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The Production Inkjet Evolution: Ricoh Production Inkjet

In 2011, I began a series that looked at the then-current production inkjet vendor product offerings, and over the years continued to look at how they were being, or could be, used. In this new series, 15 years later and with drupa 2024 on the horizon it’s time to take a look at how production inkjet has evolved, how it is used and where we can expect it to go and grow. I will look at each of the production inkjet manufacturers and suppliers, customers and document some of their journeys. In this article I look at Ricoh Production Inkjet.

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Ricoh was founded in 1936 in Tokyo as Riken Sensitized Paper, a company that manufactured photographic papers. While Ricoh has a significant printing systems product line, in this article we will only be focusing on the Ricoh production inkjet printers and associated technologies.

I wrote about the InfoPrint 5000 in my 2011 pre-drupa production inkjet series. This platform was originally marketed by the IBM Printing Systems Division prior to its staged acquisition by Ricoh starting in 2007 and has been marketed by Ricoh since. The InfoPrint platform was one of the earlier entrants into the production inkjet space, and has been very successful for IBM, Ricoh, and Screen, who was the manufacturer and a partner in the machine’s development. 

Since then, for Ricoh and the other production inkjet press manufacturers in the production inkjet market, the underlying technology, in print heads, ink, and media, have moved production inkjet capabilities to new levels. This has been driving users in using the technology for higher coverage applications beyond the transactional applications for which it was initially designed.


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About David Zwang

David Zwang travels around the globe helping companies increase their productivity, margins and market reach. He specializes in production optimization, strategic business planning, market analysis, and related services to companies in the vertical media communications market. Clients have included printers, manufacturers, retailers, publishers, premedia and US Government agencies. He can be reached at [email protected].

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