The Ricoh Pro VC70000 is the newest addition to Ricoh’s continuous feed family. It joins the Ricoh Pro™ VC60000, Ricoh Pro™ VC40000, Ricoh Pro™ VC20000, Ricoh Pro™ V20000 and InfoPrint 5000 in our high speed production inkjet portfolio developed to support operations in their conversion from offset to digital production.

The Pro VC70000 prints at speeds up to 150 metres per minute, producing nearly 12,000 duplex B2 sheets per hour. It is capable of running multiple millions of impressions per month which is perfect for clients who have high peak volumes in a month or seasonally.

Our latest state of the art piezo drop on demand print heads print at a resolution up to 1200x1200 dpi on uncoated, offset coated, inkjet treated or inkjet coated papers. They run the new Ricoh-developed inks that rival the output of offset inks with their media versatility and compatibility with gloss, silk and matt coated stocks.

The Pro VC70000 features multiple elements that contribute to its exceptional performance including the new entrance and exit modules and a unique dryer unit.

Unique Dryer Unit Supports Broad Applications

The dryer unit, patent pending, supports a wide range of media and high coverage applications in the commercial market.

The objective of the new dryer is to produce flat sheets on all media but in particular with offset coated media.

The small footprint module comprises a heat drum with small heat rollers (sHR) that support up to 120mpm printing on offset coated papers ranging from 40gsm to 250gsm and up to 150 m/m from 64gsm to 157gsm.

The dryer can be operated through the Ricoh Digital Front End (DFE) and each of the front and rear engines (Printer 1 and Printer 2) have their own settings.

Predefined dryer temperature settings can be preset and stored.

Eliminating Cockling

With its unique design the dryer significantly reduces cockling on all media. Cockling occurs when paper becomes distorted by ripples or wrinkles in areas of high ink coverage. There are two main causes of cockling – the use of too much ink, particularly on lightweight grades, and too much moisture and humidity in the paper.

The Pro VC70000 can eliminate cockling on lighter weight coated papers with a two-stage correction process:

• The paper is dried on the large heat drum evenly.
• The dryers in the two engines use the small heat rollers to dry and condition the paper. They are tuned to ensure the correct drying on side 1 and side 2 with the aim of eliminating cockling of the paper.

This is achieved by new dryer technologies that include the:

• Reduction in the diameter of the heat roller to stretch any paper wrinkles.
• Removal of cockling by heating at wrapping position.
  Prevention of re-cockling during the heating process with repeated “Wrapping on small Heat Roller and Release”.
• Increased heating capacity before the first contact with the printed face.

Both the Pro VC70000 and the Pro VC60000 run our newly developed inks and the Pro VC70000’s dryer supports a faster print speed with greater ink coverage. It also allows the use of higher ink limits. The system boasts a typically lower running cost with lesser coverage applications and is highly efficient at switching jobs through its ability to handle dynamic variable data.

Ideal uses are direct mail, books, brochures, post cards, inserts, coupon books, education material including books and course packs, as well as critical communications documents.

For more information, visit www.ricoh-europe.com.