MFP Industry Weekend Review

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.

CDMS, a print shop, announced it has purchased two Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 (high speed color inkjet production print systems) and two Xerox DocuTech 180 production b/w systems to produce Transpromo materials. Transpromo applications are invoices and statement with color marketing messages.

Xerox also announced it has sold a 4110 production b/w system and a DocuColor 5000 production color system to KCS Trade Print.- Xerox has sent out an e-mail promotion to prospects promoting its Fuji-made color laser MFPs:
o If customer chooses a lease, they get 250 color impressions per month at no charge. This includes all service and supplies, and is 2 clicks for 11”x17” prints.
o 60 month lease/FMV buyout promos:
 Xerox WorkCentre 7232 for $138 per month
 Xerox WorkCentre 7328 for $198 per month
 Xerox WorkCentre 5665 for $329 per month

The Financial Post newspaper announced that Xerox gave itself a big loan. Apparently, it had its Canadian division, Xerox Canada, loan $300 million to its parent, Xerox Corp. Unknown what the $300 million will be used for.
Xerox announced it has signed a contract with Verisign to provide network security software service for its own networks.
Xerox announced it has sold two of the 700 Digital Color Press production print systems to 4DM, a print shop that specializes in variable data direct mail.
Xerox announced it has sold a model 1300 Continuous Feed production b/w system, a Nuvera 120 production b/w system & iGen3 production color system to Fundcraft Publishing, the largest cookbook printer in the U.S.
Xerox announced two promotions. Rick Dastin is now president of Xerox Office Group, and Jule Limoli is now president of North American Agent Operations.-
Xerox announced that it offers an option for its EIP (extensible interface platform) equipped MFPs, that allows end users to scan jobs from an MFP, and have them sent to an Apple iPhone.

Hewlett Packard announced it has won a bid to provide a 3 year managed print services contract for Viacom Corp. claiming that they will save the company 25% per year. Unknown the number of printers and/or MFPs that were involved.

A Belgium company announced that a study it conducted, found that spectrophotometers were not always as accurate as advertised. Spectrophotometers are used to calibrate color printing devices, as well as monitors. Apparently, after extensively testing of a variety of devices, from a number of manufacturers, results revealed a variance as high as Delta 4. The testing company, The Flemish Innovation Center of Graphic Communication, highly recommends that end users not only calibrate their color printing devices, but also the measuring device itself.

Sharp announced it has its revised its financial forecast. Details:
o stock went down 9.3%
o it predicts profit will be lowest in 6 years
o net income will drop 41%

Hollywood actor Nick Nolte announced he plans on suing the maker of a laser printer, which he claims overheated and burned down his $2 million home in California. The brand of the printer was not revealed.

Kodak announced it has sold a NexPress 2100 production color system to Wolverine Printing of Grand Rapids, MI.

Hewlett Packard launched new color laser systems. All are Canon-made desktop A4 models, offering letter/legal size printing only. Main features:
o Color LaserJet CM2320 series
 Color LaserJet CM2320n print/scan/copy for $549
 Color LaserJet CM2320fxi copy/scan/fax/duplex for $849
 Color LaserJet CM2320nf copy/print/scan/fax for $649
 2.5” color LCD display
 4 tandem OPC drum design
 100 sheet stack bypass and 250 sheet paper drawer standard
 Optional second 250 sheet paper drawer
 21ppm b/w or color speed
 Max duty cycle of 40,000 per month
 Recommended volume of 1,000 per month
 17.9 second first print out time
 50 sheet document feeder
 Built-in print controller:• 450MHz processor• 160MB RAM• PCL & PostScript print drivers
 Black toner has yield of 3,500 pages (based on 5% coverage per page) for $115.99 each
 Color toners have yield of 2,800 pages (based on 5% coverage per page) for $114.44 each
 Optional extended warranties do NOT include supplieso Color LaserJet CM3530 series
 CM3530 offers print/scan/copy for $2499
 CM3530fs offer print/scan/fax/copy with corner staple for $2999
 31ppm color or b/w speed
 Max duty cycle of 75,000/month (based on b/w pages @ 5%)
 Recommended volume of 2K/month
 First page out time of 12.2. seconds
 Built-in print controller:• 515MHz processor• 512MB RAM• 80GB hard drive• PCL and PostScript print drivers
 600x600dpi (advertised as offering 1200dpi with interpolation)
 Comes standard with 100 sheet stack bypass as 250 sheet drawer
 Optional second paper drawer holds another 250 sheets
 Auto duplex standard 50 sheet document feeder standard
 Black toner has yield of 3,500 pages (based on 5% coverage per page) for $115.99 each
 Color toners have yield of 2,800 pages (based on 5% coverage per page) for $114.44 each
 Optional extended warranties do NOT include supplieso Color LaserJet CM3520
 Print only
 Base MSRP of $599.00
 Optional hard drive for secure printing and network job spooling

