The products come from the recent IBM and Ricoh joint venture partnership, the InfoPrint Solutions Company, based on IBM’s Printing Systems Division.
The other printers released are two new cutsheet printers.
The Infoprint 5000 Full Colour Continuous Web Printing System provides a full-colour, variable-data continuous web system for transactional printers, service bureaus, direct mailers and some book printers.
IBM says it fills a gap between previously available industry colour offerings of very high-quality but lower-speed and higher-cost – and those alternatives with lower-quality but very high-speed. It is designed to print large volumes of variable data documents in full-colour.
It uses piezo-electric, drop-on-demand inkjet technology with water-based pigment inks that are resistant to fading and smearing, even on commonly used digital papers. The system includes a powerful and extendable IBM multi-computer printer controller technology that drives multiple Adobe PostScript RIPs to deliver high-speed printing.
The system can print at speeds up to 209.9 64 meters/minute)1 or 916 full-colour, two-up tandem duplex letter-size impressions/minute (862 A4 impressions/minute)1.
It has a 20.4” web with up to 19.96” print width and is designed to deliver excellent print-quality at 720 x 360 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. The product will initially ship with PostScript and PDF support.
IBM intends to enhance this production colour printing platform in a phased release that, over time, will leverage IBM’s AFP™ server and controller technology, advancements from the AFP Colour Consortium (AFPCC) and IBM’s workflow portfolio2.
