Westmont, Illinois — MAN Roland has entered a sales referral agreement with Oce Printing Systems USA to equip American printers with its DICO line of advanced digital color printing systems. "An increasing number of our customers are looking for digital color solutions that will let them capitalize on the expanding short-run on-demand market," said Yves Rogivue in announcing the agreement. "Our family of DICO digital color printing systems opens that door for them in the most productive way imaginable. And now this new partnership with Oce helps ensure that our customers’ entry into digital color will be smooth and rewarding." Under the agreement, Oce will support DICO-equipped facilities throughout the U.S., starting with installation and training, then continuing with service and 24/7 technical assistance. MAN Roland sales consultants will work with Oce’s digital workflow experts to provide each printer with the DICO digital color solution that best matches the needs of his marketplace. "No matter what functionality they require, MAN Roland customers can expand their business, confident in the support and products of industry leaders who are working together to ensure customer satisfaction," said Tim Moylan, Vice President of Systems & Software at Oce Printing Systems USA. "Companies can acquire all the new technologies they need in a seamless process from introduction to integration, without struggling to manage disjointed vendor relationships." Thanks to the alliance, MAN Roland sales representatives can add the web-fed DICOpress, the sheet-fed DICOpage and the packaging and label DICOpack to their portfolio, rounding out a product line that already includes a full range of offset sheetfed and web press systems. "This agreement gives MAN Roland sales representatives a broad array of new opportunities that they can offer to help our customers profit from the ongoing changes in the graphic arts marketplace," noted Kevin Oakes, Director of Business Development for MAN Roland. "Variable data printing, the production of one-to-one marketing components and versioning are all part of the DICO agenda." DICO stands for digital changeover, and the presses live up to their name, capable of going from job-to-job in a matter of seconds. That makes DICO ideal for fast-turnaround short-run color work, a category that accounts for a rapidly growing share of the U.S. print market. What’s more, the DICO family has a heritage of reliability because all three systems utilize the production-proven Xeikon print engine. MAN Roland’s web-fed DICOpress runs at the rate of 138 letter size impressions per minute. That equates to the production of 8,280 pages per hour — a speed that leads the digital color category. DICOpress is available in both 12 1/2" and 20" web widths, and features variable cutoffs to produce a wide variety of printed products. DICOpage is the sheetfed mainstay in MAN Roland’s digital color line-up. The configuration permits the rapid change of substrates from job-to-job, with the press handling everything from lightweight stock to card stock, along with a variety of synthetic materials. For flexible packaging and label jobs, MAN Roland offers DICOpack. Its variable data capabilities allow printers to offer such unique products as personalized packaging, tickets and display materials. The DICOpress and DICOpage family of presses feature exclusive duplexing capabilities, allowing them to print both sides of the sheet in a single pass. That enhances the production rate and ensures the precision of front-to-back registration. The print quality produced matches that of most conventional offset presses, with all members of the DICO family delivering results equivalent to 175 line screen. In addition to its new DICO responsibilities, Oce also will make available the leading-edge digital black-and-white solutions that the company has developed to its MAN Roland contacts. The agreement does not, however, include DICOweb — the new MAN Roland technology that produces true lithographic print quality without plates. "MAN Roland developed DICOweb, so we’re best qualified to bring that technology to the marketplace," Oakes explained. "But from the customer’s point-of-view, our product line is a seamless array of print solutions. It ranges from the DICO family of digital color systems, to DICOweb, to our PECOM-driven sheetfed presses, all the way up to the most advanced commercial, publication and newspaper web presses in the world. If they want to print profitably in any niche or segment, we’re the source to turn to."