June 17, 1996

Xeikon enhances digital press, adds glossy look

Lower page cost, more media options

• A series of refinements to the original print engine technology.
• A new software release.
• For Xeikon-brand systems (including those sold by AM Multigraphics, we presume), a broader selection of RIPs to drive the print engine.

All of the announced improvements can be added to current DCP-1 customer sites as field upgrades. Agfa, one of Xeikon's OEMs and the manufacturer of its consumables (toner and developer), has already announced the improvements (except for the Xeikon-specific RIP options) as enhancements and upgrades to an improved version of its Chromapress.

In addition to the fanfare surrounding those developments, Xeikon more quietly has made some evolutionary changes to the engine (and the configurations in which it sells it) since initial shipments began. However, the basic engine implementation, using its One Pass Duplex technology, remains unchanged, offering a printing speed of 2,100 duplex, full-color pages per hour.

The glossy look of offset. One of the most significant of the enhancements to the print engine is a new toner-fusing mechanism intended to give the output a higher gloss and closer resemblance to offset printing. Xeikon calls this optional enhancement Gem; Agfa calls it OmniGloss. It consists of a new, two-part fuser and finishing system as a replacement for the original toner fuser in the engine.

With the new facility, the output medium is heated and toner is partially fused at the first station; the medium then passes to the second fusing station of pressurized rollers, which result in a calendaring effect on the media and a glossier appearance from the fused toner. A new, heavier-duty web puller motor is also part of the option.

Broader range of stocks. As a byproduct of the two-part fusing process, the fusing temperature in the engine can be lower, thus allowing the use of a broader range of stocks, including coated and heavier ones. The new fusing technique also makes the toner less susceptible to scratching.

The stronger web puller motor helps accommodate heavier stocks, so the machine is better able to print covers, business cards, display materials and the like. The engine can now accommodate stocks from 40 to 170 lb. (60-250g/m2).

It is possible to tune or turn off the second fusing station under operator control.

Just as we went to press, our European editor received printed output from the new engine. He reported that it represents a major improvement, saying that "it no longer has the dull, flat look of the DCP-1 when using a semigloss paper."

He commented that the output on high-gloss stock looks very much like the quality from offset lithography. He added that it makes the Xeikon output look better than that of a Xerox DocuColor 40 or a Scitex Spontane.

More cost-effective consumables. Another key enhancement to the print engine is a set of reengineered, more cost-effective consumables -- both toner and developer -- developed and supplied by Agfa. (The developer is the component that carries the toner particles and distributes them to the electrostatically charged areas of the printing surfaces.)

At this point, Agfa is the sole manufacturer of consumables for the Xeikon engine, which is private-labeled for IBM and AM, although there has been some discussion, we understand, about developing second sources. We know that IBM, for example, has considerable experience in this area.

These "second-generation" microtoners and developers enable lower toner consumption by up to 15%-20% per page, Xeikon says, a longer developer life of more than 150,000 sheets (up to three times the life of the previous developer); and enhanced toner coverage. This last factor, coupled with the ability to run more media types, greatly increases in number the kinds of jobs that can be printed on the press.

Agfa also states that the enhanced consumables reduce the variable costs associated with printing by one-third, which undoubtedly will have an effect on the economic model and ROI for the devices. The new toner and developer will be available around the beginning of the third quarter.

Longer drum life. Related to the lower cost of ownership are new preventative-maintenance tools and procedures for the upgraded engine, which result in substantially longer lives for parts and other consumables. For example, the OPC (organic photoconductor) drum will be able to achieve a useful life of 200,000-300,000 sheets. Likewise, the longer developer life means less preventive maintenance from fewer developer changes (a change takes about 4-5 hours), thus less downtime.

New software. Beyond these refinements, a new release of software for the new Xeikon models provides such improvements as a friendlier operator interface, more automated process controls and improved conditioning of the paper and print stations at the engine, which are intended to provide predictable performance and shorter time in start-up.

It is also possible for a key operator to perform extended maintenance.

All of these enhancements contribute to making the new DCP/32D (and others based on the same engine) more suitable for heavy-duty use and monthly volumes of up to 500,000 pages.

