The new systems include a number of enhancements aimed at ensuring that customers remain at the forefront of the fast-paced developments in the production printing industry.

Peter Williams, Ricoh’s Executive Vice President, Head of Production Printing Business Group, Ricoh Europe says, “Our launch follows the news from InfoSource(1) that Ricoh is the best-selling brand for production devices/colour presses during the first three quarters of 2012. Our new systems will ensure we continue to provide commercial and corporate printers with the leading system of choice and in turn ensure they continue to provide their clients with cost effective, short-run, fast turnaround print services.”

The Ricoh Pro C901 and Pro C901S Graphics Arts + digital presses also incorporate the new Efi E42 or E82 print servers. New features to speed up job preparation and enable more work per shift include a HyperRIP which improves performance by processing multiple job pages simultaneously, Xobjects caching to enable PDF files that include Xobjects, to print at speeds previously associated only with VDP jobs. In addition there is inline job editing, ideal for tasks such as the application of additional job options directly from the job list without opening Job Properties. There is also a Job Preset Quick Select that applies the same predefined settings used in virtual printers and hot folders to jobs in the job list.

Productivity is further addressed with an uprated duty cycle of up to 700,000 – 20% more than previously. Uptime is also improved with larger sized toner bottles that require fewer changes per shift. Depending on toner coverage they deliver on average 67,000 clicks, up from 63,000, to reduce costs per page and improve profitability margins.

Substrates up to 350gsm are now included as a part of the standard settings on both models with the media library continually updated to reflect broader grade choices.

Ricoh’s PxP chemical toners and oil-less fusing technology ensures the systems deliver near-offset results, and offer a production speed of up to 90 pages-per-minute for multiple paper types thanks to built-in Air-Assist technology. Consistent image quality is also assured with advanced image stabilisation, single direction development, mechanical paper registration, enhanced fusing technologies and automatic calibration adjustments.  

The Pro C901S Graphic Arts + is also equipped with a high speed full colour scanner that captures hard copy originals for copying, editing, storage or electronic document distribution. The Automatic Document Feeder scans stacks of images in full colour, grayscale or black and white, enabling users to control file size and image quality for each application.       

Williams says “These new systems demonstrate Ricoh’s commitment to continuous improvement and innovating market-leading choices for the printing industry. In addition to our technology we are also focused on providing a wide range of services to help our customers in their goal of expanding their own business portfolio and meeting client needs into the future.”

The Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts + is featuring at the Hunkeler Innovationdays exhibition in Lucerne, Switzerland, February 11-15, where it will be demonstrating its best-in-class digital colour production capability.

(1) Market data specialist InfoSource’s Western European survey for the production devices/colour press cut sheet sector places Ricoh first for market share with 36.5% for the combined first three quarters of 2012.