What does it do?
This is an SRA3-plus duplex dry-toner press with up to six print stations offering a choice of 10 colours, CMYK plus options including white, metallic, pink and clear. It runs at up to 120 A4 pages per minute, and is currently the fastest dry-toner press available from Fujifilm. It’s intended for average monthly volumes of 225,000 to 445,000 pages and a maximum duty cycle of up to 2,250,000 pages.
The product number PC1120 stands for ‘Professional Colour, 1st generation, 120 pages per minute’, says Fujifilm. There’s a lot of automation and software including new ‘AI’ automatic image enhancement and connection to the Fujifilm XMF workflow environment.
When was it launched and what market is it aimed at?
The Revoria was originally intended to be announced at the cancelled Drupa shows in 2020 and then 2021. In the event it was launched into Europe in phases starting in September 2021 and then April 2022, but the announcements for France and the UK had to wait until April 2023, reinforced by a big customer event in London in mid-May.
Fujifilm has also released a lower-cost four-colour toner press range called ApeosPro. Spencer Green, head of POD sales, Fujifilm UK, says “The Revoria PC1120 offers a comprehensive solution for all print service providers’ printing requirements. It is a versatile option with a four-colour configuration that can be upgraded to five or six colours as per future needs. On the other hand, ApeosPro is a light production printer designed specifically for customers with lower print volumes who prioritise professional performance without compromise.”
At the same time Fujifilm released monochrome presses based on Revoria technology: the E1 series in 136, 125 and 110ppm versions.
At the Japanese IGAS show last November Fujifilm showed a technology demonstrator of a sheetfed B2-plus Revoria that it’s readying for availability in Japan later this year. There’s been no word on planned availability outside Japan. If it comes to market it will be the first commercial sheetfed B2 dry toner press, although HP has been selling B2 liquid toner Indigos since 2012. Fujifilm already makes the B2 inkjet Jet Press 750S, which runs 360 ppm in High Speed mode, so presumably the B2 Revoria would cost a lot less.
What’s the difference?
Readers who followed the shifting relationships between Fuji and Xerox may be aware that what used to be the joint venture company Fuji-Xerox (and is now the wholly-owned Fujifilm Business Innovation) builds the press that Xerox calls Iridesse, which was released in June 2018 (Star Product, January 2019). This uses much the same technology as Revoria, with the same options of up to six toners. We asked what is the difference, five years on, other than the dedicated front-end and workflow options?
“The Revoria is distinguished by its unique hybrid static eliminator, developed with Fujifilm technology, specifically designed to neutralise static on the printouts, allowing for better handling after printing,” says Green.
“Additionally, Fujifilm’s AI image enhancement feature truly provides customers with a competitive edge, enabling them to surpass their competitors. New artificial intelligence automatically optimises image quality based on image type. Even poor-quality images that are too dark or bright, backlit, or with poor skin tone or sky colours can be automatically corrected and printed beautifully.
“This technological advantage empowers our customers to outshine their competitors, impress their target audience, and achieve remarkable results.”
How does it work?
The Revoria uses an all-new print engine and replaces the older Colour 80i/100i toner presses in the Fujifilm range. These had a fifth colour option that included metallics, but the new toners are different.
Sheet sizes range from A6 up to long SRA3 (330x488mm), and there is a 1,200mm duplexing banner option with one of the feeder options. It can take stock weights of between 52-400gsm.
The colour choice is the standard CMYK and up to two extras from a choice of silver, gold, white, pink and clear. It uses super EA eco toner (except for white), with nano-scale particles which are both 20% smaller and have a 20% lower melting temperature than previous products. This lets it print a broader range of media including plastics and synthetics, says Green: “This advancement provides access to interesting markets like packaging and labelling.”
The resolution is listed as an actual 2,400x2,400dpi (thanks to multiple VCSEL laser beams), with 10-bit greyscales for smoother tones.
The extra colours can print first and last in the sequence, so you could have a white undercoat and a clear spot varnish, or silver or gold metallic first with colours over that. The white station can print a double hit if needed to boost opacity. The special toner stations are designed for easy changeovers, says Green.
Fujifilm is proud of its new static eliminator, which also helps with printing on plastics and synthetics as well as paper media.
So far Fujifilm doesn’t seem to be planning any more spectral colours (such as violet or orange) but says that the pink is a useful gamut extender. “This enhancement enables the production of vivid oranges, purples, dark blues, and a wide range of other shades that were previously unattainable with CMYK-only printers,” says Green.
There is also a new vacuum feeder with an active head, that extracts sheets from the stack individually, akin to an offset feeder. “This design guarantees the highest feeding quality available in the market,” claims Green.
The front-end is the new Revoria Flow DFE. This can link to the new XMF PressReady digital print production workflow system that helps manage print jobs from multiple sources such as web-to-print and MIS systems or PDF files. PressReady can also link any digital press that uses a Fiery DFE.
