'Limitless' Opportunities on Display at Konica Minolta Dealer Conference

By Bob Neubauer

"We had a really great year in FY [fiscal year] 18," proclaimed Rick Taylor, president and CEO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., as he kicked off the company's 2019 dealer conference in Newport Beach, Calif., on Monday evening. Sales of production print units were up 36%, print volume rose 7.2% year over year and U.S. profit was up 16%, he proclaimed to the crowd in the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Basking in those past achievements was not Taylor's goal, though. Rather, the overriding message being sent to dealers at the event was "Don't be complacent. The opportunities are limitless."

Todd Smith, wide-format product marketing manager, shows off a sample printed on the Konica Minolta AccurioWide 160 UV LED wide-format printer on the expo floor at Konica Minolta’s dealer conference.

The two-day conference sought to highlight those opportunities, which stretch far beyond digital printing hardware. Solutions and concepts being demonstrated on the exhibit floor included surveillance systems, MFP document security, a new release of PaperCut print management software, interactive project rooms, a virtual receptionist and even a robot assistant named Pepper. Konica Minolta urged dealers to leverage managed services from the company’s IT services division, All Covered. Konica Minolta's goal, Taylor said, is to lay down the infrastructure for the workplace of the future.

And while more than half of the expo floor was dedicated to these new technologies and concepts, there was still plenty of Konica Minolta equipment on display, including a few technology demos not scheduled for release for months, such as a digital printer for corrugated packaging. The new iSeries Bizhub office MFPs, launching this summer, featured voice activation for hands-free operation, among other new features.

The AccurioPress C6100 Digital Color Press was shown with a new inline GBC WireBinder G1 punching unit for producing twin loop wire-bound documents.

The one production printer on display, an AccurioPress C6100 Digital Color Press, was shown with a new inline GBC WireBinder G1 punching unit for producing twin loop wire-bound documents. It is compatible with all Konica Minolta production presses. The C6100 on display included the IQ-501 intelligent quality optimizer to provide automated image registration and color control along with automated color calibration and profiling.

Konica Minolta's entry into the hybrid flatbed wide-format market, the AccurioWide 160 hybrid UV LED printer, drew a lot of attention on the expo floor. Both it and the AccurioWide 200 use Konica Minolta 1024 series print heads, which enable print resolutions up to 1,440x720 dpi. The UV ink technology they use incorporates more color pigment per droplet, allowing the printers to lay down a thinner layer of ink but still produce offset-quality results.

Busy expo floor at @KonicaMinoltaUS dealer event with @MGI_USA JetVarnish, AccurioPress C6100 and AccurioWide 160 on display pic.twitter.com/j4dM0IHzy3

— In-plant Impressions (@IP_Impressions) March 5, 2019

In a session on the AccurioWide printers, Todd Smith, wide-format product marketing manager, detailed the features and benefits of these printers and fielded questions about their textured printing capabilities. He stressed that the AccurioWide devices are not well suited to producing vehicle wraps or printing on fabrics, responding to questions about these applications. But they can print on a range of flexible roll-to-roll media and rigid substrates up to 1.75˝ thick, he said.

Rising interest in decorative printing was evident in the inclusion of two MGI devices on the expo floor: the JETvarnish 3Ds with the in-line iFOIL S for embossing and hot foil stamping, and the Meteor 8700XL+, which prints on a range of substrates. Nearby, the AccurioLabel 190 digital label press was on display.

The @KonicaMinoltaUS AccurioWide 160 printing on 6 mm thick substrate during KM dealer conference in Newport Beach, CA. pic.twitter.com/Fyr2BS5YAD

— In-plant Impressions (@IP_Impressions) March 5, 2019

Not surprisingly due to its size, the KM-1 production inkjet press was not on site, nor were the WEBJet 100D and 200D inkjet presses. However, a session on the WEBJet presses detailed their high speeds, media flexibility and in-line finishing at rated speeds.

Excellent sales performance in 2018 by @konicaminolta revealed Rick Taylor, Ceo and president pic.twitter.com/llKmSUquQg

— In-plant Impressions (@IP_Impressions) March 4, 2019

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.