Canon’s stall at PrintPack India early this year, saw Canon announce a number of product lines, which also included the ImagePress C7010VP – an upgraded model of the ImagePress C7000VP.

The first 7010VP was installed at Avantika Printers. This is also the third Canon digital press that adorns the Avantika print floor, the other two being the C7000 colour digital press and the 1135 mono press.

Prior to its launch in India, the C7010 was previewed at Ipex 2010 with Canon declaring the new launch as a "result of continual improvement of the ImagePress platform, rather than a totally new product."

What’s new?
The C7010 has improved duty cycle, one of the most significant enhancements over the C7000. The duty cycle is expected to be 1-mn pages per month, which Canon believes has reinforced ImagePress’ production credentials and positions it against HP’s Indigo, Kodak’s NexPress and the Xerox 7002/8002 and even the new Color Press 1000.

The feeds are the same as C7000 but the productivity has been addressed, it is up from the 70 pages per minute (ppm) to 71.6ppm. For larger sizes, the increase is more substantial – A3 ppm has risen from 36ppm to 38.5ppm while SRA3 is now 36.2ppm. And in terms of maximum stock and its weight, the C7010 can handle a wider range as well as weight. Maximum stock weight has been increased from 300gsm to 325gsm and minimum weight has been reduced from 64gsm to 60gsm for uncoated stocks.

Himanshu Pandey, director at Avantika Printers, winner of the PrintWeek India Digital Printer of the Year 2011, says: "The 7010s has its own advantages. Now we can print on light and medium texture media too. It has helped us to push the boundaries a little bit more." He adds: "We’ve already found success with a range of materials including metallics, waterproof paper, synthetics, non-tears and textured stock."

Improved colour reproduction
Canon worked with X-Rite to develop its Process Control software, which helps keep colour to specification. This helps the C7010 get the right colour right the first time, which according to Canon, saves time in production and reduces re-runs. Moreover, there are two default specifications that can be run to: ISO 12647-7, which due to its paper white point definition limits the range of applicable stocks; and another with a wider latitude on paper white. But new in Process Control version three for the 7010 is a unique iterative profile function. This enables the operator to adjust the output on the fly to get back to target.

Canon has, though, chosen not to integrate the spectrophotometer – the X-Rite i1i0 scanning table – into its press. According to Canon, it did not want the press to be tied up while colour management is being done. Another benefit of the colour system is a new spot colour library.

Canon India has an installed base of 89 machines in its ImagePress digital range in India. The ImagePress 7010, is an evolution, rather than a revolution, which Canon hopes can continue to build on the market it already has.