New RIP configurations. With the new DCP/32D engine, Xeikon can now configure up to six different RIP options, instead of the previous four. These options are:

• DIS/B -- 60-MHz Pentium running the Harlequin's ScriptWorks PostScript interpreter software, the entry-level configuration. (We wonder why anyone today would even consider buying a 60-MHz Pentium, when 90-MHz and 120-MHz units can be obtained for a very small extra cost. Since this is the only Pentium RIP offered by Xeikon, it's obvious that the company is much more interested in selling the other five configurations using DEC Alpha AXP processors.)
• DIS/S -- 233-MHz DEC Alpha AXP running ScriptWorks.
• DIS/F -- 233-MHz DEC Alpha AXP running Barco Graphics' FastRIP/X PostScript interpreter. This is currently at Level 1 PostScript. Barco will upgrade the FastRIP to Adobe's Supra architecture, but we have no indication now if this will be available as an upgrade to the existing FastRIP.
• DIS/FP16 -- 233-MHz DEC Alpha AXP running Barco's FastRIP/X with an integrated Barco PrintStreamer for extended page image memory. It provides 16 GB, using multiple RAID disk drives, for handling large documents and for variable data printing.
• DIS/FP32 -- 233-MHz DEC Alpha AXP Barco's FastRIP/X with an integrated PrintStreamer and 32 GB.
• DIS/SP32 -- 233-MHz DEC Alpha AXP running ScriptWorks, plus an integrated PrintStreamer with 32 GB of extended page-image memory.

System pricing. DCP/32D prices vary according to the RIP option chosen. The base level with the DIS/B RIP costs in the region of $280,000. A high-end configuration using either the DIS/FP32 or DIS/SP32 RIP is priced in the $450,000 range.

All current DCP-1 users can upgrade their presses in the field to DCP/32D specifications.

Competitive position. Xeikon is claiming that the series of enhancements it has announced make its products -- i.e., printing systems based on its engines, including its own configurations -- the most productive digital color presses available today. The DCP-1 was already the fastest digital color printing engine for short-run color work; the enhancements make it more productive and cost-effective for a wider variety of applications.

The digital color printing market has recently become more competitive with the entrance of the Scitex Spontane and the Xerox DocuColor 40. These two units, based on the same 40-ppm Fuji-Xerox electrophotographic engine, offer very competitive cost-per-page factors and high levels of uptime.

Xeikon's enhancements to its products will undoubtedly position them more favorably against these lower-end products, as well as against Indigo's E-Print, which has had advantages in terms of print media flexibility and a glossier "offset" look in its output.

Financial report. Meanwhile, in its first quarterly report since going public in March, Xeikon showed a profit of $275,000 on revenues of $18.8 million. Xeikon sold 66 DCP-1 systems in the quarter and now claims to have shipped about 450 systems either to customers or to distributors or OEM customers. Of that total, Agfa accounts for about 200 units worldwide, we were told.

In its stock offering, Xeikon raised approximately $65 million. At press time, the stock was trading at about 22, in the middle of its trading range of 18 to 27 so far.

In perspective. Although we applaud Xeikon for its latest changes, we caution readers not to expect the grandiose developments that might generally accompany a "second-generation" tag and a whole new product name (the DCP/32D instead of the DCP-1). A certain amount of Xeikon's excitement may be marketing magic that comes with being a public company -- and which didn't use to be typical of Xeikon. We might have chosen instead to label these developments "refinements to the original print engine with new software and new RIP configurations."

That is what Agfa has chosen to do with its version of the Xeikon engine. It is incorporating the improvements in an enhanced version of its Chromapress, rather than incrementing the model name or number -- at least, not yet. AM Multigraphics, which sells off-the-shelf Xeikon offerings in several markets but has not provided any added value of its own, will undoubtedly adopt the new model name. We have yet to hear how IBM, a Xeikon OEM, will handle the changes.

Our point is to be more straightforward about exactly what this so-called new-generation machine is. Industry pundits looking for the magic machine that will spur the digital printing revolution into regaining some lost momentum probably won't find it here, although, as our European editor noted, the look of the output is getting ever so much closer to that of offset printing. That development, combined with the increase in productivity and the reduction in operating costs, makes this a significant system upgrade.