Monochrome Maverick

Aiming to bolster its strength in the digital printing realm, Xerox Corporation unveiled last month its DocuTech Copier/Printer monochrome product family, an offering that Mark H. Waxenberg, vice president and general manager of Xerox's Production Solutions Business Unit, feels is one of the strongest products introduced by Xerox within the production printing arena. "I consider its quality to be the best ever in the monochrome space," he states.

Built from the ground up, the DocuTech Copier/Printer 100 and 120 models, which are capable of output speeds of 100 and 120 pages per minute (ppm), respectively, represent a four-year, $400 million investment in research and development.

The latest additions to the DocuTech product line, which Xerox introduced 14 years ago, the new machines feature numerous newly developed technologies, as well as some that are also employed within Xerox's iGen3 color production printer.

The DocuTech Copier/Printer fits into a new product positioning area that Xerox calls "mid-production," for monthly duty cycles up to 700,000 units or pieces. The company places the new offering between its light-production Xerox 2101 and heavy-duty DocuTech 6100 families, and targets as competitors products such as the Canon iR105, Ricoh 2105, and Océ DPS 400.

Geared for average monthly print volumes of between 60,000 to 400,000, the 100 model is priced at approximately $83,000; the 120, built for average monthly print volumes of 100,000 to 500,000, costs about $99,000.

Powered by Xerox's DocuSP digital front end, the DocuTech Copier/Printer features fully integrated reprographic copy and scan functionality with in-line finishing. Built with ease of use and growth in mind, the machine has a modular architecture comprising four main components—document scanning, substrate feeding, printing, and finishing—all of which are controlled by DocuSP.

Xerox says that any user who has used any of the 28 existing Xerox products that are DocuSP-enabled will be quite familiar with the DocuTech Copier/Printer interface, so no retraining is required.

The machine is equipped to work with numerous file formats, and can accept data from various media such as CDs or DVDs.

The scanner on the DocuTech Copier/Printer is called particularly impressive; Xerox claims that the machine features the fastest and highest-quality scanning in the industry. Waxenberg explains that the device can scan 120 images per minute at a 600×600-dpi optical resolution, and that this high rate of throughput is achieved via an extremely accurate straight paper path.

Further, he says, advanced registration control positions the image at the last possible moment before printing to achieve optimum image resolution. In terms of image quality, the DocuTech Copier/Printer features 1,200×1,200-dpi RIP resolution, 4,800×600-dpi print resolution, and a halftone screen of 125 lines per inch.

A high-resolution cloud trickle development system ensures that the DocuTech Copier/Printer always has developer in its system, says Waxenberg, adding that users can expect 110,000 impressions per barrel of toner.

Four media trays in the substrate feeder can hold up to 5,800 sheets in sizes ranging from 51/2×81/2" up to 12.2×181/2". Because the system is modular, users can easily add another stacker module to increase the machine's paper capacity to 11,600 sheets. Both DocuTech Copier/Printer models can accommodate 13-lb. bond paper to 110-lb. index stock.

The machine's in-line finishing module comes in a standard and professional version. The standard package can stack up to 250 sheets on the top tray, or 2,000 sheets from the stacker, and can place one or two staples in booklets up to 100 sheets thick. The professional version is able to create C-, Z-, or booklet/bi-folds for various paper sizes.

Waxenberg concludes, "We believe the DocuTech Copier/Printer product represents the best value in the production environment, and will give customers maximum uptime to be profitable."