Venlo, The Netherlands, 27 March 2006 -- (See comments from Andy Tribute below) --Oce N.V., a global leader in digital document management and delivery solutions, today unveiled the Océ VarioPrint 6250 cutsheet printer featuring the new Océ Gemini Instant Duplex technology. Designed for high-end commercial and corporate printing markets, the Océ VarioPrint 6250 produces 250 duplex A4/letter or 132 duplex A3/ledger prints per minute, making it at least 70% faster than all other high volume, cutsheet duplex processes when printing on larger formats. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 was formally launched on March 27th at Océ OpenHouse 2006 near Munich, Germany. For the way professionals print The Océ VarioPrint 6250 matches the way professionals want to print today. Over 80% of the jobs produced on high volume cutsheet systems are double-sided prints according to Océ market studies. But all existing systems are designed for simplex printing. To produce double-sided prints, each sheet must be fed through the printing process twice. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 uses Océ Gemini Instant Duplex technology to press toner images into both sides of the paper instantaneously. This results in perfect print registration and offset-like quality. The results for users will be higher print productivity, greater operational efficiency and lower printing costs. Gemini is Latin for 'twins' and is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Océ chose the name to underscore the new technological approach to double-sided printing. Leading the way in production printing 'This breakthrough technology reaffirms our commitment to lead the digital production printing market,' says Océ CEO Rokus van Iperen. 'We have backed that commitment with continuous R&D investments. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 and Océ Gemini Instant Duplex technology prove Océ's ability to innovate rapidly, to address ever-changing market opportunities and to surpass customer expectations. Our high speed printing organisation has led the way in continuous-feed printing for decades. Now we bring the same kind of innovation to high speed cutsheet printing.' The Océ VarioPrint 6250 will offer new opportunities to commercial printshops who can build their business by taking on more jobs, producing more double-sided output in less time and offering a higher service level to their customers. Thanks to its high speed and quality it is a new alternative for graphic arts printers for the short-run production of books. Another key market for the Océ VarioPrint 6250 is the in-house corporate printroom where higher speed duplex printing will mean more efficient production of manuals, technical documentation and other corporate information. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 is suitable for production volumes of between 600,000 and 8,000,000 prints per month. Paper Logic and other new printing techniques In addition to Instant Duplexing, Océ Gemini features numerous technological innovations. Advanced Active Registration technology uses intelligent sensors and direct drive motors to ensure perfect sheet positioning and print registration. The single-pass technology supports perfect registration for books, manuals and other publications, since the system prints both sides simultaneously. To ensure correct printing on pre-printed and pre-punched stocks, Océ employs a new technique called Paper Logic which takes the guesswork out of paper orientation. The resulting system performance will enable printing professionals to move jobs from offset to on-demand digital printing. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 has the largest paper input/output capacity for larger media sizes such as A3, ledger and RA3. It supports A4, letter, A3, ledger, oversized and custom size media as well as tabs and inserts from any of its 12 trays. No additional, expensive interposer is needed. Users can load up to 13,800 sheets of any size at once to promote unattended printing for up to four hours. With 'load paper while you print' functionality, the system can print up to 16,000 prints per hour with minimal operator intervention. An optional output module of 12,000 sheets also supports this increased throughput. End-to-end modularity The Océ VarioPrint 6250 is fully modular at every stage, from file submission to document delivery. Key components are the Océ Smart Imager Controller, which brings high performance, multi-tasking capabilities, high RIP speed and open architecture to a company's IT infrastructure. On-line finishing options include bookmakers, set finishers and a high-capacity stacker. Océ will also offer the state-of-the-art Watkiss PowerSquareTM 200 bookmaker. The integrated DFA interface of the Océ VarioPrint 6250 enables direct connection to many third-party finishing systems for perfect binding, cover binding, folding and punching. And the Océ VarioPrint 6250 is fully supported by the Océ PRISMA software suite, designed to promote high workflow efficiency and seamless integration in third-party printing environments. The first customer deliveries of the Océ VarioPrint 6250 are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006. ======================= Comments from Andy Tribute The Océ VarioPrint 6250 is the fastest cut sheet digital monochrome printer with a speed of 250 A4/letter size image. This is a single pass duplex printer that prints both sides of the sheet at the same time. Océ claims this to be the fastest cut sheet printer comparing it with the market leading Xerox Docutech 6180 printer which prints 180 pages images/minute printing simplex. Unfortunately in making this calculation Océ could not have been aware of the HP Indigo 5000 Plus press printing in single color mode. This prints cut sheets at 270 A4/letter images/minute printing in simplex mode on A3(11 x 17 inch) sheets. The Océ printer can achieve a speed of 264 images/minute if it prints on an A3 size sheet. Océ claims that 80% of all jobs produced on high-volume cut sheet systems are double sided prints, but all other high-volume printers are designed mainly for simplex printing where duplex printing requires the paper to be fed twice through the print engine. The Océ VarioPrint 6250 prints both sides of the sheet simultaneously in perfect register using their Gemini Instant Duplex technology. This is the second Océ printer to print duplex simultaneously. The other is the VarioStream 9000 series continuous feed printer family. Océ today announced the latest printer in the VarioStream 9000 family, the 9230 that prints three colors on both sides of the sheet. (Watch WhatTheyThink.com for these news announcements tomorrow and Friday.) The VarioPrint 6250 printer is stated to have the largest input/output capacity for larger media sizes such as A3, ledger and RA3. It can feed a variety of input media from its 12 trays, and up to 13,800 sheets can be loaded to allow unattended printing for up to four hours. The printer has a range of online finishing options including booklet makers, set finishers and a high-capacity stacker. With the three color VarioStream 9230 printer Océ is offering its ColorTone capability which is claimed as an alternative to process color for many print applications. It is targeted particularly at transactional print applications where the ColorTone capability allows simulation of color halftones and custom spot colors. When printing in three color the printer slows down somewhat to printing around 200 A4/Letter size images on each side of the paper/minute. Another new feature for the VarioStream 9000 family is the GraphicArts mode. This is a dot modulation mode to vary the luminance of each of the 11,000 light-emitting diodes in each imaging head in the printer. This allow a increased number of gray scales to increase image quality in particular in images. - Andy Tribute, commentator for WhatTheyThink.com, also comments each Tuesday on news and recent events. He can be reached at [email protected]