There’s a decent range of finishing options. Green says: “With the combination of our production bookletmaker and square-back fold-trimmer, customers can achieve fully three-knife trimmed booklets.” There is also an Interface Decurler Module for real-time paper curl correction, a five-crease/two-sided trimmer for trimming and creasing, a folding unit and an inserter for cover or sheet insertion.
Output is to a high-capacity stacker for a nominal 5,000 sheets. The static eliminator module uses a two-stage process that can be adjusted precisely to suit different media, including some papers that are typically difficult to process. “This option greatly reduces challenges when finishing offline, enabling customers to increase productivity and accelerate production speed,” says Green.
What’s the USP?
Leaving aside the underlying similarity to the Xerox Iridesse, Fujifilm claims that the Revoria is “a game-changing printing solution that sets new benchmarks in performance and capability,” thanks to its new applications and substrate capabilities; the expanded colour gamut; and its throughput performance.
Green says: “The Revoria PC1120 enables service providers to differentiate themselves in the market. Its advanced feeding, imaging, and finishing capabilities work in perfect synergy, allowing for seamless and streamlined production workflows.”
How easy is it to use?
Green says: “The Revoria PC1120’s user-friendly design empowers operators of all skill levels to achieve exceptional results without the complexity typically associated with high-performance printing equipment.
“For operators that want more control over production, our TORU [trained operator replacement unit] programme provides operators with the option to independently replace specific parts after undergoing training by Fujifilm senior technicians.”
What training and support is offered?
Fujifilm provides operator training and full-service support, including remote diagnosis. Training covers press operations plus server control, colour management, media profiling, basic production techniques and media management.
What does it cost?
Pricing starts at around £150,000, with click charges dependent on factors including coverage, media type and volume.
How many are installed?
Given the phased launch, there are a lot out there in mainland Europe already. In its first 18 months there have been more than 100 installations. The first UK order was from Loxley Colour, a specialist supplier to the photographic sector in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow. It was due for installation around the end of June.
SPECIFICATIONS
Process Dry-toner electrophotography
Colours CMYK plus optional fifth and sixth units to run silver, gold, white, pink, clear
Paper size range Standard: max SRA3-plus (320x488mm), min A6; Custom sizes: 98x148mm to 330x488mm; optional long sheet 330x1,200mm; automatic duplex up to 330x729 mm
Weights 52-400gsm
Feed capacities Two 2,000-sheet trays (standard);options take this to 12,650 sheets (two standard and two chained air suction feeders)
Output tray capacity 500 sheets, or 5,000 sheets with optional high-capacity stacker
Speed 120 A4 ppm; 60 A3 ppm
Front-end Revoria Flow or EFI Fiery DFE
Footprint 3x1.1m
Price From around £150,000
Contact Fujifilm UK 01234 572000 www.fujifilm.eu
ALTERNATIVE
Fujifilm’s major sales point for the Revoria is its six-colour ability allowing integral embellishment, which is still rare in any digital press. If you take that as the starting point the only exact dry toner alternative is the related six-colour Xerox Iridesse.
Ricoh offers five colours with its five-unit mid-range Pro 7200sx (also rebadged by Heidelberg as the Versafire EV). Xerox’s Versant 180/280 and PrimeLink C9065/C9070 printers are four-colour but can uniquely swap special colour sets in or out instead of CMYK: the Vivid set is white, gold, silver and clear, and the Fluorescent kit gives fluorescent cyan, magenta and yellow. The top-end Xerox iGen 5 has a fifth unit option for clear or gamut-extending colours, but not metallics.
Kodak pioneered fifth unit embellishment options with its NexPress and later Nexfinity and Ascend dry toner models (which had 13 fifth unit options), but these are now out of production.
Many of the HP Indigo sheet fed SRA3 and B2 liquid toner presses can be configured with up to seven colours from a wide choice including clear, silver and white, but the economics are different as the price points are significantly higher, while the extra colours mean extra press revolutions, slowing the output.
Xerox Iridesse
Launched in 2018 with basically the same print engine as the Revoria, and the same fifth and six colour toner options. Colours CMYK with optional fifth and sixth colours (white, clear, silver, gold, pink)
Speed 120 A4ppm for all paper weights
Recommended monthly volumes Up to 475,000 A4 pages
Duty cycle Up to 2.25m A4s per month
Max media sizes 330x488mm standard, option for 1,200mm long sheets
Media weights 52-400gsm
Media capacity Two trays for 4,000 sheets (standard), options for up to 12,500 sheets
Resolution 1,200x1,200x10-bit Ripping and 2,400x2,000x1-bit imaging
Front-end Xerox EX-P 6 Print Server Powered by Fiery
Price About £150,000 with typical options
Contact Xerox UK 0870 873 4519 www.xerox.com
USER REVIEW
“We went out to Fujifilm’s Ratingen facility in Germany a few weeks ago to look at the Revoria. We’ve taken the capability for ten colours and the extended colour gamut will really help us on our photo side. The finishing facilities that come with the machine for products like booklets will help us automate those processes as well”
Ian Loxley, owner of Loxley Colour, Cumbernauld
