Kiwi print company's need for speed

Kalamazoo Group first in New Zealand to purchase fastest full-color print machine

With a print speed of 200 metres per minute, the Fuji Xerox 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System is the fastest machine in the Fuji Xerox product line, and Kiwi company, Kalamazoo, has ordered two hot off the press.

This purchase signals a desire by Steve D'Souza, managing director at Kalamazoo Group, to be a leader in the New Zealand print industry.

“We have seen an increased focus on transactional printing, as businesses are required to be more responsive and nimble. Purchasing these two machines ensures we take the next step as a company – catering to our customer’s evolving needs, as well as giving us the opportunity to expand into different print sectors such as direct mail, offset transfer, short-run publishing and newspapers.

“We have worked with Fuji Xerox for a number of years and built a close, strategic partnership with the team. Our business is based on a mutually beneficial relationship – they understand our goals and work with us to achieve them. It was a big decision to purchase but a simple decision to make it Fuji Xerox machines.”

The Fuji Xerox 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System is designed to benefit transactional and trans-promotional printers – those who require high-volume, personalised print jobs with short lead times – and is set to break through the existing barriers of cost, quality and reliability that have previously stood in the way of these print sectors.

“We now have the ability to print a digital document fifteen times faster than what we can do on our current graphic arts equipment – this is huge when you look at the rise of digital printing and the requirements of modern day businesses,” says D'Souza.

Alistair Egan, product manager PSBG at Fuji Xerox New Zealand says the 2800 Inkjet will result in an improved bottom line for organisations and will assist companies to adapt to the evolving nature of the print industry.

“The 2800 produces pages quickly and reliably, saving money in labor and waste, and producing high volume, high value jobs. In addition, there is a growing focus on transactional printing within New Zealand, and its ability to encourage consumers to make a purchase decision or boost response rates. The 2800 Inkjet serves to address this growth, designed to improve communications between customers and corporations, particularly in industries that need to issue documents such as account statements and invoices to individual customers.

“For Kalamazoo Group, the introduction of the two 2800 Inkjets provides them with an opportunity to further grow the business and compete on a global scale. It is an exciting time for the team and we look forward to working with them throughout implementation in early 2012,” says Egan.

Key features of the Fuji Xerox 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System include:
· High-speed output of 200 metres per minute in full-color duplex making it Fuji Xerox’s first inkjet production printer
· To print variable data on each page, the newly-developed controller – a high-speed raster image processor (RIP) accelerator – boosts the data conversion performance to ensure the output speed of the printer engine
· The new printer enables duplex printing without an additional printer, saving installation space by 50 percent
· The main unit features a color management tool to reduce the time required to adjust colors for image reproducibility, while also printing crisp sharp text and numbers
· The easy-to-use touch panel allows users intuitive operation to check the status of the printing system, printing jobs and RIP performance, which maximises operation efficiency.

The introduction of this system represents an outcome of research and technological innovation, and has strengthened the Fuji Xerox product line, as the New Zealand transactional print industry competes on an increasingly global stage.