Screen of Israel announced it has sold a TruePress 520 high speed inkjet production print system to King Print and Flagship Press. Both are book printers.

More info on the history of Royal copiers:
o RBC (Royal Bond Copier) I offered:
 Had a brush to clean off master made from rabbit pelts made in Australia
 Paper caught fire during jams
 When relabled by APECO, was called “Dial-A-Matic”
o RBC II was replacement, and features drum coated with zinc oxide, and teflon-coated fuser rollers
o Followed by RBC III, IIIB, IV and IV-R

Muratec now relabeling color laser MFPs made by Samsung of Korea featuring:
o Muratec MFX-C4000 floor standing model
 40ppm b/w or color
 Street price as low as $4995
 4 tandem OPC drum design
 A4 model (letter and legal only)
 100 sheet document feeder 7” color LCD control panel
 10 second first copy out time
 20 second warmup time
 1200x1200dpi (does not offer 8 bits per pixel)
 Optional fax board
 Auto duplex standard (but slows down to 35ipm and not auto duplex 10 point)
 ID card copy mode (allows for easy copy of front and back of small card using platen glass)
 Comes standard with single 520 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass• Maximum paper capacity with optional drawers of 2,720 sheets
 Output tray holds maximum of 500 sheets
 Black toner yield of 20,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
 Color toners yield of 15,000 pages each based on 5% coverage per page
 Built-in print controller (actual maker unknown)• Scan to e-mail with LDAP• Scan to SMB, network, FTP, TWAIN and USB• Scan formats of TIFF, JPEG & PDF• 10/100BaseT & USB ports• PCL & PostScript print drivers• 80GB hard drive• 256MB RAM (up to 512MB with options)o Muratec MFX-C2500 desktop model
 25ppm b/w or color speed
 Copy/print/scan/fax standard
 4 tandem OPC drum design
 50 sheet document feeder
 Auto duplex (can not auto duplex 10 point and runs at 24ipm)
 ID card copy mode Black toner has yield of 5,500 pages based on 5% coverage
 Color toners have yield of 5,000 pages based on 5% coverage each
 250 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass standard
 Optional 500 sheet paper drawer
 Built-in print controller• USB & 10/100BaseT ports• Scan to e-mail with LDAP• Scan to SMB, network, FTP & USB• Scan formats of PDF, TIFF & JPEG• PCL & PostScript print drivers• 80GB hard drive• 256MB RAM (up to 768MB with options)

Sharp announced a new option for its OSA enabled MFPs. FACSys is a fax software package from emFAST Inc. Using OSA, it will be able to be accessed from the Sharp MFP control panel.

In recent testing conducted by Industry Analysts, the Canon imageRUNNER C3480i color laser MFP apparently did not perform that well in image quality tests. The author did not recommend the product for end users that wish to produce photographic quality output.

At its recent dealer meeting, Kyocera announced:
o new brand name is “TASKalfa” (to compete with Canon “imageRUNNER”, Ricoh “Aficio”, etc.)o showed future color workgroup models with speeds up to 40ppm coloro has no production b/w or color systems to offer yet
o its new embedded software program is called HyPAS (hybrid platform for advanced solutions)o two new b/w units, a 62ppm and 82ppm modelo all new models apparently will be dark gray/black, with white accents