Ricoh’s fully subscribed Art of the New showcases expanded inkjet portfolio

Ricoh Europe, London, 06 December 2017 – Creative print service providers from across Europe and beyond learned how Ricoh’s fast-growing inkjet portfolio can help them open new worlds of opportunity at its Art of The New event.

Senior executives from commercial, transactional, direct mail and book printers attended the fully subscribed three-day inkjet showcase. It was held at Ricoh’s European Customer Experience Centre, Telford, UK.

Eef de Ridder, Director, Commercial Printing, of the Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh Europe, comments: “Both from a participation and interest point of view the Art of The New was a clear success. There were close to 200 visitors from nearly 20 countries. We are excited to see how many will now choose inkjet to embrace new production opportunities.” 

Those opportunities will be supported by the newly announced Ricoh Pro™ V20000 series of mono continuous feed printers, the enhanced Ricoh Pro™ VC60000 flagship continuous feed system and the Ricoh Pro™ VC40000 colour continuous feed inkjet platform.

As well as seeing these presses producing an exciting range of products, attendees heard Tim Taylor, Head of Continuous Feed Market, Ricoh Europe, detail inkjet’s exciting future.

Print consultant Sean Smyth highlighted the continuing shift from analogue to digital print, and how inkjet will be the winner, while a panel of technology experts from Hunkeler, Tecnau and Kern examined the respective benefits of inline and offline finishing. 

Test-Tech paper and print consultant Richard Saunders reinforced the importance of picking the right substrates and application master classes focused on automated workflow that manages short runs and dynamic content, productively and efficiently as well as colour management for consistency.

Demonstrations of the new high speed inkjet systems in the Smart Factory, plus the option to explore sheet fed, large format, hybrid printers and Direct to Garment technology, completed the packed agenda. 

Adds de Ridder: “It was great to see such interest in our high speed inkjet technologies from so many leading operations. It is clear that the needs of the commercial print market are evolving quickly and we are delighted that our portfolio is perfectly placed to support them.”