MISSISSAUGA, ON and CONCORD, ON, July 24 - KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS (CANADA) LTD. (KONICA MINOLTA) today announced that Kwik Kopy Design & Print Centre in Concord, Ontario, has chosen Konica Minolta's bizhub PRO C6500 digital colour printing system, along with the company's IC-304 Print Controller, as key components in the company's equipment upgrade plans. Due to the addition of the bizhub PRO C6500 featuring the CREO-powered IC-304 Print Controller, Kwik Kopy's capabilities have increased to three times daily throughput, and have resulted in greater efficiency and print quality.
Kwik Kopy, which is one of the leading quick copiers in Canada, has tripled production just months after installation of the bizhub PRO C6500. Delivering an average of 20,000 to 25,000 pages a month prior to implementing the bizhub PRO C6500, Kwik Kopy now operates at 60,000 pages a month. At 65 colour pages per minute (ppm), the Konica Minolta print engine is more than twice as fast as the 30 ppm system previously used by Kwik Kopy. The colour server's automated features contribute to efficient production.
"The bizhub PRO C6500 was clearly the best solution, as it has increased speed and turnaround times, improved quality and reduced our operating costs. Because it takes up less space in the shop, it allows us to operate more efficiently," said Howard Simson, president of the Kwik Kopy Design & Print Centre franchise. "The new system is also capable of a greater variety of work, which has allowed us to divert jobs to digital that would have traditionally gone to offset presses."
"Kwik Kopy, like many other high-volume print shops, has become far more efficient and streamlined by using the bizhub PRO C6500," said Ken Umeda, President, KONICA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS (CANADA) LTD. "Konica Minolta continues to show more and more customers how higher quality images can be produced with faster turnaround times through our comprehensive line of digital printing systems that target everyone from the desktop to the print shop."
The IC-304 Print Controller is based on CREO Colour Server technology from the Print on-Demand Solutions (PODS) group, is an exclusive, easy-to-use robust print controller offering Kwik Kopy advanced features for productivity, ease-of-use, high-quality image and colour control, and support for variable data printing (VDP). The CREO server's design and functionality are geared to both speed and quality. The imposition function imposes the file in the engine, instead of the print controller, so jobs are sent to the engine quicker and the files remain small. Features such as Gallop minimize downtime by enabling printing to begin before processing is complete.
"We consistently use nearly every feature of bizhub PRO C6500, from automated imposition to spot colour management as well as gradation management, and our customers have noticed the difference," said Simson. "Kwik Kopy is also experiencing greater enhanced print quality from the CREO Colour Server than its previous use of an offset press. In addition, our franchise has seen profitability increase by not only producing more, but by producing at a lower cost."