Read Andy Tributes Thoughts on this Announcement

Océ, a Canon Group company and an international leader in digital document management and delivery, today announced the new Océ ColorStream® 3700 digital full-color inkjet printing system, enlarging the highly successful Océ Inkjet product portfolio. With the addition of the Océ ColorStream 3700, the Océ inkjet family extends the company’s leadership in the digital full-color inkjet segment and helps a wider range of print providers make the transition from toner systems, other inkjet platforms or offset printing to high-speed digital printing.

Océ expands market-leading inkjet portfolio

The new Océ ColorStream 3700 joins the market-leading Océ inkjet portfolio, spearheaded by the Océ ColorStream 3500 as part of the fastest growing inkjet portfolio in the industry. Merely one year after the global launch of this visionary yet low risk innovation, the Océ ColorStream 3500 obtained a market-leading position, especially in the datacenter and print service provider environments. The combination of highest inkjet productivity built on the Océ DigiDot® heads and proven Océ flexibility and efficiency offer a total package unmatched in the industry.

The new Océ ColorStream 3700 further extends the reach of the Océ inkjet systems as solution for monochrome and full-color high volume print service provider environments, print centers with datacenter background and offset print providers seeking a flexible and efficient high-volume digital printing solution. The availability of a higher speed version permits customers to complete more jobs within tighter production windows, providing additional capacities to grow their print volume.

High-speed full-color model in the Océ ColorStream Twin series

The Océ ColorStream 3700 is the high-speed model in the Océ ColorStream Twin series and offers a process speed of 100 meters per minute with a print and paper width of 21,25" (approx. 540 mm). That translates to 675 A4 impressions per minute (716 letter sized) for a single unit or in a twin configuration, 1350 A4 impressions per minute (1432 letter sized) for monthly volumes of up to 46 million A4 pages (43 million letter sized).

While increasing the productivity, the Océ ColorStream 3700 offers all features known from the Océ ColorStream 3500. Through the HeadSafe concept, the Océ ColorStream 3700 is the first high-volume inkjet system offering users of high-speed high-quality monochrome toner-based solutions an extremely efficient 1:1 comparable inkjet solution. The Océ ColorStream 3700 allows a direct transition to full-color inkjet as well as a smooth and slow migration starting with high monochrome print volumes without tedious manual cleaning when switching to full color after longer periods of monochrome printing.

Easy transition into high-speed digital inkjet printing

“The Océ ColorStream 3700 represents an evolution of the Océ ColorStream 3500 which sky-rocketed to the market-leading product in Europe in less than one year,” notes Sebastian Landesberger, Executive Vice President, Océ Production Printing. “Offering a combination of the unique capabilities of the Océ ColorStream 3500 – including paper waste free pauses and the extraordinary HeadSafe concept with enhanced productivity – the Océ ColorStream 3700 will help our customers meet tight deadlines with quality print products. The Océ ColorStream 3700 proposition of higher speed at consistent quality will support an even wider range of print providers to make the transition from offset- or toner-based printing into high-speed inkjet printing.”

Additional exclusive features such as printing in speed ramps which allows page one quality printing or the paper waste-free print pause significantly increase the productivity and sustainability of the Océ ColorStream 3700. Apart from the saved, not wasted resources a significant boost of the total production workflow and value chain is achieved as no wasted, white pages have to be handled in the later post processing steps.

Based on field-proven Océ technologies

All members of the Océ inkjet family, including the new high-speed Océ ColorStream 3700, are based on core technologies such as the field-proven Océ DigiDot inkjet and the Océ SRA MP controller architecture. The Océ ColorStream 3700 uses a next-generation piezo-electric drop-on-demand inkjet printhead that allows increased speeds with a consistent perceived print quality of 1200 dpi using the multilevel technology as known from the Océ JetStream family. Users benefit from the experience, reliability, print quality and media range associated with the Océ inkjet portfolio.

Suited for transaction, TransPromo, direct mail, book and manual production

The Océ ColorStream Twin series inkjet printing systems were first unveiled at the Canon Expo in Tokyo in November 2010 starting with the Océ ColorStream 3500. The high-speed, high-quality full-color inkjet printers in the Océ ColorStream Twin series run at 1010 and 1350 A4 impressions per minute and simplify the transition from monochrome to full color or even five or six colors. They offer productivity and flexibility for high-speed color and monochrome production of transaction, TransPromo, direct mail, book and manual applications. Industry-leading reliability, print quality and media range are testaments to Océ DigiDot multilevel dot modulation technology.

Featuring HeadSafe, RFID, InkSafe

Enhanced usability and productivity is made possible by a combination of unique features:

•  HeadSafe technology helps prevent nozzle clogging and minimizes lengthy purging processes. The ability to transition between monochrome-only and full-color printing promotes higher uptime and productivity levels.

• Using passive RFID technology, the Océ InkSafe® feature monitors both the proper placement of the ink containers in the press and the ink’s shelf-life.

• The Océ ColorStream 3500 and Océ ColorStream 3700 inkjet printing systems provide consistent high-quality printing during the ramp-up acceleration, full-production speed, and the ramp-down deceleration phases. Utilizing the entire production time decreases turn-around time and minimizes waste.

The Océ ColorStream Twin series inkjet printing systems provide a modular offering in various single and twin configurations. A full-color Océ ColorStream 3500 or ColorStream 3700 system can be set up as a monochrome-only system when needed. The production and media flexibility contributes to a future-proof solution that simplifies the transition of applications and business models to more sophisticated documents with variable personalization and smarter communication in color.

Commentary from Andy Tribute

The Océ announcement on the new ColorStream 3700 is one that has been expected from the date of the announcement of the ColorStream 3500 a year ago. The ColorStream 3500 is the first inkjet printer build by Océ, rather than the Miyakoshi manufactured JetStream range of presses sold by Océ. The ColorStream 3500 has been a major success for Océ since its launch as it aimed at the typical Océ customers in the data centre environment upgrading from monochrome toner presses to colour. The new ColorStream 3700 has an identical configuration to the ColorStream 3500 apart from the area of running speed. This is through the upgraded print heads. The ColorStream 3500 uses the Kyocera KJ4 heads operating at a frequency of 30 kHz, and this gives a linear running speed of 75 meters/min, whereas the ColorStream 3700 uses the higher performance version of the KJ4 print head running at 40 kHz and this has a linear running speed of 100 meters/min.

The Océ JetStream presses use the same 30 kHz and 40 kHz KJ4 print heads over the range of presses, and this gives them running speeds between 75 meters/min to 200 meters/min. I believe that over the next year we can expect to see a number of additional ColorStream presses running at higher speeds. This is easily done. The Kyocera KJ4 print heads can be configured with either one of two print head arrays per colour. This means that the 30 kHz heads can run at 75  or 150 meters/min. This is seen in the JetStream 2200 at 150 meters/min. The highest speed Océ JetStreams run at 200 meters/min using the dual 40 kHz print arrays per colour as seen with the JetStream 3000. I believe that is inevitable as Océ rounds out its ColorStream product line that we will see new ColorStream presses running at 150 and 200 meters/min. Could these be the ColorStream 3600 and 3800. 

Such new presses are unlikely to be onsite upgrades however there is still the potential for increasing the speed of the ColorStream 3500 up to the speed of a ColorStream 3700 but with a lower quality should Océ decide to offer such a capability. This would be by reducing the linear resolution of the press in the same way as Kodak does with its Versamark VL4000 press.