TOKYO, May 6, 2004--Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to the production print industry, Fuji Xerox today announced the launch of the DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press, the industry-leading digital full-color production press that boasts blazing speeds up to 100 pages-per-minute with print quality rivaling offset presses. Sales will commence in Japan and Australia in May, with phased rollout to other Asia-Pacific countries later this year.
The DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press offers capabilities that complement traditional offset presses: short print runs, quick job turnarounds and variable information (VI) printing. In addition, it offers print quality as well as the look and feel equivalent to those from traditional offset printing-all on a wide range of paper stock.
"Clients are demanding their applications such as books, newsletters and point-of-sale/direct-mail materials to be produced in full color as quickly as possible, without sacrificing quality," said Abby Abhyankar, vice president of Sales & Marketing, Production Services Business Group. "The DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press is engineered to meet and often exceed those demands, and allows commercial print professionals to easily accept production jobs that they would normally have to turn down."
The new digital press targets commercial and data processing print services markets, offering new levels of performance in short-run production as well as in full color VI and customized printing for billing, transactional and direct marketing applications. As a result of a US$ 1 billion investment in its R&D, the DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press is designed to print up to 6,000 A4 pages per hour or 100 pages per minute.
"The printing industry is now experiencing a transition from traditional mass production to flexible shorter and customized digital production," Abhyankar said. "Buyers of print are demanding order flexibility/frequency and improved economy. We expect existing short-run offset print production to migrate quickly to the iGen3 Digital Production Press thanks to its ease of operation, economics and the automation of pre and post press workflows, which includes electronic collation and inline finishing."
To support all customers in maximizing their iGen3 investment, Fuji Xerox is introducing a new customer development role: the Smart Press Production Consultant.
"Our overriding objective is to help our customers develop new businesses and grow their revenue. The iGen3 offers a wealth of opportunities for customers to profit by providing services that add significant value. The Fuji Xerox Smart Press Production Consultant's role is to help ensure our customers take full advantage of the iGen3's many benefits and get off to a fast start, in the new production print business," Abhyankar said.
Unveiled in 2001 at Print 01 held in the United States, the iGen3 launch began in October of the following year in North America and Europe, where the systems have been exceeding print volume expectations and producing offset quality documents for clients mainly in commercial printing and data processing industries.
