Offset, Digital Vendors Select Dance Partners –Michelson

With initial rollout in the British and German markets, no timetable has yet been made public on when Heidelberg will begin selling Ricoh's PRO C901 Graphic Arts Edition digital press within the U.S. market. From my vantage point, 
the partnership should provide Ricoh a stronger foray into commercial printing beyond its strength in the enterprise market and, in turn, will give Heidelberg a digital press offering suited to small- and mid-size commercial printers entering the color digital printing market. In the near term, the two companies will showcase a hybrid workflow at the digi:media trade show in Germany next month by teaming a PRO C901 digital press producing very-short-run (including variable data) jobs with a Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor sheetfed offset press outputting short-run static work. Longer term, the Ricoh partnership may also be one more step in Heidelberg's efforts to bolster its presence in the digital finishing equipment marketplace, where it has lagged some of its competitors. Stay tuned, though; Heidelberg likely has more moves in store from a sales, service and consumables standpoint to assist commercial print shops with their digital migrations.