Xerox is to market Kyocera’s production inkjet presses in a surprise return to the technology it had appeared to abandon when bring production of the Baltoro to a close. This was the Xerox inkjet press built on the same frame as the iGen toner presses. But with the closure of the factory producing these machines. it seemed as though Xerox was making a break with a technology it has had a roller coaster relationship with.
It acquired French development company Impika leading to the Trivor model, but closed down what was described as its inkjet centre of excellence as part of a retrenchment under the control of activist shareholders Icahn and xx.
Now Xerox is making a return to the inkjet space, but not with its own technology. Instead it will market Kyocera’s high speed production inkjet presses under a Xerox badge and with Xerox workflow and other software.
Currently the machines affected are the Taskalfa Pro 150000C, a 300ppm press printing on uncoated papers and with a low energy consumption because there is no need for a dryer. This is equivalent to the Baltoro, albeit with 1200dpi printing.
Kyocera’s second machine in this space is the TasKalfa Pro 55000C, a press able to print on coated papers up to 400gsm with water based inks at 150 US-letter-sized pages a minute. This was shown as a prototype at Drupa. It is also a joint development with Screen which will bring the press to market as the TruepressJet 320. The press is still in development and is yet to start commercial sales.
Xerox is not announcing which Kyocera machines are involved in the agreement. That will wait until later in the year. There are also Kyocera machines in the light production and MFP space that may appeal to Xerox.
SVP and head of product and engineering at Xerox Terry Antinora says: “This is a pivotal moment for our production print business. Our re-entry into the cut sheet inkjet market allows us to diversify our portfolio, meet growing client demand for speed and efficiency, and reinforce our commitment to leadership in digital production.”
The high end of the digital press sector has been troublesome for Xerox as sales of press has declined. In the recent quarterly results, sales of high end printers, now represented by the Iridesse and Primelink C9200, dropped 26.7% to $44 million compared to the same quarter last year.
The opportunity is there. Xerox quotes a forecast from IT Strategies predicting that global installs for cut sheet inkjet presses will increase by 13% a year until 2030.
The attraction for Kyocera is the reach that Xerox has across the US and Europe at least. It is also a sector that partner and now rival Fujifilm is currently not active in.
Kyocera says that this is key to the deal enabling the two companies to deliver “truly unique solutions for production printers who demand reliability and a return on their investment”.
