Ok,

Lets say we (as members of this forum) wanted to build a new Digital Color Printer to complete with Xerox, Kodak, HP, etc.

What features would you want as manditory. What features would be nice it wasn't too much pain to implement. What type of technology would you think could give the best results. Xerographics, Image Cylinders, Blankets, Liquid, Toner. What substrates would you make sure it could run? What finishing, if any, would you want as standard what features would you want as optional. What cost would you think would be fair to sell it at?

Let's see how smart and creative this group can be... Maybe our vendors are watching and can take note of what we all need in our digital device..

Thanks for you input!
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Dale Zahnke

Dale,

Here is a link to Patrick's write up of what he and I where discussing we wanted:

The Next Digital Press

We all might be waiting a few years for this press though

Well my post was a joke but there are some serious points.

Size
Maximum of 40 inches wide
Length would be 40 as well
Longer if you add a roll feed

Stacked pallette loading systems for multiple sheet pulling

Prints both sides simultaneously (if heads are positioned that way)

Repositionable print head arrays

Uses actual offset inks

Has 8 color wells (CMYK Front + CMYK Back or CMYK + 4 spots if one side at a time)

full 4800x4800 8bit color depth

adjustable line screens, dot angles and frequencies

Speeds over 10,000 sheets / hour and adjustable

Perfect registration with no makeready

Gamut larger then GraCol

less then 1 delta E color consistency, sheet to sheet and within a sheet

Ability to do custom colors like PMS, Metallics, Flourencents, etc.

Variety of coatings, aqueous, UV, varnishes all inline

Inline finishing, folding, scoring, perfing

Full variable data support

That should be a good start for me. I could be dreaming but I believe within my lifetime we will see something better then these specs.

In addition to patrick's list, I would like to see faster startup cycle times and overall improvement of productivity (less paper jamming, less adjustment processes, etc.). Ultimately more sheets out per hour. I would also like to see the sheet sizes double which would make it more competitive with a 29" press and effectively double your speed when doing A4 work.

i would have to say, white ink printing & inline A5 landscape format saddlestich.