New Xerox iGen 5 150 Press Adds Fifth Station for Expanded Gamut Effects

Today, Xerox announced the availability of a new member of the iGen family: the Xerox iGen 5 150 press. The iGen 5 150 model is the first of multiple offerings in a family that provides a choice of speeds, a range of feeding and finishing options, and an optional fifth imaging station. It’s the imaging station that is the biggest differentiator between the new iGen 5 150 and earlier iGen models. The fifth station is an LED-based, customer-changeable unit (CCU) that sits opposite the CMYK vector imaging systems within the main print tower cabinetry. It is important to note that the device runs the same speed in five-color and four-color mode.

Xerox's first implementation of the fifth station is for color gamut extension. The iGen 5’s fifth station supports either an orange, blue, or green toner, which can be switched out using a cart and rack system. The process takes no more than 20 to 30 minutes according to Xerox. Xerox chose gamut extension to increase the number of corporate colors (such as those from the Pantone Matching System) that can be reproduced by the new iGen 5. Xerox will provide a gamut extension software tool to help customers decide which color to choose for the best match to any given Pantone color. The gamut extension colors will be offered only as in Xerox’s Matte Dry Ink.

A schematic of the Xerox iGen 5 150.

Xerox intends to send out print samples later this month. Once received, InfoTrends will record a short video, as it has done with other print samples. See Jim Hamilton’s Print Sample Videos on YouTube.

The iGen 5 150 press is available now with the optional fifth station and an EFI front end (a FreeFlow Print Server option will be released in September). Two other configurations, the 120-ppm iGen 5 120 and the 90-ppm iGen 5 90, will also become available in September. The iGen 150 and the iGen 4 Diamond Edition remain in the product lineup. The base list price for the iGen 5 press is $752,000 and increases to $849,000 with the fifth station option.

The addition of the fifth station is an interesting expansion to iGen’s capabilities, and improves its competitive position versus products like HP’s Indigo and Kodak’s NexPress, which already offer colors and special effects beyond CMYK. It is interesting that Xerox chose gamut extension via orange, blue, or green as the first implementation of the fifth station capability. This certainly must reflect Xerox corporate customer desire for such a feature. Yet at the same time, Xerox is enabling clear, gold, and silver special effects in the fifth station on the Xerox Color 1000i press. One wonders whether those effects may someday be available on the iGen 5 platform.

For those interested in exploring production digital printers that offer special effects and extra colors, InfoTrends’ "Ultimate Guide" provides the ability to select products from the database according to the ability to produce a digital varnish, gamut/tonal expansion, security inks, spot colors, and white.