With its new bizhub PRO 950 production printing system, Bidvest company, Konica Minolta South Africa, is introducing a sturdy monochrome machine that delivers fast, reliable and high quality printing based on advanced Konica Minolta technologies at an affordable price.
For high volume printing departments, digital print service providers and central reprographic departments (CRDs), this durable performer comes up with 95 A4 pages per minute and peak volumes of up to 750 000 pages per month.
An embedded controller ensures maximum throughput while a combination of enhanced screening technologies and Konica Minolta's proprietary Simitri polymerised toner stand for a new level of print quality. Various inline finishing options further complement the modular and scalable monochrome production printing system.
"Our aim was to bring together two characteristics that have long seemed mutually exclusive. On the one hand we have always been dedicated to providing professional printing departments with a highly reliable, first-class monochrome production printing system," says Paul Symonds, product manager at Konica Minolta South Africa. "On the other, we wanted the new system to be affordable. Our bizhub PRO 950 proves this definitely is a feasible combination."
One of the most striking benefits users of the bizhub PRO 950 will experience is the fact that bottlenecks and long waits are a thing of the past. It is the Linux OS-based controller that permits continuous production and high throughput instead, resulting in lower job completion times and increased turnover.
Hand in hand with the high performing controller and Konica Minolta's enhanced screening technology goes the Tone Curve Utility, which brings previously unavailable customisation possibilities into the game. It allows the operator to change controller adjustments such as screening and tone curves. The screening angle and dot shape can be fitted to individual customer requirements and every profile, once created, can be stored on the controller for later use and easily called upon from the printer driver whenever needed.
Yet, rapid delivery and flexibility not only applies to the controller, but also to print speed and paper weights that the bizhub PRO 950 can process. With the new production printing system, 95 monochrome pages a minute may easily add up to average monthly volumes of 400 000 pages or even peak volumes of up 750 000 pages.
The bizhub PRO 950 prints on paper types of all marketable paper weights, ranging from 40 to 300gsm. Thanks to functions such as mixplex and mixmedia, operators can even switch between different paper types and single or double-sided printing - page-by-page. This functionality is combined with the programmable paper catalogue that has taken over the task of manually adjusting paper types and paper trays in preparation of a print job. After having selected an individual name for each paper, the operator simply requests the desired media type from the bizhub's PRO 950 paper catalogue, the rest is handled automatically.
When it comes to monochrome image quality, Konica Minolta's new screening technologies and the advanced Simitri polymerised toner are the protagonists. The bizhub's state-of-the-art smoothing technology achieves an outstanding print resolution of up to 2 400 x 600dpi. It also adds extra differentiation to grey scales - 256 grey scales with each screening type and frequency (lpi) - made possible by the Supercell technology. The proprietary Simitri polymerised toner contributes towards the faithful reproduction of text, photos, images and other graphic elements. With its miniscule toner particles it provides clarity and definition to every tiny detail in the printed image.
During the printing process itself, the inline finishing options include a 100-sheet staple finisher with a cutting mechanism, a 20-sheet booklet finisher with an optional trimming unit, a two-tray post inserter as well as a Z-fold and punch unit. They all allow users to produce a wide variety of output.
"What features customers should choose depends on their requirements, which are as diverse as our clients and their businesses. Due to its enhanced screening technology, the bizhub PRO 950 delivers highest quality print results while the Tone Curve Utility satisfies each individual customer demands," adds Symonds.
"To fully accommodate different professional printers' needs, we offer the bizhub PRO 950 as a scalable and a modular system. But, incidentally, there is one requirement everybody has in common. The printing system should be simple to handle and this is why we have equipped the bizhub PRO 950 with a self-explanatory touch screen, ensuring ease of use."
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