The duty cycle is up to 300,000 A4 sheets per month. It prints up to 65 A4 pages per minute (about 36 A3 sheets) in mono or full-colour, on stock weights from 64 to 300gsm. Auto duplexing is available on weights up to 256gsm.
“The first installation was in November and the only problem now is getting them in fast enough,” says Jos Kelly, head of the production printing division. “There’s enormous demand worldwide. We now have a healthy pipeline, so as fast as they come in, we ship them out.”
There have been 30 UK sales, with about a dozen delivered to date. Sales and enquires so far have been running at about 60% from commercial printers and the rest from inplant users. Kelly is pleased by this, though he admits it’s something of a novelty – KM printers and copiers are usually sold for inplant and office use. “I was expecting the traditional commercial market to watch and observe a bit longer, but the interest has been phenomenal,” he says.
Early days
The colour C6500 builds on the technology and sales momentum of the monochrome bizhub Pro 1050, KM’s first production digital printer. This shipped early in 2005 and 130 have been sold in the UK since, with prices ranging from £65,000 to £130,000 for a fully-equipped model with online perfect binding.
“In the early days, there was a criticism that we might not understand the production market enough to support it,” Kelly says. “We set up a UK division for support and training and we took on very experienced people who understood the market. With our move into high-volume colour, we’re sending out a signal that we are here to stay.”
The C6500 has the same form factor as the 1050, so the range of online finishing systems developed for the mono machine will transfer straight over. This gives colour buyers a good choice of options, while 1050 owners can retain their finishing options if they upgrade to a colour printer later.
“We’ve done lots of research and development with this high-volume device,” says Kelly. “The company has a very rigid design philosophy of compact and affordable machines. This is said to the design team from the start. It must be compact, so smaller users don’t need to knock down any walls. It must be reasonably priced too. There was also very extensive product testing – I saw a working version a year before we announced it.”
KM’s CS Remote Care support package is based on a click charge, with lower rates for mono than colour work. A built-in GPRS modem sends the meter readings back to KM automatically and also allows remote diagnostics. As with most digital presses, buyers prefer to lease, Kelly says, so finance is available through Print Finance.
Polymerised toner
Key to the image quality is KM’s new Simitri HD polymerised toner. This is a chemically-grown toner (Konica pioneered this process), with 3.2 micron particles coagulated into six micron clusters within a wax bead. The process is oil-free, which helps the finished appearance and aids finishing processes and lamination. It also allows printing on plastics and OHP foils.
The fuser unit operates at 1500C, half of what most dry toner printers need. As a result, more moisture is retained, so there’s less shrink or curl as the paper recovers. An S-bend roller arrangement de-curls sheets as they exit the printer – sheets above 256gsm bypass this.
There are currently 10 configurations of C6500 available, with eight more in the works. The core print engine is the same in all cases.
The entry-level C6500 costs roughly £80,000 and is mainly intended for CRDs (central repro departments). There’s an internal EFI Fiery RIP – other configurations offer a choice of external Fiery or Creo PODS RIPs. There are three 500 sheet paper trays under the engine and a 3,000 sheet tray to its right, plus a basic stacker. Paper trays and toner hoppers can be refilled on the run.
A 600dpi colour scanner is fitted as standard – this can be used for direct copying, controlled though the small touch screen on the print unit, or run through the RIP station for scanning to disk.
As well as in-line finishing and high-capacity sheet stackers, most commercial printers will want extra paper capacity to take the C6500 into production territory.
To enable this, a second high-capacity tray can be fitted to the right of the print engine – each takes 3,000 sheets (when using 80gsm). The top tray can take 64-256gsm, and the bottom takes up to 300gsm (this is because the feed path from the bottom tray to the printer is flat).
Metal components
These high-capacity trays are strongly built, with all metal components except for a few trim items. The adjustable guide towers can be locked down rigidly by thumbscrews, so the sheet feed is very accurate and the image position on each sheet is consistent.
Both large trays have air-assist feeders to reduce double-feeds, plus a dehumidifier that operates when you shut the drawers, so you don’t need to condition the paper before use.
On the output side, there’s an optional 3,500 sheet stacker and stapler, plus an optional 5,000 sheet stacker with a wheel-out trolley. Finishing options start with the FS-503 staple finisher with variable-length staples for up to 100 sheets and 3,000 sheet output capacity.
The FD-501 folder offers six different folds, including half-fold, two-fold, letterfold in or out and gatefolds. Two- or four-hole punching is possible. This can run online or take sheets through a top feeder for off-line running. The SD-501 bookletmaker can saddlestitch up to 50 A3 sheets for a 100 page book. This has a fore edge trimmer built in.
The in-line perfect binder developed for the 1050 will be available for the C6500 in a couple of months. This can make bound books with up to 100 A4 pages (at 300 gsm) at full press speed. Wraparound covers are trimmed in-line, so each book’s thickness can be different.
Image quality on the samples I’ve seen are very good and bear comparison with the work produced by Canon’s higher-end ImagePress C7000VP. KM uses separate screening for line and tone work, with proprietary TagBit technology for text edge quality enhancement. Under a loupe, the Canon’s halftone dots are marginally sharper and the KM shows a little more toner bleed, but this is nitpicking and wouldn’t be noticed by customers.
Most users run semi-matt papers, which match the toner well. There’s a gloss button for smoother stocks, though it doesn’t make a lot of difference. Many digital printers prefer to laminate for high gloss anyway.
SPECIFICATIONS
Max sheet size 330x487mm
Min sheet size A5
Substrate weights 64-300gsm
Resolution 600x1,800dpi (with smoothing)
Front-end options EFI Fiery, Creo PODS
Price from £80,000 to £120,000
Contact Konica Minolta (UK) 01268 534444 www.konicaminolta.co.uk
THE ALTERNATIVES
HP Indigo Press 1050
Based on the original Series I engine, the entry price is for four colours, but £125,000 gets you six. Duplex is standard. Speed is lower, stock weights are more restricted and there is only one (offset-style) feeder. It has multi-pass printing and the quality is excellent, thanks to the offset-style gloss matching. The six-colour version can use extended gamut process inks. Special colours can be mixed.
Max sheet size 320x464mm
Substrate weights 115-270gsm
Front end Indigo RIP (Adobe PostScript 3)
Price from £105,000
Contact HP Indigo (UK) 01923 242402 www.hp.com
Océ CPS900 Platinum
Océ’s unique seven-colour opaque dry toner process produces consistent high gamut colour on practically any coated or uncoated paper including heavily textured grades. Low oil and fusion heat means the gloss-matching to paper is good, and it’s fine for plastics. There’s a built in duplexing unit but less choice of feed and finishing options.
Max sheet size A3+
Substrate weights up to 300gsm
Front end Océ Prisma
Price from around £85,000
Contact ICG 0117 980 5978 www.icgscanners.com
Xerox DocuColor 5000
The lowest-priced of the second-generation DocuColors, with improved toners plus VCSEL laser technology for much higher resolution than the original DC 2000 series. At 50ppm, the 5000 runs any stock up to 220gsm, then drops progressively to 33ppm at the maximum weight of 300gsm.
Max sheet size 320x488mm
Substrate weights 60-300gsm
Front end options EFI Fiery, Creo PODS Spire, Xerox FreeFlow DocuSP
Price about £140,000
Contact Xerox (UK) 0870 900 5500 www.xerox.co.uk
