The VarioPrint 6250 was originally previewed at Ipex in April last year, but launched as a production model in November. Strong interest in the UK has been stimulated by favourable mention in reports by independent market analysts InfoTrends and Gartner. Both analysts suggest that existing volume users of cut-sheet mono digital presses should look at the 6250 before making any future investment decisions. To date, there are five installations in the UK, with a further five due to go in before the end of the second quarter.
Dual engines
Océ makes no bones about its claim that, at 250 A4 pages per minute, the VarioPrint 6250 is the fastest cut-sheet perfecting digital press on the market, and is keen to explain the technology behind the claim. It’s known as Gemini, and refers to the placement of two digital engines, one on top of the other, enabling simultaneous imaging of both front and back of the sheet, meaning that the press doesn’t slow down. This is in contrast to many other digital presses, which either flip the sheet or carry it on a transport belt between two engines, both of which slow down the imaging process and hence the press’s final output speed.
“The architecture of this machine came about after we did some very careful analysis of the print-on-demand market,” says Océ UK production cut-sheet marketing manager Mark Wilson. “We found that over 95% of all mono volume is duplex. But no manufacturer, ourselves included until now, has ever designed a machine specifically for duplex print.”
Having two engines that are both imaging simultaneously lends itself to another technology advance: highly accurate front-to-back registration. Wilson puts it into simple language: “Basically, because both images go down at the same time, we only have to adjust the leading edge of the paper, and even that we only have to do once. So accuracy is maintained to within 0.1mm.”
The print engine itself is the standard Océ CopyPress model, which uses LED technology to develop images on a belt, transfer those images onto an intermediate belt, and transfer from the intermediate belt onto the printing heads, which then transfer the image onto the paper. Because the LED technology is ‘monocomponent’ (ie, it uses toner only, with no developer element) it avoids the quality drop-off over long runs associated with electrostatic imaging technologies. Another advantage is that the Océ monocomponent toner delivery systems fuse their substrates at between 105°C and 110°C, just over half the standard fusing temperature of electrostatic systems. What that means is that Océ machines deliver sheets with less paper curl, so they tend to behave better in finishing systems because they haven’t been robbed of as much moisture during printing.
Two other significant benefits of the LED process are the generation of less static electricity – again helping the paper’s progress through post-press – and the fact that the 6250 is “virtually ozone free” in operation, says Wilson.
Offset quality
Aside from the speed, Océ claims “offset-like” quality for the prints produced by the VarioPrint 6250. Many digital press manufacturers are currently on a drive to eliminate the slightly raised surface of toner-based deposits, and Océ’s LED architecture, with the press of toner into the paper’s surface, helps to prevent what Wilson calls “the Braille effect” of the toner. Perhaps, just as significantly, it also means that it takes a lot of mauling to remove Océ toner from the page.
At the front end of the 6250 is Océ’s Smart Imager Controller: basically a workflow scheduling RIP. The controller links to any of Océ’s comprehensive suite of Prisma software packages, each developed for the demands of a specific environment, including printrooms, commercial copyshops and print-on-demand.
The 6250’s controller can accept work planned using Prismaprepare, a document preparation software for image, layout and media makeready, including colour splitting and merging capabilities. Prismaproduction is Océ’s variable data package, taking print output using IPDF or ASCII, and converting it to PostScript (at present, the controller is PostScript native, but will add IPDF native capabilities by the end of this year). Océ’s Document Designer Advanced and Docworks Pro handle a complete range of impositioning functions. Finally, Prismaweb allows commercial printers to make available catalogues of items to be produced and modified to customers’ requirements, with internet ordering, job tracking and automatic quote generation.
While the VarioPrint 6250 can handle a wide range of stock weights, it’s taken as read that these can only be paper-based – no film or plastic stocks are printable by an engine that fuses even at the lower temperatures of the LED process. However, you’d expect such a high-volume press to make good provision for paper stocks, to avoid raised manpower in restocking its paper trays, and the 6250 comes with one paper input module (four trays) with the possibility of optionally adding two further modules (a maximum of 12 trays) – a total of 27,600 A3 sheets, yielding almost four hours of unattended printing.
The open nature of Océ’s universal finishing interface means that the 6250 can work inline to “almost any” small-format document finishing line, including options from CP Bourg, Duplo, Watkiss and Horizon. Should no complex inline finishing be required, Océ offers its own non-stop stacker.
Océ has set out to capture the top end of the mono digital printing market, and with such a wide range of capabilities from a single machine, it looks like a serious challenge to existing champions Xerox.
SPECIFICATIONS
Max speed 250 A4 duplex pages per minute
Max sheet size 320x488mm
Stock weight range 50-300gsm
Max resolution 600x1,200dpi
Price Océ VarioPrint 6250 with Smart Image Controller and one paper input module (four trays): £250,000
Contact Océ UK 0800 600 5544 www.oce.com
THE ALTERNATIVES
Delphax Imaggia 220 and 300
The Imaggia is Delphax’s cut-sheet press, and like all other Delphax presses, it uses the company’s proprietary electron beam imaging. Toner-based, the two machines are fast and, oddly enough, their engine is known as Gemini too (although any resemblance to the Océ duplexing engine stops there). Up to eight input bins can handle some of the biggest (paper only) sheet sizes in cut-sheet digital printing.
Max speed
• 220: 208 A4 duplex pages per minute
• 300: 283 A4 duplex pages per minute
Max sheet size
• 476x660mm
Stock weight range
• 53-298gsm
Max resolution
• 600dpi
Price
• 220: £356,000
• 300: £440,000
Contact Delphax Technologies 01293 551051 www.delphax.com
Ricoh EMP156
This is a machine targeted at book producers. The EMP stands for ‘Enhanced Monochrome Publisher’. It has six input bins with a total capacity of 15,50 sheets, and at the other end, a high-capacity stacker of up to 8,100 sheets. Can handle IPDS data streams as well as PostScript, although there are no front-end design packages or workflows. The price is excellent, especially considering that it’s specified to meet a maximum duty cycle comparable to that of the average 6250 user at 4.5m pages per month.
Max speed 156 A4 duplex pages per minute
Max sheet size 356x457mm
Stock weight range 60-200gsm
Max resolution 600dpi
Price £175,000
Contact NRG Group 0500 102103 www.nrggroup.co.uk
Xerox DocuTech 6180
The DocuTech 6180 was, until last November, the undisputed leader of the cut-sheet mono printing gang, and it remains to be seen what Xerox will do to regain its ascendancy. At 180 A4 pages per minute, the 6180 is pushing the limits of what can be done with conventional xerographic processes. Aimed more at the book production market than its variable-data orientated brother, the DocuPrint 180, the DocuTech 6180 offers up to six paper trays (again, paper stocks only). A three-tray interposer is an optional extra, and Xerox FreeFlow offers a comprehensive suite of front-end software for automated workflow.
Max speed 180 A4 duplex pages per minute
Max sheet size 420x295mm
Stock weight range 60-200gsm
Max resolution 600dpi
Price £305,000
Contact Xerox UK 01895 251133 www.xerox.com
