Leveraging its proprietary solid ink technology, Xerox Corporation has introduced the world's first high-speed waterless inkjet system to enable vivid image quality on low-cost paper for printers looking to produce high-volume, high-value jobs.
"Xerox's Production Inkjet System cuts through the barriers—cost, quality, and reliability—that stood in the way of producing massive numbers of custom print jobs," said Eric Armour, president, Xerox Graphic Communications Business Group. "Print providers can now confidently shift their focus from the production process to selling applications that drive business."
Building off of its solid ink technology, Xerox has developed a patented, granulated, resin-based ink formulation to serve the high-speed production market. The key benefit is the elimination of water so that vibrant, consistent color can be printed on low-cost, offset paper that comes out flat with no ink soaking through.
Pages can be produced quickly and reliably, saving money in labor and waste—and because jobs are printed on demand, there's no need for warehousing pre-printed materials. In addition, the formulation of the ink enables document de-inking, which can be difficult to achieve with other inks.
Xerox's Production Inkjet System can produce nearly 2,200 pages or 500 feet per minute—driving the most lucrative jobs in the $100B global digital print market, such as personalized direct marketing, transpromo and publishing applications.
Other advantages of the Xerox Production Inkjet System include:
- Prints on light weight, untreated stock to further reduce paper costs and postal charges; in many cases the less expensive offset paper is already available in inventory.
- The intelligent system continuously monitors every page it produces and self-adjusts if an ink nozzle isn't firing properly. There's more uptime and less operator involvement to maintain performance.
- The server can be scaled for job complexity whether printing straightforward static pages or highly personalized, image-filled statements.
- Xerox's partnerships with workflow and finishing companies mean the device can quickly be added to a diverse range of print environments such as commercial print shops, service bureaus and in-plant operations.
- Access to Xerox's business development tools and Lean Document Production Services improves the profitability of the business.
- Highest de-inkability rating from INGEDE, meaning it's easier to recycle pages printed on this device compared with water-based systems.
The first test customer generated revenue-producing pieces within weeks of installation; additional customer placements are slated for the second half of this year.
The product was developed using more than 2,000 patents leading to a robust print head design that precisely controls every dot; an intelligent scan bar that checks billions of ink droplets per second so they appear exactly where they should; and production inks that don't soak through paper.
Xerox's Production Inkjet System is being shown this week at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2011 in Lucerne, Switzerland.