Canon Expo Gives Glimpse of Future Technologies
NEW YORK—Canon Expo 2015 took over the Jacob K. Javits Center in Manhattan for three days last month, showcasing cutting-edge (and futuristic) Canon technology for a crowd of nearly 10,000. Held concurrently with the inaugural meeting of Canon Solutions America’s thINK 2015 production inkjet users group, Canon Expo marked the first public showing of the long-awaited Océ VarioPrint i300 cutsheet inkjet printer, which drew large crowds. Also popular was the new 100-page-per-minute Canon imagePRESS C10000VP series, engineered to run a wide range of media types and weights up to 350 gsm and boasting a monthly duty cycle of up to 1.5 million letter images.
Taking place every five years, Canon Expo packed a diverse array of Canon technology into more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. The invitation-only event will make two more stops, in Paris and Tokyo this year, then move to Shanghai in 2016.
Fujio Mitarai, chairman and CEO of Canon Inc., helped cut the ribbon to open Canon Expo, then gave an inspiring keynote that evening for a packed auditorium.
Inside the Javits Center, the exhibition was divided into zones demonstrating the theme of “Canon See Impossible” and modeled after New York City landmarks and scenery, each highlighting a different portion of the Canon experience. Each zone offered a fascinating array of Canon technology—from medical imaging equipment to high-end motion picture cameras. The display of 8K screens was jaw-dropping in the crisp detail of the images. Also memorable was the indoor replica of Yankee Stadium, where a baseball game was being played. Canon cameras were scattered throughout the dugout and up in the stands, where attendees were free to use them to capture the action.
Elsewhere, Canon showed its security camera technology, an 8K camera motion picture system, a communication platform to connect offices virtually, advanced medical imaging systems, facial recognition systems and more. There were also numerous seminars featuring the likes of journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, author of “The Perfect Storm.”
But it was the sight of the Océ VarioPrint i300 cutsheet inkjet printer that most excited the graphic arts crowd. It printed color pages at the expo, which came out dry, flat and ready for distribution. Able to print up to 294 letter images per minute and handle paper sizes up to 13.9×19.7˝, the inkjet press can produce heavy production volumes of up to 10 million pages per month. Canon expects the VarioPrint i300 to accelerate the migration of offset-printed pages to digital. Already, VarioPrint i300s have been installed in four customer locations, where the presses have printed more than five million pages in just a month and a half.
At Canon Expo, representatives touted the Océ iQuarius technologies powering the VarioPrint i300:
- iQuarius CMYK Inks (water-based pigment inks that can print on a range of media);
- Sheet Entry Control (automated detection and purging of deformed sheets);
- Precision Sheet Control (sheets are held flat on a stainless steel transport belt with air suction);
- In-Line Quality Inspection (a nozzle failure detection sheet is printed in regular intervals, scanned in-line and compensation is automatically applied);
- iQuarius Drying System (using four drying methods).
Large crowds always surrounded the new imagePRESS C10000VP, as well. It boasts a new toner with a smoother surface for finer reproduction and minimized scratching. The press can output 2,400x2,400 dpi resolutions, and offers real-time, automatic color control and adjustments, as well as more accurate calibration using new in-line spectrophotometric sensors. Gloss Optimization technology helps match gloss levels of the printed image to the substrate it is printed on. The model on display featured an in-line GBC scoring/creasing device.
Also launched at Canon Expo was the PRISMAdirect workflow solution, which simplifies the production workflow by combining job submission and order fulfillment in one centralized solution. It’s able to acquire orders from a variety of sources: email, USB drive, hard copy, network folder, FTP folder, etc. Boasting a Web-based user interface, PRISMAdirect comes standard with a powerful order processing and management dashboard, and an optional Web shop provides a convenient online purchasing experience.
The space-saving Océ ColorStream 3000 Z series of inkjet presses was also introduced at Canon Expo, with speeds up to 417 feet/min., and with roll feed and Z-fold stack paper support. PI
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
