Canon announced in Japan the introduction of three new colour networked mulifunction colour office systems, each configured in two versions incorporating an all-new laser engine and toner fusing system to achieve high-speed print performance (N and F models) while the other models offer high funcionality and enhanced functions to meet specific business needs.

The devices achieve hight output speeds of 51ppm, 40ppm and 36ppm respectively for A4 documents. Canon’s newly developed Twin Belt Fuser
toner fusing system works in conjunction with the highly efficient Induction Heating Coil to provide fast, energy-efficient fusing, even for high density colour documents.

Kyocera Mita has updated its range of monochrome A3 multifunctional products (MFPs) with the launch of the KM-3050,4050 and KM-5050. The new devices are the successors to the KM-3035,4035 and 5035 series and offers the same Kyocera Mita engine but with features such as faster scan speeds and a larger memory.

The new range has a maximum paper capaciy of 4’200 sheets while the toner cartridge yields 34’000 copies at 6% coverage.

With the launch of a new series of multfunctional products from Kyocera Mita, medium-sized offices now have access to A3 colour printing and copying.

All three devices are using dual component toner and the manufacturer’s own controller. The KM-C3225 and C3232 print at 32ppm (A4 in b&w) and 25/13 and 32/16 in A4/A3 colour respectively. The KM-C2520 has a print speed of 20/10 ppm and 25ppm in A4 black & white.

Nashua Corporation announced that its previously announced planned sale of certain of its toner and developer asstets to KATUN closed as scheduled on March 31, 2006 with certain assets remaining to be transferred. The assets involved in the transaction included certain toner and developer formulations and related equipment. The remaining assets are expected to be transferred to KATUN within the next three months.

According to the InfoTrend`s recently released U.S. Print on Demand forecast, the production copying and digital printing market in the USA will account for 921 billion prints in 2010, generating total annual equipment, supply and service revenued of nearly USD 19 billion. Meanwhile the retail value of print will near USD 73 billion.

Color print on demand continues to be the driver behind this growth, which is primarily due to the success of production color devices (printer and copiers with speeds of 24ppm and higher). It is expected that the installed base for production color devices in the USA will grow annually 23% until 2010.

Black & white print on demand will grow at a much slower rate than color due to continued shift of b&w to color devices. It is expected that the annual b&w printing volume will reach its peack in 2009.

Samsung recently introduced the CLP-650N laser printer offering print speed of up to 21ppm in black and color. The device has a duty cycle of 45000 pages per month and a cost per page of 2,4 US-Cents in monochrome, respectively 12,1 US-Cents in color. According to Samsung the cost per page can be lowered by up to 40 percent when using the “TonerSave” feature which is extending the life of the toner cartridge up to 40 percent.

Canon Europe announced the launch of its new smart office colour four drum multifunctional printers (MFPs)- the iR-C3380/i and iR-C2880/i
offering print, copy, scan, send and fax functionality.

The four devices are Canon’s completely new colour MFPs with colour speeds of 30 and 28ppm. Besides many finishing options and productivity increasing software the devices come with Automatic Colour Sensing (ACS) which recognises when a paper is in colour or
black&white and prints the document accordingly.

Ricoh Europe B.V launched 3 new all-round models – the Aficio MP-161, MP-161L and MP-161LN which are equipped with an increasing number of
functions. All models provide standard automatic duplexing and advanced paper handling.

Prints are produced at speeds of up to 16ppm and ideal for monthly copy volumes of 5’000 copies. Furhter, the devices offer very low sound emission level and power consumption.

Xerox announced its most affordable desktop colour laser printer and multifunction product (MFP) designed for small business as a replacement for business inkjet printers and all-in-one devices.

The Phaser 6110 colour laser priter prints up to 4ppm in colour and 16ppm in black&white at a print resolution of 2400×600 dpi. Available in four configurations at a starting price of EUR 274.00 the device will be available from November 2006.

