Ricoh Launches Aficio Series of Color Laser Printers

Ricoh debuts two lines of printers aimed at graphics-heavy environments and businesses that require advanced security features.

Digital office equipment provider Ricoh Americas has announced the availability of its Ricoh Aficio SP C820DN and SP C821DN color laser printer series, an upgrade over the previous Aficio CL7200 and SP C811DN models.

The new printers boast an upgraded engine design based on the CL7200 engine, which the company said produces faster warm-up times and first print times. The Aficio SP C820DN and SP C821DN are available for $3,699 and $4,669, respectively.

Ricoh said its color laser printers are the ideal solution for graphic-intensive workgroups like marketing departments, print-for-pay vendors, prepress departments and design agencies looking to produce full-color documents in-house. The SP C820DN and SP C821DN Series comes equipped with finishing options like the 1,000-sheet booklet finisher and 3,000-sheet finisher, which allow users to produce full-color marketing materials at a much lower cost than outsourcing, the company argues.

The printers' multi-bit printer engine uses laser technology to achieve high-quality prints: The SP C820DN and SP C821DN support Pantone, ColorSync, and custom ICM and ICC profiles to help give users flexibility to keep a wide range of jobs in-house. Ricoh said Pantone Color Palettes will be available in mid-August 2009.

The machines print up to 9,600 by 600 dpi and 1,200 by 1,200 dpi at a rate of up to 40 pages per minute for the Aficio C820DN and up to 50 pages per minute for the Aficio C821DN.

"Ricoh realizes that in today's economy, our customers demand speed, productivity and reliability to keep their businesses performing at high levels," said Matt Sakauchi, vice president of the Office Printer Business Group for Ricoh Americas. "Our new color laser printers ensure that our customers can continue to optimize their productivity with new technology that is cost-effective and efficient."

In addition to printers for graphic-intensive environments, the company also announced a line of digital imaging systems, the Ricoh Pro 907EX/Pro 1107EX and Pro 1357EX line, which feature enhancements to the Ricoh Pro 906EX/Pro 1106EX and Pro 1356EX series that launched in May 2008, including advanced performance and improved finishing features.

The Ricoh Pro 907EX/Pro 1107EX/Pro 1357EX offers print speeds of up to 135 pages per minute (ppm), and faster performance due to its enhanced memory architecture, which includes a standard 512MB RAM (upgradable to 1.5GB) and a 320GB hard disk drive. The Pro 907EX/Pro 1107EX/Pro 1357EX can create perfect-bound books of up to 400 pages (duplex) using its in-line Perfect Binder, and the company's ring binder unit can produce ring-bound booklets that are punched and bound online.

Ricoh has also loaded the printers with advanced security to help customers protect sensitive customer documents-and the system itself-by requiring identification confirmation of individuals prior to system access. Internal and external authentication, along with access restriction, control which features authorized users can employ. Users can prevent denial-of-service attacks, reduce the risk of virus relay and defend against user name/password theft with the Network Protocol On/Off function. Protecting data from interception, analysis and tampering with encrypted transmission is supported by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.