Xerox targets books and transpromo with Concept Colour iGen

FOR XEROX, THE FIRST BIG OPPORTUNITY for high-speed digital web printing is in printing books on demand, in short runs and in helping to instigate a business model for publishers that no longer depends on tying up cash in printed books that will never be sold.

The book market has come to accept the quality of digital printing since the appearance of the Xerox DocuTech in 1992. Even before that people had been thinking about what would happen if books could be printed digitally, so the line of thought is well established and the benefits are now clear to publishers, printers and even to book stores that are starting to consider on-site production of one-off tomes.

But cut sheet toner technology has limitations for books, not least because the heat which is generated limits the papers that can be used and needs to be considered in the finishing stage. Nobody wants a book that bursts its bindings after expanding as the paper takes in moisture. In web printing, Océ and Nipson have made inroads because fusing temperatures are lower, but paper has been a limiting factor.

The Xerox solution is flash fusion cured electrophotography, where the job of the high-temperature fusing unit is done by a high-intensity flash of light from a xenon tube. Any heat generated is minimal and instantly normal book papers can be used. Add in the increased speed to 1,300ppm with a twin-engine system, and here is a press that book printers are starting to install. In the UK, CPI Anthony Rowe has been a pioneer, as it was with DocuTech, while in Denmark LaserTryk has founded a book printing business on the back of digital production and the business has expanded rapidly. The company has been able to compete with printers in the Far East, and where the paper can stay in the press, it is happy to print runs of 250. Ceo Esben Mols Kabell says the real benefit is being able to print on demand in small batches, explaining: “It is expensive for publishers to borrow money. They don’t want their capital tied up in books.”

“Every publisher has moved to think like this,” says Val Govaerts, vp production systems for Xerox Europe. “At Xerox, we see fantastic growth opportunities.”

This is in contrast to the transactional print market, which Govaerts reckons has peaked in terms of engines in the market, though there will be migration from black and white and printing on litho preprint shells to full-colour printing on plain paper. “This bringing together of litho and digital printing is the promise of transpromo,” he says

At one point the expectation was that high-speed digital printing would enable long run personalised direct mail work, but this has not happened. Armando Zagalo de Lima, Xerox Europe president, explains: “It is expanding slowly because IT departments haven’t been able to segment the customer base, which has also hit transpromo. Transpromo is an idea that is 10 years old. It was a brilliant idea that grew ahead of the capacity to meet it. Good segmentation is only starting now.”

Xerox business development head Eric Armour adds: “At the moment direct mail is holding up while other forms of advertising are down.” This is because, however crudely, direct mail offers some targeting and its effectiveness can be measured.

Armour is new to Xerox, having joined as president for the Global Business and Strategic Marketing Group earlier this year following senior positions at Braun and Gillette, and understands what the end customers are looking for by way of marketing channels.

This experience includes product development and he will be behind efforts to focus r&d on product development far more than has been the case, perhaps leading to Xerox’s efforts in gel inkjet, first seen at Drupa, becoming sidelined.

“It continues to be worked on,” says de Lima, but there is no date for a product implementation outside the office arena.

“There are problems with inkjet, not least how you get the ink to dry, which our technology addresses. But we know that our flash fusion technology is already offering better quality and flexibility than inkjet. There is no need to rush to inkjet.”

The CF produces what is being dubbed ‘business class colour’. The iGen product family will produce the top-quality colour, just as the Indigo range will in the HP stable. At Drupa, Xerox showed a twin-engined web version of iGen, the ConceptColour 220. More will be heard about this later in the year, de Lima promises, indicating a possible launch at Print 09 in September. It is currently in the customer evaluation process.

In the meantime Xerox is happy to be writing another chapter in the story of how books are produced.