactional environments that prints at 230 feet per minute.
The DocuPrint 75 is a cut-sheet, monochrome printer that prints at 75 pages-per-minute. The DocuPrint 90 is a cut-sheet, monochrome digital printer for small and mid-size print operations. It prints at speeds up to 90 pages-per-minute and can create on-demand, personalized documents. The DocuPrint 92 C prints at 92 pages-per-minute and offers black-plus-one-color production printing. The DocuPrint 115 and 155 EPS black-and-white printing systems print at 115 and 155 pages-per-minute respectively.
Xerox anounced this month that they are discontinuing the DocuColor 233 DI-4, DocuColor 400 DI-4 and DocuColor 400 DI-5 presses and related consumables, which had been sourced through Presstek Inc. Presstek will continue to provide consumables and service the current installed base of these presses. Xerox said it is exiting the market for direct-imaging presses to concentrate on its core business of dry-ink-based digital printing.
Océ
Oce is quick to point out that all four of the companies DemandStream 8000 DI printers are built from the same print engine with a Scaleable Raster Architecture (SRA) print controller. This common platform allows each member of the family to be easily upgraded in speed and print volume.
The DemandStream 8090cx features an enhanced processing print controller that is scaleable in memory and processing power to accommodate fast processing of complex pages. The SRA3 controller comes standard with Multiple Resolution Mode for support of 600 dpi resolution output and three interfaces (one TCP/IP interface and two customer-selectable interfaces). An 18.25-inches print width allows two-up 6x9-inch image printing at 1.8 times more images per minute (ipm) than two-up printing.
Océ also offers the VarioPrint 5000 cut sheet printing systems that offer output speeds that range from 108 images per minute to 155 images per minute with resolutions up to 600 dpi. It supports a wide range of substrates, including plain white paper stock, custom size formats, coated stock, colored paper, card stock, recycled content paper, pre-printed forms, adhesive labels, carbonless forms, pressure seal, perforated, punched or drilled and tab stock.
Xeikon
Xeikon’s DCP 500 D is a 20-inch digital color press that uses the IntelliStream front-end which accepts the PPML/VDX variable data standard and PPML variable data language. It can print up to 8,280 pages per hour.
Sakurai
Sakurai Graphic Systems incorporated Presstek’s ProFire DI technologies into the 29-inch Oliver 474EPII DI press. The press is hybrid, combining direct imaging technology with the capability to run conventional plates. The four-page press is available with a perfector.
The Oliver 474EPII DI is fully automated, which makes it ideal for applications such as press proofing and short runs. An operator familiar only with analog printing can run the press with minimal instruction. In order to realize higher labor savings, the SPC (fully automatic plate changing), QSS (quick standby system – automatic ink density control), SAS (Sakurai Auto Set – sheet preset device) and CIP3 workstation are all integrated.
