News

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between Ricoh and IBM, has released the InfoPrint 5000 full-colour production printer in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The continuous web printer makes it possible to produce variable documents - such as statements with one-to-one marketing information and personalised direct mail - in high volume.

InfoPrint Solutions offers the same extendable controller architecture across its monochrome and colour production portfolio. It enables existing InfoPrint 4100 customers to develop and run full-colour applications on the InfoPrint 4100, using 256 levels of grey, and to migrate those applications to the InfoPrint 5000 without modification.

Dermot O'Loughlin, general manager of InfoPrint Solutions, EMEA, said the InfoPrint 5000 filled a gap in the market. "Until now, customer choice has been limited to either very high-quality, high-cost but lower-speed full colour graphic arts systems or high speed, lower cost, but lower quality colour production systems," O'Loughlin said.

"The InfoPrint 5000 fills the gap between current alternatives in the market, providing new cost-effective opportunities for customers to implement TransPromo documents or migrate offset pages to digital."

The machine uses a piezo-electric, drop-on-demand inkjet technology with water-based pigment inks that are resistant to fading and smearing, and a tight paper web that also contributes to the inkjet print quality.

The system includes a powerful IBM multi-computer controller, initially supporting PostScript and PDF.

InfoPrint 5000 is available in simplex or tandem duplex configurations.

The system can print at speeds up to 64 metres/minute (209.9 feet/minute) or 862 A4 full-colour, two-up tandem duplex impressions/minute (916 letter-size impressions/minute). The system delivers resolution of 720 x 360 dots per inch (dpi).

InfoPrint Solutions launched on 4 June and is based on IBM's former printing systems division. A hardware installation will cost around £2m for a full line.