Two Ricoh colour cut-sheet press series, the Pro C7110X Series and Pro C9110 Series, have received five 2016 Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) PRO awards.
This follows InfoSource figures showing Ricoh retains the number one spot for units sold of digital colour sheet-fed production presses in Western Europe with a market share of 37,7% for the first half of 2015, which puts it 15% ahead of the nearest rival.
‘BLI’s PRO awards acknowledge best-in-class production equipment evaluated in field tests,’ said Jacques van Wyk, COO of Ricoh SA. ‘They have generated tens of millions of impressions on production equipment from all the vendors over several years, which is why they are the industry benchmark and why it is a feather in our cap to win these awards.’
BLI’s production field tests reveal attributes that distinguish the most outstanding performers in challenging tests that cover productivity, image quality, media handling, ease of use and more.
The Ricoh systems were the only models to earn BLI’s five-star rating for media handling since the production test programme began.
The Ricoh Pro C9110 has won BLI’s 2016 PRO Award as ‘Outstanding Mid- to High-Volume Colour Production Device’ for its:
· Significant speed advantages across the entire media range versus its competitors.
· Support for media weights up to 400gsm, including for duplexing, from all sources.
· Exceptional media handling, including more than double the maximum paper capacity of most rival units, allowing for longer unattended run.
· Class leading offering of inline finishing options which include a perfect binder, high capacity stacker, full bleed square-edge booklet maker and inline ring bindery.
· Impressive colour consistency, with no colours shifting by more than Delta E 3.3 over the course of a 1000 page print run on both coated and uncoated media.
· Excellent fine detail reproduction in full colour output, especially in light contrast areas, and very good depth of field.
David Sweetnam, BLI’s director of research and lab services EMEA/Asia, noted that the Ricoh Pro C9110 Series is the company’s fastest sheet-fed production device to date and said that its ability to maintain its 130ppm rated speed up to its impressive maximum media weight of 400gsm ‘leaves clear blue sky between this model and its closest rivals and brings it into new territory where it can now compete in some workflows against significantly higher priced production devices.’
‘With its exceptional productivity and media handling, the Ricoh Pro C9110 Series has established several new benchmarks for other vendors to aim for and is certainly going to be a very attractive proposition for many commercial print and CRD environments,’ said BLI Senior Analyst Ian Latham.
The Ricoh Pro C7110X Series won BLI’s 2016 PRO Award as Outstanding Light- to Mid-Volume Colour Production Device for its:
· Fifth imaging station (available on the X and SX configurations), offering a range of creative output not possible with four colour alternatives.
· Excellent productivity especially with heavyweight media, maintaining its full 90 ppm engine speed with media up to 300gsm, surpassing the results of rival devices.
· Long, uninterrupted print runs thanks to a maximum paper capacity that’s more than double the capacity of most rival units.
· Class leading array of inline finishing options including a perfect binder, full bleed square-edge booklet maker and inline ring bindery.
· Impressive colour consistency, with no colours shifting by more than Delta E 3.9 over the course of a 1 000 page print run on either coated or uncoated media.
· Best-in-class black solid density that also showed less variance on both coated and uncoated media than that of competitors in BLI’s 100 page high-coverage test.
‘The Ricoh Pro C7110X gave a very strong performance in BLI’s production field test,’ said Sweetnam. ‘The fifth imaging station is a real game changer, clearly differentiating it from other cut sheet devices in its class, allowing for a range of creative options (such as spot coating on covers) not possible with four colour press alternatives.’
Latham said, ‘The Ricoh Pro C7110X certainly deserves its five-star rating not just for productivity but for media handling, with its support for media up to 350gsm in duplex, with full engine speed maintained up to 300gsm, not to mention support for printing banners up to 700mm in length, and a media catalogue with a high degree of customisability and tight integration with the EFI controller.’
