Xerox seems to be rolling this month as they build on last week’s big office launch with a weeklong series customer events hosted by the production group. While last week’s event was for analysts, this week’s gathering brought over 200 customers from all over the US, Canada and Latin America to Rochester NY to visit the Gil Hatch Center.

[Tweet “Xerox has serious big iron”]

With Drupa around the corner, Xerox wanted to give some of their customers a taste of what they’re going to show in a few weeks – a great idea as the majority of people in today’s event have never attended Drupa.

There were actually three events this week with one for in-plant customers, today’s briefing for commercial printers and tomorrow’s event for channel partners. Xerox employees must feel like they’re in the movie Groundhog Day by now.


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Xerox is chomping at the bit for Drupa and they have three major new products they’ll be showing. SVP Robert Stabler talked to us about Xerox’s presence at the world’s biggest print show and discussed their 25,000 square foot booth carrying the theme, Let the Work Flow.

In what I would say is the biggest news, Xerox showed the Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press – Xerox’s first cut-sheet inkjet press. At a blistering 197 PPM, this press can run on uncoated paper-stock, making it more economical than other inkjet presses that require coated stock. Xerox will target transactional customers, direct mail and publishing with the new Brenva.

From a distance, the Brenva looks very similar to the iGen, using several common document handling and finishing components. Xerox bills this as using proven reliable technology. It doesn’t hurt that they simply used components they already developed either, making this press very competitive in pricing, which lists at $649,000 US.

We also got to see the new Trivor 2400; Xerox’s next generation 20” inkjet roll-fed press. Powered by an EFI controller, the Trivor 2400 offers color and mono in speeds up to 551 ft / 168 m per minute color and 656 ft / 200 m per minute in monochrome.

“This device is the cornerstone of our inkjet portfolio today,” according to VP Christina Fernadez.

Xerox says that built-in missing jet detectors and other automated processes help to deliver consistent, outstanding quality. The Trivor 2400 is capable of printing a whopping 35 million pages per month.

The last major new product was an add-on to the iGen5 – a fifth color option that extends the color gamut cover to 90% of the Pantone library at rated speed.

Xerox also showed an optional specialty dry ink station for the Color 800i/1000i presses and claims they’re the first in the industry to offer silver dry ink at rated speed.

There were several other updates including a pre Drupa workflow briefing where VP Kevin Horey told us that 75% of the cost of a print job is not the print job. Makes you think when you’re out there hustling for a “mil” with your customers if you’re slinging big iron. Kevin then gave us an overview on FreeFlow Core, Xerox’s production workflow software.

Other updates came from XMPi and then on packaging from VP John DiVincenzo. Packaging is a market Xerox seems to be muscling their way into. There were several examples of customized packaging, including a pack of gum with some interesting facts printed on it by Xerox hardware.

There was also a water bottle inviting me to Drupa, my name printed on the glossy folder containing the press info, etc. Xerox didn’t miss a chance to put messaging everywhere they could. Not a bad idea to put examples like these in front of 115 commercial printers thinking to themselves, “what else can I do with my Xerox presses?”

After a roundtable lunch with the execs, we eventually made it onto the production floor where Xerox staff manned the stations of the digital presses and workflow areas. You would have thought someone yelled free candy at a diet convention the way the customers flocked to the machines. More like swarmed.

At one moment or another the doors on every single machine were wide open as commercial printers flipped switches and pulled trays, checking over every detail of the presses. Xerox staff was always hovering, explaining what the customers were looking at or answering questions.

The last time I attended an event that led me to this production facility I was allowed to take photos for the first time ever. This time they let me record video. Xerox has become much more open as of late and it’s greatly appreciated. There’s no way I could describe this facility.

In all, it was a pretty good briefing. The customers seemed extremely interested in the new technology and Xerox has filled some holes in their portfolio. They’ve certainly taken another major step forward in high-speed ink and these products should help them penetrate new markets.

~Andy Slawetsky