Venlo, The Netherlands - Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, today announced that Japanese publisher Dai-ichi Hoki has invested in an Océ ColorStream® 10000 Flex for printing of its short-run publications. This new printing system will replace offset printing devices at the company’s printing facility.
Specialized in short-run legal and technical books

Dai-ichi Hoki Co. Ltd. is a publisher specializing in law-related books. Since its foundation in 1903, the company has published books for the Japanese Government and municipalities as well as for legal experts such as lawyers, accountants and tax attorneys. A characteristic feature of technical book printing is its extremely diverse range of topics, which are brought onto the market by means of short printing runs.

Dai-ichi Hoki's books are printed and bound by a group internal printing company, which previously utilized conventional offset printing equipment. As Dai-ichi Hoki's business model is however based on providing short-run technical books, the traditional offset technology was no suitable match any more.
Investigation of POD-suited printers

“It was about 15 years ago when the first sheet-fed print-on-demand (PoD) printer was commercialized. From that point on we strove to promote research into short-run printing. At that time, printers required a special expensive heat-resistant paper,” recalls Fumitaka Kusaka, Dai-ichi Hoki Executive Officer and Chief of the Production Management Division.

Three years ago, Dai-ichi Hoki started further investigation into continuous feed PoD printers. They drew the company's attention because of their capability to variably combine digitized content items, high printing speed, and low running cost, starting with a run length of 1 and 24-hour unattended operation, one of the greatest advantages. Moreover, time spent on prepress could be significantly decreased with the digital workflow.

Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex chosen for its overall merits

In 2010, Dai-ichi Hoki launched a study of Océ products and began also to evaluate Océ continuous feed PoD printers for their business. Kusaka notes “We discovered that the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex was utilized in the field of variable printing such as educational materials and direct mails. This led us to realize that the printing system could also be applicable to our business.”

The main reasons why Dai-ichi Hoki invested in an Océ ColorStream 10000 printer were the short footprint of the production line due to single-pass duplex printing; high printing speeds of 80 m/min; and in particular its adaptability to conventional offset paper which is achieved by a non-contact infrared fusion technology.

Particularly suited for offset paper and in high-performance environments

“The sheet-fed PoD printers we used 12 years ago had problems with printing on offset paper. Thanks to the continuous feed technology of the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex and its non-contact heat fusing we can now use offset paper without any problems.”

In addition, Dai-ichi Hoki is pleased that the printer can be operated in heavy production environment because of its robustly designed structure. “When we took a look inside the Océ printer, we found it packed with effectively arranged components. We felt the sense of durability and reliability almost comparable to a German car,” Kusaka remarks.

Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex improves business flow

Initially Dai-ichi Hoki was concerned about the fact that a Japanese GUI was yet been supported by Océ PRISMA servers, but their operators quickly got used to it.

“With the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex Dai-ichi Hoki can rely on a consistent and solid core technology paired with an outstanding level of versatility which allows them to grow the platform as new business opportunities emerge,” says Sebastian Landesberger, Executive Vice President, Océ Production Printing. “For publishing houses the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex furthermore offers distinct advantages like excellent front-to-back print registration and graphic arts dot modulation for high print quality.”

The print quality of the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex exactly meets Dai-ichi Hoki’s expectations and the maximum printing speed of 79.38 m/min is entirely satisfactory. Dai-ichi Hoki can now handle short-run PoD print jobs of up to 500 copies. Moreover, up to 105 m/min will soon be available and upgraded at the customer’s site. The company is already evaluating how to utilize the Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex for further applications.