Xerox has won the Innovator of the Year award from the Stationers’ Company, but not for an ink or toner on paper printer. The award has recognised development of the company’s ElemX 3D printer, underlining the breadth of what can be considered printing. This is reiterated across the different categories in the awards. Printing, it seems, knows few bounds.
Master of the Company Moira Sleight says: “The company always welcomed innovation and is as keen to do so today as it was nearly 600 years ago when it embraced William Caxton’s printing press.
It is entirely appropriate that the cutting edge world of 3D printing should have so boldly captured the attention of our awards judges.
“They felt that the Xerox process, which can produce urgently needed parts in hours instead of weeks, is truly a potentially disruptive innovation just as Caxton’s press was.”
The ElemX is fed with aluminium wire to be able to print metal parts in locations where conventional spare parts are difficult to obtain. This had led to its use by the US Navy. The device will also print on demand either working prototypes or parts that no longer stocked.
Xerox UK managing director Darren Cassidy accepted the award saying: “This award really matters to us. It is so important to get such prestigious recognition and it will inspire everyone at every level of our team.”
The company also won the business process category for the ElemX. The customer experience award went to Cengage Learning for its on demand online access to text books and course materials. The marketing with communications award was presented to Class Professional Publishing for its CFR Plus app which guides the emergency services to the site of a medical emergency. TTS earned the product design award for Kit the Learning Companion, a desktop robot to help children access personalised teaching resources and to record evidence of learning.
A-dapt International was recognised in the start ups category for its Adaptive media interview coach to help prepare young people for job interviews.
Ricoh UK won the service development aware for Ricoh Supervisor, its dashboard to communicate and analyse real time data to improve the efficiency and manage costs of print operations.
