2012 Bavarian Innovation Prize Goes to Oce

Océ, a Canon Group company and an international leader in digital document management and delivery, today announced that Océ Printing Systems in Poing has been awarded the prestigious Bayerische Innovationspreis 2012 (2012 Bavarian Innovation Prize) for the innovative design and technology of the Océ ColorStream 3000 series.

The winner is – the Océ ColorStream 3000 series

The sponsors of the Innovation Prize are the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology, the Bavarian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Working Committee of the Bavarian Chamber of Trades & Crafts.

The Océ ColorStream 3000 series is a family of high-performance full-color inkjet printing systems developed by Océ Printing Systems in Poing. At speeds of 48 to 127 meters per minute (324 to 1714 A4 pages per minute), these digital printing systems achieve a high print quality immediately after startup. The products in this family of systems are primarily used for individualized applications such as invoices and mailings as well as the scheduled printing of books and newspapers.

A single production step

For account statements, mailings or insurance policies, for example, up until now colored preprinted forms have been stocked that were created utilizing an offset procedure. In a second step, these forms were taken out of storage and digitally printed in black with variable data such as names, addresses and similar.

Utilizing this new technology from Océ, it is now possible to replace the applications produced in this two-step process by a considerably more economic single digital production step. An ultra-fast high-quality b/w printing speed on blank or preprinted paper with no setup time and including document personalization/individualization options has resulted in this all-inclusive package being adopted by more and more customers throughout the world.

The innovative Pause and Headsafe concept

The Océ ColorStream 3000 series is the first, and currently only, webfed inkjet printing system with a production pause function. “This avoids meters of wastage every time printing is started,” says Hans Manzer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer Océ Commercial Printing. “A one-minute waste-free printing pause permits the operator to carry out a visual data and quality check and then continue printing without waste.” The paper path can be printed on until the system has been brought completely to rest and sellable print products can even be produced in the acceleration phase.

The Headsafe concept, developed and patented by Océ, uses a cap to prevent paper dust accumulating in unused color nozzles and clogging these. This obviates the need for laborious manual cleaning of the print heads during the printing process.

Environmentally-friendly and economic

This form of on-demand production spares the environment, reduces paper consumption and avoids wastage. In only seven years of printing on the system, and assuming 27 million A4 prints per month at an average of two quality checks per roll, this can lead to a saving of up to 120 tons of 80 g/m² paper. Even if the most inexpensive paper is used to this gives a potential saving of around 1.5 million Euros or around 273 tons of wood (for fresh-fiber paper), 12,450 hectoliters of water and 622 GWh of energy as well as reducing COD water pollution by 8.1 tons.