The Ricoh Pro C5300s Series sheetfed colour press has won the prestigious EDP Award for Color Printer SRA3 < 499,000. The newest addition to Ricoh’s sheetfed portfolio flexibly and responsively delivers high-quality print for a wide range of applications.
The EDP Awards honor the best developments in print production tools, software developments, substrates, inks, materials, and finishing systems. The association focuses on ways to assist technology-appliers in their task to find the right solution for their applications.
Building on the success of its predecessor, the Ricoh Pro C5200s, the Pro C5300s has been developed to enable print service providers (PSPs) to tap into greater production flexibility, higher print quality, and a broader service offering. It is suited to small to medium size PSPs, print on demand environments, and corporate reprographics departments (CRDs).
It enables high image quality with Ricoh 2400 x 4800dpi VCSEL technology and new gloss control to address different image output demands and high productivity with a speed of up to 80 pages per minute and an increased monthly duty cycle of 450,000. It offers substrate flexibility with a vacuum feed large capacity tray and broad media handling of substrates up to 360 grams per square meter, non-carbon paper, textured media, and envelopes. A wider variety of postpress capabilities enabling responsive service delivery supported by peripherals, including an enhanced booklet finisher capable of 30-sheet booklet production at 80 grams per square meter. It offers end to end production through its high capacity stacker and efficient fore-edge trimmer. The Pro C5300s incorporates a 10-inch touch screen colour panel for fast and easy set-up. Uptime is maximized with simple to change operator replaceable units (ORUs).
Eef de Ridder, vice president, Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh Europe, says, “In these difficult times, PSPs are under great pressure to increase their flexibility and creativity. The Pro C5300s is all about highly responsive production for small to medium volumes. We are delighted that the EDP Award recognizes this evolution of Ricoh’s tried and tested technology and how it can help operations adapt to the challenges they are facing.”
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
