After months of anticipation, Fuji Xerox’s long-awaited Versant 180 and 3100 sheet-fed digital presses have made it to Australian shores, with some big improvements that set them apart from previous offerings in the line – including full-fledged in-line finishing units.
These new devices, which hit Japanese and Asia-Pacific markets late last year, are the first major entries in the Versant series since the 80 and 2100 were rolled out in 2014. Mark Brown, marketing manager for production technology at Fuji Xerox Australia, is excited to bring the new devices to the Australian market – and judging from sales of the 80 and 2100, he anticipates these offerings going gangbusters across the country. “We’re ready to go again with Versant – I can’t believe it’s been two years already since we launched the previous ones in August and November of 2014. It’s been like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.
The big addition to the 180 and 3100 that their predecessors lacked is the integration of Fuji Xerox’s Finisher D6, a compact system that packs a booklet maker, creaser/two-sided trimmer, and square fold trimmer into one in-line unit. “The new presses are a total print solution that include simple affordable in-line finishing and all in one booklet making to automate processes, reduce costs, and ultimately streamline operator workflows,” said Brown.
It’s the first time any Fuji Xerox product has included finishing like this, says Brown: “By combining best in class hardware technology, software and our extensive support services, we’re making it easier than ever for the production market to further expand their business and explore expanded opportunities in this finishing space.”
Despite these new features, the Versant 180 has a small footprint that could easily slot into more than just a commercial printing house. “The 180 is also a bit of a crossover product – we sell it not only to commercial printers, but to the corporate space too. It sits well in an office environment,” Brown said.
The larger 3100, meanwhile, is aimed squarely at commercial printers who want to squeeze as much productivity as they can out of their machines. “Somebody who’s looking to do more printing and has a higher productivity requirement would need the 3100 over the 180,” Brown said. The 180 can pump out 80 pages per minute in both colour and black-and-white, while its big brother ups that to 100. Both Versants are toner-based, can handle paper from 52 to 350g/m2, and print at 2400dpi fine resolution.
Just like with their predecessors, cutting-edge automation is key to the Versant 180 and 3100’s operations. The new presses have inbuilt sensors that perform high-tech management of registration and colour quality, ensuring perfect alignment (including both one-sided and two-sided printing) and even distribution of toner across the page, and are capable of fully calibrating within ten sheets. “Generally with other machines or with previous models, you’d normally have to print things out, measure them, make adjustments et cetera – now it’s all printed and read in-line and adjusted all on the fly,” Brown said, adding that Fuji Xerox Australia frequently runs demonstrations for Versant customers in which they deliberately put a machine out of alignment and let the clients see how quickly the auto-correction fixes the registration.
These automation features serve to dramatically reduce setup times for printers at the start of the workday, and swiftly correct any drift that may occur as part of daily operations. Though present on earlier models, the software has been refined for the new releases, adding tighter tolerances that build on the presses’ accuracy and print quality.
Fuji Xerox has also upgraded the digital front-end software on the 180 and 3100, to incorporate the D6 Finisher’s functionality. The new presses are released with EFI’s Fiery software, as part of Fuji Xerox’s long partnership with EFI, as well as FX’s own GX Print Server, imported from the company’s high-end continuous-feed machines and redesigned to operate with the Versant platform. “We’ve put a lot of functionality in with our own product and our own software. It’s pretty exciting, actually – it’s very powerful software,” Brown said.