Earlier this year Konica Minolta announced a new series of production printers, the AccurioPress C14010-series, which should now be just about ready to start shipping in Europe. These printers supercede the existing top-of-the-range C14000 machines, and include an optional new fifth color station, which is a first for Konica Minolta.
Editors note: Konica Minolta showed the new C14010 printer with the brand new IQ601 that benefits from a full spectrophotometer at the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida in February. We are expecting its introduction to the Indian market in the current quarters. Watch this space!
All the basic specifications appear to be the same as for the older C14000-series, in terms of print speed, media range and image resolution. Thus the C14010-series has a maximum print speed of 140 A4 pages per minute, and can handle a peak volume of 2.5 million A4 pages. As before, the series also includes a slightly slower model, the C12010, which runs at up to 120ppm and will handle a peak of up to 2.2 million pages.
Both of these are 4–color machines, but for both there is an ’S’ version that has a fifth color station, which is new. For now, the only colour available for this fifth station is the white toner that Konica Minolta has previously developed for its AL400 label press back in 2022. The white toner, which is laid down first, will only run at 120 A4 ppm.
Ines Wennemann, senior product manager for professional printing at Konica Minolta Europe, explained, “The special thing about the white is that the customer can choose between the different densities. So it’s not just white. If you like a really full white or lighter white, you can set it up per job or you can even set it up per paper. You can change the different curves so you can really play about with the density of the white toner.”
Konica Minolta has also talked about offering metallics for the fifth unit but there is no information on when this might be available. Jason Dizzine, vice president of Portfolio Management and Planning for Konica Minolta US, says the company is still trying to identify potential applications and the toners that would best suit them, noting, “What comes next is really going to be driven by what our customers and what the market requirements are. We’ve all had history with fifth colors and experience in the past, just from an industry standpoint. So I think it’s really important to find out what’s going to be required as a sustainable and really profitable and sellable application for our customers.”
Konica Minolta has also improved some of the automation around the press. Thus the old IQ501 module, which automatically improved image quality, has now been replaced with a brand new IQ601 that benefits from a full spectrophotometer and now comes as a standard feature. This can be used to produce color profiles without any external measuring equipment and automatically takes care of the overall color management.
The new machines gain an Intelligent Media Sensor which consists of two parts as Wennemann explains, “So the first one is the IM104, and this has six different sensors for setting up the paper.” Three of these sensors, for moisture, paper weight and thickness also operate during the print run to check that you are running the correct paper type for the job. The other sensors measure the temperature of the air surrounding the paper, and the volume of air used to separate the sheets.
The second media tool is the IM105, which is optional. Wennemann notes, “It’s the paper size sensor that measures the paper during the print run and it can then talk to our new IQ 601. So if, for example, you set the paper up for 450mm and it’s actually 448mm, then it detects it and can align the image automatically to the upper left corner.”
Otherwise, these new machines take the same range of media, from 52 to 450 gsm, as before and also including envelopes, embossed paper, polyester, and cut-sheet labels. These presses can also print on long sheets up to 1,300 mm simplex or 900 mm in duplex.
There is also an Auto Inspection Kit, which can check the quality of what has been printed, including for variable data against the RIP’ed data. It works in conjunction with the IQ601 and the new media sensor to ensure front to back registration and image alignment. Wennemann adds, “So really customers can rely on our machine and get a report of what is printed and what is not.”
There’s a choice of controllers, including one from Creo, two from Fiery, both of which run APPE 6, and a newly developed Konica Minolta AccurioImage controller IC-614, which uses APPE 5.6. Dizzine adds: “We’ve updated that CPU, with a much faster controller that’ll give us better productivity, the ability to handle more data and really just boost the productivity of that.”
Konica Minolta is also rethinking its approach to servicing. Dizzine explains, “So what we’re looking at is a strategy here of a level of self diagnosis and self repair, which combined with remote and traditional service really covers that full gamut. We believe by using this AQA Auto Quality Adjustment technology built into our IQ 601, it gives us the ability to look at real time data and provide it back to the press to make changes to first try there and self-repair. But then also send that data back to potentially a remote technician, or provided to our technician on site. So this is really an amazing opportunity for us to change how we’re supporting our customers and produce a much better experience.”
The new press has been trialled at the Späth group in Baden Baden in Germany, which has been a long term user of Konica Minolta’s printers, including three C14000e presses. Managing partner Alexander Späth said, “We’ve been very impressed by the Accurio 14010S during the test runs so far. Productivity is very high with quality having improved even further. And the auto inspecting unit helps us to remove dirty sheets and other problems during the print process without having to stop the production. In addition, the IM sensor helps us to manage the paper and prevents accidental use of the wrong paper and the real spectrophotometer optimizes the calibration and the print image.”
He continued, “We also tested the white toner, which impressed us with a good coverage. It is quick and easy to use and the accuracy if we print colors over the white toner is also very good. Everything is rounded off by significantly faster RIP, which we also use and it’s increased our productivity.”
So overall Konica Minolta is promising greatly improved productivity through increased use of automation. The main advantage of this will be that these printers require less training and skill to use.
Olaf Lorenz, Konica Minolta’s general manager of Global Brand Experience, says that the production printing market in Europe and North America is continuing to grow, noting, “Most definitely it’s the ongoing consolidation of the small commercial printing jobs. At the same time there’s the conversion from offset to digital, and that’s why most of those facilities that have seen consolidated volumes coming, either from offset or from small runs, need a higher productive machine.”
Dizzine says that productivity is not just down to engine speed, “Now we’re taking a much more in-depth look at not what speeds do we need, but what level of automation, what type of applications do we need to support? Where is the growth in the future?”
He continues, “We see that a major percentage of the volume is still coming from our commercial printers and our publishing printers that are still using digital toner. We know that the quality that it provides, the consistency is very important to them, so it’s still a very important part of the market that we continue to support with new products.”
Unfortunately there’s no way to upgrade the older models with the new automation modules as these latest versions represent a new press platform. These new machines are also the first to be manufactured at a new plant in Japan at Mikawa, which lies between Tokyo and Osaka.
Konica Minolta has also introduced a new inline laminator, the GBC CL401. This is a cold laminator so there is no time warm-up time and it’s possible to just laminate one side of a sheet. It can handle sheets from 75 gsm to 300 gsm and in sizes from A4 to SRA3. This can be paired with the TU-510 Inline Trimming Unit.
Some of the improvements on the new machines will also filter down to the mid-range and entry level production presses so there should be further announcement throughout the year from Konica Minolta. In the meantime, you can find further details from konicaminolta.eu.
First published on 11th April 2025 by the Printing and Manufacturing Journal. Reprinted by permission.
Editors note: Konica Minolta showed the new C14010 printer with the brand new IQ601 that benefits from a full spectrophotometer at the PrintPack India exhibition in February in Greater Noida. We are expecting its introduction to the Indian market in the current quarters.
