The Pro C9500 is a replacement for the Pro C9200 (the poor man’s Indigo) and the Pro C7500 as a replacement for the Pro C7200. The former is a four-colour-only production machine capable of 135ppm, the later slower but offering a fifth colour.
Both presses take toner a little closer to litho quality while at the same time become easier to set up and use and both gain further flexibility for textured media and so on.
Automation is therefore more sophisticated than previously, showing how sensor and AI technologies have moved forwards in five years. The aim is to minimise switch over between jobs, thus increasing productivity on one hand and encouraging creativity through the use of different materials on the other. This includes thicker materials to enable both to take on carton printing, albeit of limited size and in short runs.
The Pro C9500 can feed and duplex a sheet 960mm long, previously restricted to 700mm, thanks to improvements in how the sheet is registered. This is not an everyday function as the feed bin is restricted to 100 sheets and throughput speed is compromised. This though gives the Pro C9500 the ability to print four linked A4 pages on either side of the sheet for a roll fold configuration – to some extent the equivalent of what is possible on a B1 press. Ricoh will not be over playing this suggestion. However, it does provide some additional flexibility to go where sheetfed toner printing has not gone before.
Likewise in terms of thicker substrates, the flatter travel path allows it to handle 660 micron material within the official specifications and, with the right material and grain direction, to go significantly higher than this, though without the manufacturer’s sanction.
In all the technology built into the Pro C9500 is the culmination of knowledge and experience gained since the first Pro C9100 was launched a decade ago. The toner uses the same sized particles as that on the five year old Pro C9200, but with a touch more developer included to improve adhesion to more challenging materials and to reduce the toner look of the print still further. The fusing process becomes a heated pad and roller rather than a pair of rollers for the same reason. This responds faster to changes in settings for different media and enables the press to print on 40gsm paper.
A faster response comes too with the use of solid state memory in the controller. It is paired with faster colour profiling and with sensors in the machine to measure registration, colour consistency and quality. This is accessed through a single monitor making life a little easier for an operator when Fiery functions were separate from Ricoh’s software. That operator has a both a great deal of control, being able to zoom in to look at and make adjustments to screening for example, but also in allowing the machine to make adjustments itself to help inexperienced operators reach an acceptable result.
The same ethos has taken the experience of the Pro C7200 and delivered the Pro C7500, including the additional toners: white, clear, silver, gold, invisible read and gamut enhancing yellow and pink neon colours. These can be included in colour profiles for production of higher impact print.
The transfer belt gains greater elasticity to help cope with heavily textured papers and pushes the maximum weight to 470gsm (previously 360gsm).
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