The new Bizhub Press C1070 gets away to a good start ahead of rivals in the eagerly anticipated contest of digital mid-range printers in 2014.
The much-fancied Bizhub Press C1070 is little sister to the flagship C1100, a more powerful runner that will come onto the course in July as Konica Minolta’s main entrant for the digital championship. It is part of a bloodline that includes not only the C1070 and C1060, but the C1085 as well. This gives the Konica Minolta backers a contender to run at every weight.
The Bizhub Press has already got a head start on its rivals Canon, Ricoh and Fuji Xerox who have yet to parade their contenders in the ring. Canon is likely to be the next onto the course with the promised launch of its new, as yet un-named, engine in June. Its backers are confident the new entrant will restore Canon’s reputation after some time in the wilderness. Connections are confident of a good showing even in the tough competitive conditions.
There is no word on a new engine from Ricoh this year as it relies on its strong stayer, the Pro C5110S, a firm favourite with the in-plant and corporate printing punters. The stable is predicting that its new productivity system is cutting costs of production by up to 30 percent.
Fuji Xerox has a dark horse waiting in the wings, the Versant 2100 Press, out of Japan that is currently performing well in the USA. Local connections are less sure of its appeal stating that it is currently under consideration for local launch and we will be advising of our plans very soon. For the time being it is relying on the tried C75 and the heavyweight iGen 150, which it is backing to very competitive odds.
This year’s mid-range digital printing contest is looking at being one of the most interesting and hard fought in years as two of the contenders are promoting vastly improved performance and reliability. The others will have to make up a lot of ground to draw back the Konica Minolta head start. According to head trainer, David Procter, the Bizhub Press C1070 is a brand new engine incorporating a number of improvements that will make it hard to catch on the circuit.
He points to the form guide where it lists:
- A new vacuum air feed that will appeal to printers accustomed to this feature on high-end offset presses. Removing any contact with the paper the air feed ensures a smoother paper path.
- The replacement of the single fuser engine with two separate ones for taking better care of the fusing and the pressure functions respectively. This development provides a lot more reliability and power.
- Lower heat in the fuser, down from 160 degrees to 140 degrees imposes less stress on the paper. Rollers that oscillate and are covered with new roller materials deliver a benchmark quality result.
- An inline colour densitometer that recalibrates for every change of paper and can be set to measure colour integrity throughout the run. This works in conjunction with a new magenta toner to ensure ever more vibrant colour.
- In addition to the in-built Konica Minolta RIP and the trusted EFI Fiery, which can be integrated or separate, a new Creo RIP from Kodak is set to make it easier for printers, especially those operating Prinergy systems, to simply plug and play. This is a coup for Konica Minolta, as Fuji Xerox is supposedly not going to offer the new Creo RIP. Whether Canon takes it on will become apparent closer to the day.
The Bizhub Press C1070 is being promoted as a stayer, even if it’s not geared to output the levels of the flagship C1100. As a mid-range contender it is targeted to handle output from 100K to 150K per month, according to Procter. “This is the sixth generation of Konica Minolta’s digital systems and it’s the best yet. The quality is fantastic with really strong reds, which have been an issue in the past. The eight-bit colour outputs 250 levels of grey per pixel. I’m confident the C1070 is a winner that will be hard to beat,” he said.
First showing of the Bizhub Press C1070 was at Konica Minolta’s sales kick off meeting yesterday (Wednesday) at the North Ryde HQ where over 50 distributors, sales agents and technicians were given the inside running on the machine. There was even a European relative of the hotly fancied C1100 brought in for the crowd to admire.
David Procter is expecting the C1070 to attract plenty of interest right from the start and is tipping the first winner will be at Lindfield Printing in Sydney’s North Shore.