1st iGen3 in Australia goes to Rapid Reprographics

Hailed by Phil Chambers, ceo Fuji Xerox Australia, as the third generation of digital printing technology, the iGen3 made it to Australia two years after its successful launch in the USA and Europe. At the company’s technology suite at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, for what was arguably the product launch of the year, Chambers predicted the iGen3, and the monochrome Nuvera printers, will radically change the way printing is carried out. It is no longer a case of digital being confined to a restricted range of products due to substrate and quality limitations.

“This is the beginning of a significant change. Over the next few months we will be redefining our product range with solutions that are more than capable of encroaching on the offset market,” he said.

Estimating digital’s current share of the printing market at around 10 per cent, he told an industry audience that he expects the new generation of products will move to address, “twenty, or perhaps even thirty or forty percent of the offset market.”

According to a company press release Ron Anderson, owner of Sydney-based Rapid Reprographics said he provided Fuji Xerox Australia with a signed order for the first iGen3 over two years ago. “I’ve been watching the development of this new technology for a long time and knew it was a perfect fit for our print business.”

Rapid Reprographics in North Sydney operates largely as a trade digital printer and over the years has been one of the largest Xerox DocuTech centres in NSW. “The iGen3 is to digital colour what the DocuTech was to black and white,” he said. “I expect us to double our volume in the first six months, based on offset migration and the economics of the digital price point.”

It is expected the Rapid Reprographics iGen3 will be installed during August at the company’s new premises in Artarmon and will be in operation by the beginning of October. In keeping with Fuji Xerox’s determination to make every iGen3 installation a success story, a special SmartPress Production Consultant will come with the machine to get it up and running as smoothly as possible.

The other two Sydney iGen3s are for Security Mailing Services, and Mike Jones’ CDM, while the Melbourne machine is going to Typographic Services.

Nuvera will have a bigger impact on FXA

This week also saw the launch of Fuji Xerox’s next generation monochrome copier printers, the Nuvera 100 and 120. According to Phil Chambers, while the iGen3 will be most important for the industry as a whole, the new black and white platforms will have the most impact on the company’s fortunes. He accurately described the machine as the ‘”new Docutech.”

“The DocuTech is ten to twelve years old and we have been waiting some time for its replacement and here it is,” he said. The first model Nuvera to be released is the copier printer, with the full blown professional Docutech replacement to be launched in three months.

The Nuvera Copier Printer employs a range of technologies first deigned for the iGen3 with the result that its has 4800x600dpi image quality, with 125 lines per inch half tone screens. It is destined for mid-production print businesses in the commercial print, quick print, corporate and in-plant markets.