OnDemand opens up its new high-speed Océ

Powering into the front ranks of high-speed inkjet producers, Bruce Peddlesden shared the limelight with Simon Wheeler to introduce the industry to Australia’s first ColorStream 3500.

At an open house in the company’s Melbourne premises last week, some of the industry’s largest players, and competitors, brushed shoulders to see what high-speed colour inkjet can do. The transformative technology is raising the bar not only for essential mail but also in book printing and has the potential to develop on demand catalogues and newspapers.

According to Simon Wheeler, managing director, Océ Australia, (pictured with Briuce Peddlesden) the company is one of the leading proponents of the technology in the world. “As of this month Océ has placed 220 continuous feed presses throughout the world, including four in Australia,” he said.

Quoting international print consultant Info Trends, he said the company was now the world leader in digital continuous feed sales. “Océ leads the market with a 30 per cent share – achieved within only three years – in the production colour continuous feed market segment, including inkjet and toner-based technologies, in the combined US and Western European geographies,” he said.

“In continuous feed monochrome, Océ sales represent 42% of the installations in these locations.”

Bruce Peddlesden said On-Demand has been looking at the possibilities of inkjet for more than six months and the Océ ColorStream 3500 had impressed him when he saw it at Océ’s Open House in Poing, Germany.

“Our publishing services have been outgrowing our current capabilities and inkjet will boost them considerably,” he said. “At the same time, we have a large variable data clientele and the ColorStream 3500 will enable us to expand these services into full transactional printing.

“We were also drawn to the system’s flexibility, with its ability to switch between full colour mode and black and white.”

The new printer will be connected to On-Demand using the company's Océ PRISMA software.

On-Demand has been an Océ customer for many years with a fleet of five Océ VarioPrint 6250 black and white perfecting presses.

“Océ has been the mainstay of our black and white operations and we have enjoyed a good, lasting relationship with them,” said Peddlesden.