“My wife hates this tie,” says Greg Neesham, sales director of Punch Graphix. The tie to which he refers is the same tie worn by all of the Punch staff gathered at Xeikon’s worldwide headquarters at Lier in Belgium. It is what differentiates them from the 50 or so international trade press gathered for an open day that took place earlier this month.
Neesham assures us that there are sadly no plans afoot to change the company tie, however, this is perhaps the only thing that is not in the froes of change. The 20 staff, specially invited customers and journalists had been brought together for what Xeikon called a showcase of the fully formed ‘Xeikon family’.
This family includes the recently launched 6000, the daddy if you will, the remodelled mother in the form of the 5000plus, the smaller 330 Matchless label printer and the new entry-level system – with genes taken firmly from the other three – the Xeikon 4000. With this armoury, Xeikon hopes to be a real force in the digital press market and if it can’t compete in size, then it certainly wants to compete in choice and technology.
Major changes
If further proof were needed that Punch Graphix was evolving, the launch came on the same day that Punch International, the original owner of the Xeikon and basysPrint brands, announced its intentions to re-acquire Punch Graphix by increasing its shareholding from around 49% to 59%. The implications of this at a time when so many new launches are taking place remains to be seen.
The launch of the 4000 comes just shy of six months after the high-speed 6000 was unveiled in the US. The 6000 has productivity of up to 9,600 A4 full colour pages an hour and an updated version of the X-800 digital front end. The 600dpi press also has no sheet length restrictions and can reel paper widths of 320-508mm. It’s an impressive and extremely fast press, but at £449,000, it’s not a viable option for all customers.
With the 4000, the aim is to bring some of the best new technologies, which were incorporated into the 6000, and the popular attributes of the slower 5000, to an entry-level machine that is still able to produce high-quality work at a lower cost to newer or smaller market players. Punch Graphix unveiled its newest machine through a series of international customer case studies to highlight its capabilities. These included posters and variable data-led direct mailers.
UK list price for the 4000 is £270,000, and for this you get 130 pages per minute (7,800 an hour), handling widths of 500mm and, as with the larger presses, no sheet length restrictions. There’s one-pass patented Duplex technology that can print on both sides simultaneously and it can be used with stock as heavy as 250gsm at 1,000 pages per minute.
Simpler specifications
These specifications are very similar to the 5000 model – the main difference being that the 5000 could go up to 350gsm and was a five-colour press whereas the 4000 only has a four-colour capability. The densitometer is not inline on the 4000 as it is on the larger machines. This means that you have to physically make checks, lowering the levels of automation of the 4000 – all part of making it more of an entry-level machine. For a longer life span, the 4000 has an internal air treatment system that removes toner dust from inside the machine.
Where the 4000 does have an upper-hand over the 5000, however, is the Pantone-licensed FA (formed adapted) toner. This is a new technology that was brought in last year to coincide with the launch of the 6000 launch. It comes off the back of five years’ research by Punch Graphix and has a ‘potato-shaped’ polyester based composition. The base for other toners is often a smooth circle shape, however, Punch claims that this toner envelops a larger colour space and results in sharper colours and smoother tones.
As the toner fuses at lower temperatures it can be used on a greater variety of substrates such as polyester film, transfer material and label stock.
The new version of the X-800 front end is also found in the 4000. Launched at Ipex last year, the updated version of the X-800 has a new metadata tool which allows a user to apply last minute modifications without having to RIP the job again. It also allows simultaneous set-up, ripping and printing and can process PostScript, PDF, PPML and PPML/VDX files. It supports XML and JDF-based job tickets. It is also able to handle coated and non-coated stocks.
FA toner and the new front end were first introduced on the 6000, and they have been merged with the Xeikon’s traditional strengths to create the 4000.
Although it is not possible to upgrade the 4000 to a 5000plus at present, the firm says there are exchange options available.
New 5000 model
While most of the attention at Xeikon’s launch focused on the 4000, it was also announced that the 5000plus will take over from the 5000, which is to be discontinued. The 5000plus also has the new FA toner and is fully upgradeable up to the 6000. It runs at the same 130ppm speed as before at a UK list price of £350,000.
Although he did not give specific target sales, Punch International chief sales officer Siegfried Trinker was confident about the prospects his newly extended product line: “With the launch of the Xeikon systems family and the new 4000, we are responding to a strong request from our customers to make the Xeikon concept available to a broader audience. From whatever perspective, this family of digital presses offers business growth potential and has a blooming
future ahead.”
Xeikon hopes that bringing together this range will put them in a strong position in the digital market and they are relying heavily on service and the strength of the firm’s patented technologies to do this. As Trinker said when he opened the presentation to the assembled guests in Lier: “We may not be as big as some of our competitors, but we definitely are smarter.”
SPECIFICATIONS
Web width
• 500-508mm
Stock range
• 40-250gsm
Speed
• 130A4 ppm (up to 170gsm)
• 100 A4 ppm (up to 250gsm)
Imaging
• 600dpi
Front end
• X-800
Price
• £270,000
Contact
• Punch Graphix 01904 520555 www.punchgraphix.com
THE ALTERNATIVES
HP Indigo press 3050
An evolution of the popular 3000, the Indigo press 3050 offers high quality for short runs and personalised printing jobs. The press can reach speeds of up to 4,000 A4 four-colour images per hour or 16,000 single-colour A4 images per hour. It produces high-definition prints at 812dpi resolution and up to 230 lines per inch. There are options of five, six and seven-colour inking stations that allow you to augment four process colours with HP IndiChrome on- and off-press special colours.
Speed
• 67ppm
Resolution
• 812dpi
Max sheet size
• 475x320mm
Stock range
• 90-350gsm coated
• 80-300gsm uncoated
Price
• £199,000
Contact
• HP Indigo Division 01923 242402 www.hp.com
iGen3 90
Xerox’s flagship DocuColor digital press has automated makeready and collation and it can mix stocks within a run and has built in ‘colour intelligence’. It has productivity of 90 A4 ppm and can be used with stock of up to 350gsm. Every page produced on the iGen3 can be customised and personalised with colour and mono printing combinations. It can produce print-on-demand catalogues, brochures, direct mail, inserts and flyers.
Speed
• 90 A4ppm
Resolution
• 600x4800dpi (max)
Max sheet size
• 364x521mm (with option of up to 354x571mm)
Stock range
• 60-350gsm
Price
• £320,000
Contact
• Xerox 0195 251133 www.xerox.co.uk
Kodak Nexpress 2100plus
The Kodak NexPress 2100plus superseded the NexPress 2100 in 2005 when it was launched at Graphexpo. It is a modular digital press that can be configured with extra feeder or delivery modules to increase paper capacity. It handles a wide range of substrate types and sizes and can be configured with a fifth imaging unit for spot colours, protective coating and watermarking. This also enables high-impact glossing.
Speed
• 70 A4ppm
Resolution
• 600dpi
Max sheet size
• 530x356mm
Stock range
• 60-350gsm up to 400 microns
Front end
• NXX Station IV
Price
• £200,000-£300,000 depending on configuration
Contact
• Kodak 01923 233366 www.graphics.kodak.com
