Your First Look at the 9110m: Robert S. Taylor of NexPress October 31, 2002 -- Last week, Heidelberg launched the Digimaster 9110m Network Imaging System. It features magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) toner and special fonts and characters for a variety of applications, including printing checks, rebates, coupons and other financial documents. The Digimaster 9110m system enables digital MICR printing of documents at the full-engine speed of 110 images per minute, with all the programmability of integrated finishing options found on the Digimaster 9110 machine. Customers can use the Digimaster 9110m system to produce jobs with MICR checks included in stapled booklets along with preprinted material - all done inline automatically. Robert S. Taylor is Vice President, Channel Management, Monochrome Products at NexPress - a Heidelberg/Kodak Company. He has 22 years experience in the copier / printer business combined with both Kodak and Heidelberg. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. WTT: Bob, tell us about the Xplor event and Heidelberg's focus on that market. Taylor: Heidelberg is excited about Xplor because we have dramatically expanded our product line to better serve customers in the Data Center, transactional printing arena. We are now offering high speed printing, MICR functionality and very capable front end solutions such as DataXceed, which allows output management and legacy conversions from all key formats, as well as key partnerships with third party solution providers for additional capabilities and flexible choices. This positions us well to participate in market segments of interest to Xplor attendees. WTT: What else will you be showing at Xplor? Taylor: We will be showing our new MICR solution, the 9110m and our recently announced Digimaster 9150i. The new 9110m offers all of the advantages of our award winning Digimaster 9110 solution with the unique ability to run either MICR or standard toners. At Graph Expo we had a very successful launch of our new Digimaster 9150i product. This new product operates at 150 images per minute and provides a robust solution with a duty cycle of 3 to 5 Million images per month. It is enhanced by a complete suite of finishing accessories. These new products expand our Digimaster Family significantly and move our portfolio upstream to participate in the high end of this market, especially Data Center applications. WTT: You mentioned the Digimaster 9110m for MICR printing. Tell us about this machine. Taylor: The Digimaster 9110m is a dual function engine that combines all of the strengths of our Digimaster 9110 product with the added functionality of MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) printing. MICR capability is enabled by simply exchanging the conventional toning station with a MICR station. This provides a built in security feature, the convenience of having one engine to run both types of job streams and the cost advantages of a single engine solution. It is more secure because the MICR toning station can be secured and the MICR fonts are automatically disabled, features important to our customers. The station type is detected automatically by the engine and set-up parameters are automatically adjusted. Of course, the customer will gain the advantages of our Digimaster 9110 solution including its state of the art image quality, registration, paper handling, reliability and 110 image per minute productivity. WTT: How does it compare to competitive offerings in the marketplace? Taylor: This product moves us a step ahead of the competition by providing the flexibility of a dual purpose engine. Customers can gain the advantage of MICR functionality and conventional digital printing in a single engine. WTT: How does Heidelberg view the whole MICR printing opportunity? Is it growing or a mature market? Taylor: This is a fairly mature market but new applications are expanding it beyond conventional check printing. Many direct mail documents now include promotional and rebate checks that need to be printed in MICR. These are profitable opportunities that our customers would like to participate in. Also, many customers need some limited MICR capability. This product opens these doors and allows us to meet this need while continuing to provide the excellent productivity, printing quality and finishing suite of our Digimaster 9110 solution.