Canon USA Inc. announced availability of a series of new powerful, yet affordable colour devices for large and small office environments.
Based on four-drum technology the C5180,C4580 and C4080 delivery printing speeds of 51,45 and 40ppm for letter sized documents in b&w
and 51,45 and 36ppm for colour output.

While the C5180 is already available the other models will become available by the end of 2006.

HP will purchase 3COM, a leading provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions, for approximately USD 2,7 billion. The terms of the transaction have been approved by HP and 3COM boards of directors.

The acquisition of 3COM will expand HP’s Ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and strengthen the company’s position in China as one of the world’s fastest growing markets.

The combination will add a large research and development team in China that will drive the acceleration of innovations of HP’s networking solutions.

Kyocera Mita America Inc. has been named the most reliable monochrome Multifunctional Product (MFP) line in a recent survey of service managers and dealers. Kyocera Mita’s MFPs earned a total overall reliability score of 8,4 (out of 10,0), as compared to the industry average of 7,9.

Kyocera Mita has been awarded in three of the past five years in that survey conducted by Office Product Analyst.

Xerox Corp. received 706 US patents last year, a 16 percent increase from 2008 and a gain that places the company among the world’s top 25 corporate patent recipients in 2009.

Xerox’s joint venture in Japan, Fuji Xerox Co.Ltd. received 425 US patents, in increase of 28 percent over 2008.

When taken together the Xerox group garnered 1’131 patents totally which pushes Xerox into rank 12 worldwide. Fuji Xerox patents were not included in the ranking compiled by US patent analysis firm IFI Patent Intelligence.

Xerox and Fuji Xerox collectively invest about USD 1,15 billion annually in research, developments and engineering.

Ricoh Americas Corp. has announced its new Aficio MP-4001/MP-5001 series devices as their latest monochrome multifuncion products (MFPs). The two new machines will produce documents at 40ppm and 50ppm respectively and have full colour and monochrome scanning capabilities.

These MFPs are designed to allow users the ability to customize documents and streamline their current workflow to increase productivity and minimize operating costs.

Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. has announced that the company and Océ N.V, reached through mutual agreement consultation, an agreement to terminate the strategic business alliance agreement, entered into by and between both companies to cooperate in development and marketing for office and production printing systems.

For the time being, Konica Minolta will continue to supply its office printing systems to Océ an an OEM basis from its entire production line, and both Konica Minolta and Océ will continue to supply productin printing systems to each other under the OEM sales agreement.

Also both companies will continue to supply consumables and parts and
offer after-sales service for products already in the market.

What is the difference between a Multifunction Printer and a Multifunction Copier? If this question is bugging you, then join hundreds of other people who want to know what the difference is between a Printer that can print, copy and scan and a Copier that can copy, print and scan!

In the past, printers and copiers were produced using different technology and had different functions, but today, that distinction has faded and many of the features are ideally the same. Two products which seem to offer the same features may be based on an entirely different line depending on whether they are a copier or a printer.

The multi function printer is growing in popularity especially in the print speed range of 40 to 50 pages per minute. The acquisition cost of a Multifunction printer will generally cost less than a Copier with similar features. Additionally, printers do not require as much scheduled maintenance which means less commitment to expensive service plans.

On the other side of the equation, the multifunction printers can often only handle scanning and output printing up to legal-size (A4) and not ledger size (A3), and will also have less robust finishing options. More importantly, although the initial cost of the printer based MFP may be lower than the copier based MFP, the running cost of the supplies and the print cost per page is higher due to the fact that printer toners and drums are less cost effective when it comes to huge amounts of printing.

Therefore, the right choice for you will ultimately depend on your monthly usage needs. The heavier user will be better off with a copier based MFP. Although the initial outlay and service charges may seem costly, the number of pages you will be able to print in the bigger picture will justify the price. The lighter user will benefit from the print speed and multiple functions of the printer based MFP and the toner output will be well sufficient for their needs.