Bruce Peddlesden makes his inkjet move

The largest digital printer in Australia recognises the oncoming inkjet wave and is ready to position his company, OnDemand, to take on the country’s first Océ ColorStream 3500.

“Everyone in our sector will need to be in inkjet. You can’t get away from it; it’s going to snowball. Let’s say I’m looking very seriously at the 3500,” said Peddlesden on his return from last week’s Océ Production Printing Summit in Poing, near Munich.
The move to inkjet is transforming the digital production space with higher speeds and improving quality taking more work from offset. However, the web-fed technology presents it own challenges to companies such as OnDemand.
“All inkjet is web-fed. It’s a different mindset and manufacturing process. Most digital production so far is sheetfed and we’re all set up that way. It will take a lot of changes to adapt,” said Peddlesden.

Photo caption: Summer in Bavaria… Bruce Peddlesden, (2nd from left) with Simon Wheeler, Tim Saleeba and Herbert Kieleithner of Océ.
With the addition of the high-speed ColorStream, OnDemand will have the most comprehensive range of engines capable of producing for every sector of the market. It already boasts Australia’s first HP Indigo 7200 as well as four Océ 6250 black & white cut-sheet machines in addition to a Fuji Xerox 1000 cut-sheet press.
“You have to be able to supply whatever the market wants, on the grade of paper and to the quality levels it is prepared to accept and pay for. Customer’s want different stocks and you wouldn’t want to run 500 copies on an inkjet. That’s why you need the Indigo and [Fuji] Xerox machines. You have to be able to meet their request,” he said.

Peddlesden was one of a number of local printers who made the journey to Southern Germany last week to explore the new role of Océ as a division of Canon. In contrast to previous years when the company showcased wide format and cut-sheet colour as well as its signature products, this time around it was a highly focused show.

One of the highlights was the announcement and live demonstration of the new JetStream 1400 and 3000 printing systems. Apart from the first jointly developed imagePRESS C7020VPS using an Océ Prisma workflow for producing book covers for the ColorStream 1000 Flex, the entire 6,000 square meters of exhibition floor space was devoted to high-speed production engines.

According to Rokus van Iperen, chairman of the board, this is in line with Canon’s vision for the company to remain as a separate entity, responsible for high-speed printing as well as being the division with responsibility for R&D in Europe. In his opening presentation, he emphasized Océ’s future as an independent entity with the Canon organisation.

In addition, he introduced Gerd Finkbeiner, chairman of the board of manroland, following the announcement of the two company’s alliance. manroland will sell Océ high-speed inkjet into its graphic arts customer base. This is a logical fit and gives Océ access to the huge range of newspaper and commercial printers running manroland equipment.

According to Simon Wheeler, managing director, Océ Australia, discussions have already taken place between himself and Steve Dunwell, managing director of manroland Australia. “We do it differently here. Because it’s a small market we just call one another up and sit down for a chat. It’s not like the formality in Europe. I look forward to working with manroland,” he said.