I've talked with several equipment vendors over the past couple of days and the word from them is that after five days this drupa is proving to be a successful one in terms of sales. HP, Kodak, Océ, and Xerox are all reporting strong orders for both single and multiple machines and some have also sold much of the equipment shown in their stands. All have also received plenty of interest in the new technologies they are showing. In addition to the new machines being rolled out here, vendors are showing technology demos or works in progress while others are measuring interest in concept machines the vendors think may fill a need --or niche-- in the market.

If One is Good, are Two are Better?
One of these is duplex printing, or perfecting, as offset printers call it. While continuous feed print engines have long been joined together when two-sided printing is needed --primarily on transactional documents and books, cut-sheet machines have typically been solo performers, printing both sides of a page. Yet in the past year or so, joining two monochrome devices as perfecting presses has become an option for effectively doubling the throughput of a given machine. Xerox began this shift with the melding of two monochrome Nuvera 144 production presses to create the Nuvera 288 and Kodak has announced a tandem monochrome system for 2009. Others will no doubt follow, probably from Japan.

But these days, color is what is important to customers and vendors alike. The tandem approach is showing up here, too, as evidenced by the iGen3-based ConceptColor 220 being shown in an alcove of the Xerox stand here at drupa, partly as a demonstration of what could be done, but also as a way to test customer interest. According to Xerox, response to the concept machine has been positive, especially among existing iGen customers, a goodly number of whom have two or more machines already. I'm betting this the first of other tandem color boxes from other suppliers, simply because of the technical barriers in getting the needed color quality at substantially higher speeds in a single cut-sheet device.

Although I like such configurations in principle, I'd still rather have more speed in a single box. Tandem cut sheet systems seem like a complex and less than elegant way to deliver greater throughput, but the upside to too good to ignore. By doubling throughput capability, a print provider better can meet the demands of ever tightening print windows, take in more jobs and add value for their customers. And they have redundancy when one of the engines is down. So even if tandems are only place holders until faster systems are available, they help meet today's production needs and let printers take on jobs they might otherwise have to turn away.

Speed is good. More is better.

Noel Ward
Managing Editor, WhatTheyThink.com
Director, Brimstone Hill Associates.