36 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk July / August 2024 - Issue 349 UNDER THE HOOD / RICOH PRO Z75 The ‘Dragon’ has landed according to Ricoh in the form of the hotly anticipated Ricoh PRO Z75. This is the latest offering from the manufacturer, and again Ricoh is making some very impressive claims on both performance and specification. First and foremost, the PRO Z75 is the world’s first B2+ water-based inkjet printer with perfecting capability; an impressive claim on its own. Added to that, the scope of papers in both size and type adds to the illustrious assertion of Ricoh and from the performance statistics provided by the manufacturer, the claims are all well founded. The machine looks the part. In dark colours, the long and streamlined machine looks impressive and as the saying goes; ‘you need to look the part to be the part’. So, what makes the PRO Z75 tick and what lies under those dark streamlined panels? Ricoh has invested significant sums of money to produce a completely new machine which utilises its proven ink head technology in which the company has become one of the world leaders. There are four process colours (CMYK) which are laid down on a B2 sheet on a large imaging drum. The sheet is held in place by a vacuum system ensuring the substrate is held taut and with precision to ensure the image at 1,200dpi is of the highest commercial standard – equal to that of offset lithographic. The ink is deployed through watercooled pairs of inkjet heads and just because it is water-based, this does not weaken the depth of colour available. The depth and gamut of colour are very impressive and this is achieved by the use of heavily pigmentated inks which means less ink needs to be used for each pass. Whilst a lot of progress has been made in a move to HUV (high ultraviolet) or LED UV, the fact the PRO Z75 uses water-based products means that the environmental credentials of the printer are not to be ignored either. Post image imposition, the sheet passes through a long drying section which is in three parts. Whilst the drying of the sheet would seem to be a simple process, what needs to be taken into consideration is the condition of the sheet if excessive or uneven heat is used to dry the sheet. Whilst there is a high level of colour applied to the sheet, the fact the inks are heavily pigmentated means that the amount of drying capacity required is less on the PRO Z75 than would be needed for less colour-heavy inks. What is clear is that at the end of the drying section, the inks are dried quickly and the sheet can be finished without any waiting time. Turning a New Leaf Adding to the list of ‘firsts’ is the perfecting capacity of the printer. The PRO Z75 can perfect the sheet at up to half of the single pass speed of 4,500 sheets per hour using an automatic perfecting device. At the end of the drying unit, if the double-sided function is needed, the sheet is diverted down and under the drying belt and then interposed between the unprinted sheets coming from the feeder unit. This introduction of the reversed sheet in between every other new sheet is obviously what halves the overall printer speed. However, the upside is you have a double-printed B2 sheet ready for processing in the finishing department. UNLEASHING THE DRAGON The sheet is dried and ready for either finishing directly from the stack or automatically perfecting for duplex printing Ricoh has released the world’s first B2+ water-based inkjet printer with perfecting capability set to take traditional lithographic markets head on in the form of the Ricoh PRO Z75. Brian Sims finds out more
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