Dutch commercial printer now offers seamless print quality across offset and digital presses

Ricoh Europe, London – Ricoh Europe today announced that Zalsman, a leading graphics media solutions company located in the Netherlands and serving national and international clients, has chosen to innovate with the new Ricoh Pro VC60000 production inkjet press. The installation of this next generation, continuous feed inkjet press for graphic arts now enables Zalsman’s hybrid environment to better meet the needs of existing and new customers with complementary offset and digital press capabilities.

The complete installation configuration includes an undercoat unit, enabling printing on a wide variety of media including offset coated stocks; a protector coat unit to deliver durable “scratch & scuff resistance” on critical documents; and the new Ricoh Digital Front End, the TotalFlow Print Server R600A, which ensures native support for PDF, PDF/VT, AFP/IPDS, JDF and advanced colour management.  Functionality is further enhanced with the new user interface designed specifically for the challenges inherent in graphic arts production.

Hugo Verlind, Director and co-owner of Zalsman, says, “Before we installed the Ricoh Pro VC60000, we could only offer our clients solutions from campaign creation through fulfilment and logistics. Our clients were also asking for seamless print quality between our offset and digital presses, as well as flexibility in turnaround times and volumes, all without increasing production costs. After extensive market research, we concluded that Ricoh’s solution and business approach are the best able to respond to those additional client demands. With the installation of the VC60000 and the use of advanced solutions like Ricoh ProcessDirector, in conjunction with our current graphic arts workflow, we can now offer our clients a complete range of services to enable them to communicate more effectively with their own customers and help them improve their business results all while remaining cost competitive. The new Ricoh Pro VC60000 closes the gaps we had in our production environment, enabling us to better meet our client demands.”

Herman Verlind, Director and co-owner of Zalsman, says, “The long awaited promises of production inkjet are now a reality on our production floor.  Thanks to the innovative power of Ricoh, revolutionary technology embedded in the Pro VC60000 is ours without compromising our quality, media, or productivity.  Together with our clients we can now take the next steps in more relevant and effective communication.”  

Peter Williams, Executive Vice President and Head of the Production Printing Business Group, Ricoh Europe, says, “We are very proud that one of the leading commercial printers in the Netherlands has chosen Ricoh solutions and technology to meet the needs of a changing market and to continue to grow its business. Zalsman needed a solution to address client requirements to create more relevant content in communications campaigns with offset quality and digital productivity. The Ricoh Pro VC60000, in combination with Ricoh and partner solutions, enables them to deliver best-in-class quality using an automated process instead of a labour intensive process. The result is a more efficient operation with all of the advantages of digital printing, including variable data printing, without compromising quality. Zalsman has more than 150 years of experience in document production and colour management. By including the most advanced solutions in its production portfolio, the company can now offer its clients a complete array of products and solutions, from traditional graphics products like brochures to fully personalised direct marketing campaigns.”

The Ricoh Pro VC60000 is a modular production inkjet press that has been designed to be the most versatile production colour inkjet press available on the market.  Ricoh believes the new platform will set a new benchmark for quality in its class as a result of its unique multi-drop inkjet technology, achieving a physical resolution of up to 1200x1200 dpi with dynamic variable drop size within each pixel, providing significant additional perceived print quality. It provides support for uncoated, coated offset, digital, treated and recycled papers.  The configuration provided to Zalsman includes a complete Tecnau feeding and finishing line, comprising an unwinder, high-speed cutter and stacker, producing cut and stacked output inline from the Ricoh Pro VC60000 and ready for shipment.

The Ricoh Pro VC60000 produces best-in-class output without compromising the quality and productivity demanded by commercial printers. It offers fast speeds, producing nearly 100,000 A4 images per hour.  It is the ideal next generation investment for medium to large graphic arts printers seeking to future proof their businesses and reach new clients with new and innovative products and services.