High-performance color print system sold to CompuMail Inc. following successful beta test 

MINNEAPOLIS - Delphax Technologies Inc., a global provider of high-speed digital printing equipment, announced today that it has launched its new elan™ digital color print system with the inaugural sale of an elan 500 to one of the nation’s premier direct mail companies, CompuMail Inc. 

Powered by Memjet, the elan 500, which combines major advances in inkjet and paper-handling technologies, is a robust production class sheet-fed system offering full color and 1600 dpi print quality at speeds of up to 500 impressions per minute.  The sale follows a beta test by CompuMail that included production of more than 15 million letter-sized images, 24-hour client turnaround and two to three shifts per day during peak production.

 “elan has enabled us to complete 10,000 letters in just one hour compared to our current fleet of four machines taking three hours.” said Sam Andreasen, chief operating officer of CompuMail.  “The consistency and quality of elan’s output from the first sheet to last sheet is impressive.  The elan is a production workhorse at an affordable price.”  

CompuMail, based in Concord, Calif., and Delphax worked with well-known document solutions provider Ray Morgan Company to implement installation of the equipment.

“As the first elan customer, CompuMail has given us the highest endorsement possible in its technology of choice to support future color growth in the direct mail marketplace,” said Dieter Schilling, president and chief executive officer of Delphax. “We believe elan offers CompuMail not only greater competitiveness, but also the ability to reshape its market.  elan’s combination of price, sheet-fed configuration and performance make versatile high-quality color printing affordable—and profitable—for this key market segment.”

The elan digital front end (DFE) uses the Adobe PDF document format for both publishing and variable workflow, driven by Delphax’s unique scalable RIP architecture.  “The elan PDF workflow gave us a simple and cost-effective integration with our HP workflow without binding us to a proprietary system,” Andreasen said.  “The intuitive touch-screen interface simplifies the operator experience, keeping input options clear and uncomplicated.  Comprehensive reporting systems provide detailed metrics and permit real-time analysis of system performance for CompuMail operators.”

elan’s combination of speed and sheet size make it the fastest cut sheet inkjet printer in the market today.  It gives CompuMail an 8-to-1 productivity advantage over its existing electrophotographic devices.  

elan is Delphax’s response to a growing customer demand for more efficient, versatile and affordable color printing equipment, and it promises to be ideal for commercial print-on-demand challenges in direct mail, transpromotional, billing, statements and book or manual publishing.  Its variable data, spot color and MICR capability are also expected to make elan attractive to many other printing market segments.

A pioneer in digital print production, Delphax has captured the largest worldwide market share in check-printing applications, developing a highly regarded global customer-service and support organization in the process.

“We are positioning elan to have a much broader market appeal than we could ask from our existing monochrome products,” Schilling said.  “It represents an entirely new category of digital print technology and offers a combination of price and performance that is unmatched today and long awaited by the market.”