RICOH PUTS B2 INKJET INTO BETA TESTING

Technology developer Ricoh has put its digital B2 sheetfed inkjet press into beta testing, with the company anticipating it will begin delivery by the middle of next year.

The so-called Ricoh Dragon is officially named as the Pro Z75, and is designed to run at 4,500sph. It will print on 60-400gsm uncoated paper and 73-400gsm coated, using 1200dpi piezo printheads.

Beta site is US print operation Heeter in Pennsylvania, which also hosted the webfed VC70000 beta testing, and it now has a trio of the continuous feed printers, and several toner machines.

The Ricoh Dragon is actually closer in footprint to the continuous feed printers than Ricoh’s toner machines, in order to accommodate the drying section, which is part of the process, to ensure the water based inks are fully dried before the reverse side of the sheet is printed. The dryer is also needed to avoid cockling on lightweight papers.

Ricoh is intending to begin commercial shipping, to Europe at least, by the middle of next year. There is no word on when it will be coming to ANZ.

The digital B2 sheetfed market here is headed by HP Indigo, with Konica Minolta and Fujifilm also having digital B2 presses installed. Canon has shown a B2 press at drupa, the seven unit Voyager, but since then it has been taken back to the lab.