Drupa has witnessed the first European showing of the Screen TruePress V200 which the company claims is the worlds fastest monochrome sheet-fed, toner-based printing system. The V200 can RIP and print 400 A4 pages per minute or 200 A3 pages at a resolution of 600dpi. And because the machines paper-path takes the sheets past two print heads the machine can output single or double sided work at the same speed.
European marketing manager, Phil Eaves, said that Screen was currently negotiating with other manufacturers to market the printer. We dont intend to sell the machine directly as Screen is a colour not a monochrome company. The V200 will be for OEMs. Eaves refused to disclose any details about the on-going discussions. He added, however, Weve had a lot of interest from a number of different manufacturers.
The TruePress V200s controller, which uses PostScript 3, is capable of RIPing PostScript, PDF and TIFF files. Its features include electronic collation, job scheduling, page preview and variable data printing. However, Eaves said that a re-badged V200 could feature a different front end. A different manufacturer may want to put their own controller on it.
The TruePress V200 will be available in Japan from October and will be rolled out to the rest of the world during 2001.
Story by John Davies