The waiting for something new from Ricoh Print Production Group for Ricoh Wide Format is officially over!
The official launch has not been announced, however the brochure for the Ricoh MP W7100/8140 (was posted on the internet yesterday). Me, I'm excited, because we haven't had a new LED system launched in almost 5 years, gosh has it really been that long?
What's New?
The same GUI (graphic user interface) color LCD display that's supports Ricoh's current black A3 and color A3 MFP's is now used with the Ricoh W7100/8140. That's a good thing, since clients can now scan2usb, scan2sd card, print from USB and print from SD cards. In addition the new GUI will give customers the ability to customize their own scanning workflows (something we could not do in the past).
There's also an optional scanner separation unit (not sure if we had this with the older devices), however, the scanner separation unit will allow just the scanner to sit on it's own stand. Thus, high volume scanning can be performed with out interfering with workers that need to access prints. The scanner separation unit is only available for the MP W8140.
Next, we'll get all of those additional print features for locked print, hold print, hold & print and scheduled print. Locked print for security, hold print is used so that you can tell the system to print when you're by the system. Hold & print will allow a document or set to be printed and the job to be held for re-print. Scheduled print is great for those longer runs, you can pre-schedule the time to print the document or sets when the system will not be in use.
Ricoh has also added the ID card functionality which will allow users to authenticate to the device.
New Internal Options:
- SD Card for NetWare Print, OCR Unit (really?), Browser Unit (maybe we can connect to Ricoh ICE), Wireless LAN, Zoffy
New Print Utility Options:
- PrintCopy Tool, DWG Option Type D, Upgrade kit for DWG Option Type D
What Hasn't Changed?
- Speed, the MP W7100 will print at 10 "D" size per minute and the MP W8140 will print at 14 "D" size per minute (I was hoping for some additional speed here)
- Print Resolution, still stuck with 600dpi which is good, however I was hoping for 1200x1200.
- Paper feed options are still the additional dual feeder, when added this will give you a capacity for four rolls. In addition, there is still the option two tray paper bank. Adding the paper bank option will give you a total of 2 rolls of paper and 2 paper trays.
What I like:
- The addition of the new GUI color LCD display is awesome, it will help with customizing scanning workflows. In addition, the system will support print from USB/SD cards, scan2usb/sd cards.
- The LED print engine has always been extremely reliable, and has been the same LED engine for just about ten years. Flat out the system just prints and copy with very few issues.
- The scanner separation unit is awesome and should help in some larger accounts where there is a higher volume of scanning.
- System ships with a 30 day trial of PrintCopy Tool software.
What I Would have Like to Seen New:
- A huge reduction in the MSRP
- Larger LCD Color display
- Better stacker options
- Folding option
- Accounting software
For me, this system is somewhat of a let down, Ricoh had 5 years to bring a clean sheet design to market and they did not. Yes, the addition the LCD will help, however it is not the home run I was looking for.
For end users, the Ricoh LED print engine that is used with these two new devices has always been super reliable and in most cases I recommend to my client that a maintenance agreement is not needed because the system works so well. The new MP7100 & MP 8140 has all of those everyday features that will make print and scanning of wide format media a breeze.
-=Good Selling=-
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