Fuji Xerox is launching a new toner-based digital press, the six-colour Iridesse Production Press (Iridesse), offering speeds of 120ppm with substrates up to 400gsm, with print resolution of 2,400dpi.
The company says the new high speed Iridesse offers printers new levels of flexibility and versatility, and will enable them to increase their product range to the market.
Iridesse is able to print specialty colours including metallic with a single pass, by housing up to two additional specialty dry inks of gold, silver, clear and white.
Quentin Sandery, national manager, Production Solutions Business Group, Fuji Xerox Australia, says, “It is about personalisation for end users. Businesses should be able to align their collateral in accordance with their brand. With the Iridesse Production Press, collateral colours can be matched to brands or personalised, with colours patterned, mixed, enhanced to provide more than printed communications. It all ties into the notion of creating that bespoke feeling amongst end users.
“To the commercial printer who wants to focus on producing jobs more efficiently and effectively, this is the ultimate press to do it.
“Production teams can now get colours that would previously take hours to achieve and they do not need to worry about finishes or sheet sizes. This machine will do it all. It has the potential to change the core of the print provider’s operations and how they look at their business.
“With current market pressures to be in a constant state of innovation, we have released a solution that will ensure print providers are able to either accelerate their operations or advance their service offering.”
The newly launched print engine enables CMYK dry ink layers to be processed on top of the special dry ink layer. An overlay of another specialty dry ink can be processed on top of CMYK dry ink layers, a feature made available with another Fuji Xerox digital printer, the Color 1000i Press.
Fuji Xerox says, “While conventional offset printing requires mixing silver ink to make metallic ink, this new product allows for simultaneous printing of several metallic colours during a single printing process.”
The standard colour library contains Pantone+Metallic and Pantone+Premium Metallic, which are swatches of metallic colours commonly used in the printing industry. With these colour swatches, the operator can reproduce colours similar to Pantone metallic colours on printing materials by designating the colour codes.
Fuji Xerox says, “Going forward, white dry ink will also be added to the specialty dry ink lineup to accommodate printing on dark coloured or other specialty papers. Compared to printers using only conventional CMYK dry inks, adopting special dry inks expands the range of expression, which adds value for effective marketing activities.”
Finishing options include Fuji Xerox’s Finisher D6 with Booklet Maker, Crease/Two-sided Trimmer D2, and SquareFold Trimmer D1, which can be connected to the Iridesse press, allowing for automatic production of professional booklets and folded leaflets.
The company says the finishing options expand the possible printing applications by enabling to produce complex folded leaflets including accordion-fold and gatefold.
“CMYK dry inks are made of High Definition EA Dry Ink (HD EA Dry Ink)—one of the world’s smallest particle size toners. The HD EA Dry Ink fuses quickly at low temperature and is evenly fused onto the paper by through our marking technology that achieves even transferring of six layer of dry inks.
“Against the backdrop of rapidly diversifying consumers’ needs, the printing industry is adjusting its use of printing techniques. Instead of just relying on conventional offset printing, which performs well for high-volume jobs, more businesses are choosing on-demand printing, which is shorter in turnaround time and prints the necessary number of copies for catalogs, manuals, and advertising materials.
“While offset printing involves significant time and cost for making plates, adjusting colours and proofreading, digital printing can process jobs with less time and cost and add value to printed materials. Enhancing the value of print products with the use of their capital equipment, such as digital printers, is critical for printing companies to grow their businesses.”