Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced that Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) has awarded Konica Minolta an inaugural “PRO Award” for “Outstanding Color Light Production Device” for the bizhub PRESS C7000 Color Digital Press. 

BLI's new “PRO Awards” recognize the best production devices as determined in rigorous production field tests, which cover such factors as image quality, color consistency, productivity, ease of use, media handling and job management. 

“The Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C7000 offers high-quality output, with a number of bar-raising results,” said David Sweetnam, head of European Research and Lab Services for BLI. “In fact, this device is the first production unit tested ever to receive BLI’s five-star rating for color consistency, with no peak Delta E drift of more than 3.0 in 12 corporate logo colors over 1,000-page print runs of BLI’s test document on coated or uncoated media. Solid density was also impressively consistent, with very low density variance when printing BLI’s 100 percent solid-coverage test suite. Fine lines and text, too, were reproduced at a very high-quality level even in default mode.”

BLI’s field evaluations for the PRO Awards entail three full days of intensive testing during which tens of thousands of impressions are printed—from 30,000 to more than 150,000 depending on the model. Devices are tested for productivity with coated and uncoated media in a wide range of weights and sizes and using various finishing options to simulate a wide variety of real-world job scenarios. BLI technicians also evaluate image quality, including production of halftones, text and fine lines, plus density levels, variations in density, and color drift over the course of a 1,000-page print run. In addition, BLI assesses media-handling capabilities in terms of the paper sizes, weights and capacities supported, media catalog integration, and inline finishing options available. The test also includes an assessment of ease of use for setting up, submitting and managing jobs; loading paper and toner; switching out operator-replaceable components; and removing misfeeds. 

“As always, we are gratified to receive recognition from BLI for the performance of our technologies and receiving a newly established award for the award-winning bizhub PRESS C7000 is even more exciting,” said Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.  "Recognizing only the best production devices in such categories as image quality, color consistency, productivity and ease of use, BLI’s ‘Outstanding Color Light Production Device’ award exemplifies how customers can count on Konica Minolta for market-leading performance and productivity from all our solutions.”