A new, significantly more productive member of Xerox’s flagship iGen range was announced at drupa. The iGen 4 has the same 110 pages a minute top speed as today’s iGen3 110, but a slightly larger sheet size of 364 x 572 mm, as well as more latitude on substrate thickness. This, plus the engineering refinements mean that iGen 4 will give 25 to 39 per cent more throughput, according to Quincy Allen, president of Xerox production systems group.

It has more than 400 new parts and subsystems, including built-in sensors to automatically monitor print quality, especially streaks, and to compensate. This should give greater stability and repeatability. There’s also a built-in spectrophotometer for auto colour adjustment and profiling. A new dry ‘ink’ toner with carrier dispersion does away with the need for developer. The standard six twin-drawer input trays hold 30,000 sheets, but can be extended to 80,000 with an optional roll feeder.

The existing iGen3 90 and 110 models have also been modified for greater performance and image quality. There’s more automation, giving faster time to production and better calibration, the company says.

A twin-unit iGen 220 model was unveiled at drupa as a “concept,” claimed to be the fastest cut-sheet printer built so far. This allows duplex printing at a full speed of 220 pages per minute. Colour is matched automatically between the two engines and if one engine goes down the other can continue as a normal 110 duplexing printer. The colour can be 4 + 4 or with fewer colours (say 4 + 1) for lower click costs.

Xerox 700
The first of Xerox’s expected crop of drupa announcements is the 700 Colour Press, an entry-level light production machine that can print at up to 70 cpm in colour or mono. European deliveries will start in June.

The company says it has the same image quality and productivity as a high-end production press and cites photo books, brochures, direct-mail pieces, catalogues, calendars and postcards as examples of typical work it is suited to.

The press prints on coated and uncoated paper with a maximum sheet size of 13 x 19.2 inches and a wide media latitude between 64 gsm and 300 gsm (16 lb. bond up to 110 lb. cover). It offers automatic two-sided printing up to 220 gsm (80 lb. cover) on both coated and uncoated stocks. The device boasts image quality at 2400 x 2400 x 1 dots per inch and tight front-to-back registration of +/- 1.0mm.
Xerox’s proprietary Emulsion Aggregation (EA) Toner is used, which the company says is more environmentally friendly on the ground that it needs less energy to manufacture and to fuse in the printer.

Front end options include an Integrated Fiery Colour Server, EFI Splash RPX-iii Software, the Fiery-based EX Print Server, Creo-based CX Print or Xerox FreeFlow Print Server.

Xerox unveils future inkjet technologies
A future inkjet technology project was demonstrated on the Xerox stand at drupa. It’s a development of the company’s long-standing PhaserJet solid ink technology used in desktop and office printers, but completely revised for high-speed professional production. The major difference appears to be the adoption of a gel ink rather than the solid wax of the PhaserJets, and a UV post-print cycle which hardens the ink and makes it more rub-resistant than the waxy finish of the current technology. Steve Hooper, vice president in charge of the Xerox Webster research centre in Rochester, New York, explained that the ink has the consistency of “jelly or peanut butter” at room temperature, but is heated to become a very low-viscosity fluid which is jetted through the print heads, and then solidifies immediately on hitting the cool substrate. This means that there is little soak-through into porous substrates and the ink is also suited to non-absorbent materials such as plastic and metal foils. “It gives bright vibrant colours that don’t soak in,” he added.

To make the print robust and rub-resistant, it is exposed to UV light, which further cures and hardens it. Xerox has also developed a modular inkjet head with a print width of 3 inches (76 mm), and which can be stacked in either direction for greater widths and more colours. Mr Hooper says the heads are running in prototypes in the company labs but they are not yet ready to go into a commercial product. Speeds of 120 metres a minute have been achieved, and array widths of up to 508 mm. Sample prints were shown at drupa.