Digital Press Developed with the Environment in Mind; Process Safer, More Eco-Friendly than Traditional Offset Printing ROCHESTER, N.Y.-April 22, 2002-- Xerox Corporation's new DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press has the strength and dimensions of a traditional printing press, weighing nearly 3 tons, stretching 30 feet long, and holding more than 40 pounds of dry ink at one time. But the amount of material that might ever end up in a landfill? Nearly zero. The high-end printer's eco-friendly and innovative architecture, coupled with the fact that digital printing is better for the environment than traditional offset printing, makes the DocuColor iGen3 the most "green" machine designed for the commercial print industry, according to Xerox. Components of DocuColor iGen3 - like nearly all Xerox products - have been designed to support multiple lifetimes and minimize waste; up to 97 percent of the machine's components are recyclable or remanufacturable. And on top of that, the massive digital color printing press has been engineered to meet Xerox's strict noise, emissions and safety standards - often exceeding standards specified by law. "It takes real engineering ingenuity and craftsmanship to create a printing press of this size, complexity and quality, while making sure it meets or exceeds the tough environmental standards we set," says Ursula Burns, president, Xerox Document Systems and Solutions Group. "Producing 'waste-free products from waste-free factories' has been a Xerox direction since 1991, and our most significant product in the past decade embodies the best of our earth-friendly manufacturing and design techniques." From its earliest concept phases in the mid-1990s, the DocuColor iGen3 was developed with both the environment and customers in mind. In addition to components being recyclable or remanufacturable: * More than 80 percent, by weight, of the waste generated by the machine - including consumables such as dry ink (toner), packaging and parts - can be returned, reused or recycled. * The dry inks are non-toxic and have a transfer efficiency rate approaching 100 percent, meaning less waste is generated. * Every part that is lifted, pushed or pulled has been engineered and evaluated to ensure it meets standards designed to keep machine operators and service technicians from ergonomic injuries. For example, engineers invented a new "snaky rail" system to ensure a heavy, loaded paper drawer can be opened with minimal force. And, there are no exposed mechanical or electrical parts. * The design strictly controls emissions - such as ozone, dust and volatile organic compounds - to the same levels achieved by smaller Xerox office products and well below levels established by regulations, maintaining a safer work environment for press operators. Furthermore, there's inherent environmental value in using xerography-based digital printing instead of traditional offset printing. The DocuColor iGen3 is built to create high-quality prints that have the traditional "look and feel" of offset. However, its operation creates little waste, emits 80 percent less noise than a typical offset press, and neither generates nor uses hazardous materials. For example, unlike digital printing, offset printing processes require several chemicals, including alcohols, cholorinated solvents, acids and flammable materials such as acetone that need to be safely managed and disposed. Offset's prepress process requires spending significant time, chemicals and energy to make four plates - one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, black - to create the image, while digital prepress workflows assemble electronic bits and bytes to make an image. Offset requires wet inks and varnishes that frequently need to be mopped up with cleaning towels and solvents, potentially creating a disposal problem and exposing employees to chemicals. But the dry ink cartridges used in the DocuColor iGen3 are recyclable, closed containers that pop into place. In addition, digital print-on-demand technology helps reduce the use of paper. Documents, brochures or books can be economically printed "just in time" - only when they are ordered. Offset print jobs are labor-intensive to prepare, so documents are usually printed in one large - sometimes too large - quantity, then warehoused until use. According to researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, offset printing leads to up to 50 percent of over-run waste on short-run printing jobs. "The printing industry has made remarkable improvements in waste management," said Frank Romano, chair of RIT's School of Printing. "By applying digital printing, it is applying a more efficient reproduction process that does not require startup waste and creates virtually no disposal problems." The Xerox DocuColor iGen3 is built on third-generation digital printing technology and provides unparalleled speed, productivity, paper-handling capabilities and image quality. It produces 6,000 full-color 8 1/2" x 11" impressions per hour - almost 50 percent faster than competitive products. Customer engagement and testing is under way, and DocuColor iGen3 will launch in key markets later this year.