New Oce Arizona 550 GT Printer Extends the World's Best-Selling UV Flatbed Printer Series to High Capacity Print Providers

TRUMBULL, Conn., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Oce, an international leader in digital document management, today announced the new Oce Arizona® 550 GT flatbed printer, the most productive Oce Arizona model released to date. This new printer is capable of point of purchase (POP)-quality prints at 433 square feet per hour or thirteen four- by eight-foot boards an hour and offers much better value than other UV flatbed models currently available in the market.

With nearly 2,000 platform shipments to date, the Oce Arizona Series of UV printers is the world's number one selling UV flatbed product family, outselling all competitors combined. The Oce Arizona 550 GT is the fastest yet, printing twice as fast as other Oce Arizona models and with image quality superior to all competitive systems.

The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer is the next generation model in the award-winning Oce Arizona Series. It uses UV curable inks and Oce VariaDot™ imaging technology to deliver near-photographic image quality for nearly any application. Designed as a true flatbed system, it can print on a wide variety of rigid substrates up to 49.2 by 98.4 inches in area and up to two inches thick. It also offers a Roll Media Option for printing onto flexible media up to 86.6 inches wide.

Production print speeds

The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer features a Production print mode of up to 433 square feet per hour on rigid media without sacrificing any of the award-winning print quality for which the Oce Arizona Series is famous. This enables users to print more than 100 four- by eight-foot boards in a single eight-hour shift. With this productivity, print providers can confidently take on peak demand and rush jobs. It reduces the risk for businesses wanting to make the transition from analog to digital printing by providing all the print quality they need at production speeds. An Express print mode will also be available with print speeds of up to 721 square feet per hour, or 22 four- by eight-foot boards per hour, nearly three times higher than the fastest print speed available on the previously-released Oce Arizona 350 GT printer.

Costs a third less than comparable systems

Like all Oce Arizona printers, the Oce Arizona 550 GT model was designed using an efficient and simple engineering approach that makes it much more affordable than comparable systems. Print providers can own this high quality, high capacity printer for as much as 30% to 40% less than comparable, competitive UV flatbed systems. That reduces capital outlay for small- and medium-sized businesses and enables them to acquire the best-in-class print quality and application versatility. In addition, the Oce Arizona 550 GT printer continues to provide customers extremely low ongoing cost of operations through its variable dot imaging technology and associated low ink consumption rates with minimal waste.

Opens the door to applications that command premium prices

With the Oce Arizona 550 GT printer, print providers can offer premium priced services and achieve more competitive prices for their work. The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer can print on irregularly shaped or non-square items, heavy substrates such as glass, or materials that have an uneven surface such as wood. This is an important advantage over competitive rigid-capable printers that use belt or friction-based media feed systems, as they can only print on square-cornered, lightweight materials of uniform thickness. The true flatbed architecture enables printing on anything that is reasonably flat up to two inches thick – from a hockey puck to a DVD to a door or a piece of painted aluminum.

A Roll Media Option is available, giving print providers the ability to print onto flexible media including vinyl, self-adhesive vinyl, scrim banner, paper and blue backed paper without compromising the rigid printing workflow. Print providers can use this system to expand into more exotic applications that command premium prices, from parts templates for manufacturing; CD covers and wallpaper to fast food menus and fabric; and anything needed for sign and display.

Oce VariaDot imaging technology is productive and uses significantly less ink

The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer uses Oce VariaDot imaging technology that enables a print head to produce ink droplets of variable size resulting in variable sized dots on the printed media. The ability to jet small droplets produces sharp images with smoother gradients and quartertones. The ability to jet larger droplets produces dense, uniform solids. The result is near-photographic image quality with sharpness only before seen at resolutions of 1,440 dpi or higher.

In addition to superior image quality, Oce VariaDot imaging technology requires only four color inks to achieve the best image quality in the industry. The use of only four colors and of variable-sized droplets results in significantly lower ink consumption than six color printers with fixed droplet inkjet technology. On average, all Oce Arizona Series printers consume less than 0.8 ml of ink per square foot total, including all print head maintenance procedures.

White ink expands capabilities

The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer includes a White Ink Option that enables under-printing for non-white media or objects, over-printing for backlit applications on transparent media and/or printing white as a spot color. Under-printing white ink provides a base for non-white surfaces upon which color can be added, giving print providers the ability to expand their range of offerings to include specialty applications. Over-printing white ink provides a diffusion layer for backlit applications that will be viewed from the unprinted side, enabling print providers to produce high quality backlit images for point of purchase applications. The ability to also print white ink as a spot color enables white features of images to be highlighted for greater effect.

Expanding the premier UV flatbed product family

The Oce Arizona 550 GT printer joins the market-leading Oce Arizona family of UV flatbed printers at the top of the range. Other Oce Arizona Series models include the Oce Arizona 350 XT printer (98.4 x 120 inch table, up to 248 ft(2)/hr print speed), the Oce Arizona 350 GT printer (49.2 x 98.4 inch table, up to 239 ft(2)/hr print speed) and the Oce Arizona 300 GT printer (49.2 x 98.4 inch table, up to 133 ft(2)/hr print speed). All share the same award-winning image quality and robust architecture, offering the Oce values of quality, reliability, productivity and user-friendliness.

In all, Oce Arizona Series UV flatbed printers have accumulated 17 industry awards to date from organizations throughout the world. These awards validate the quality and innovation built into every Oce Arizona Series printer, now the most popular printer in its class.

Oce Display Graphics Systems

Oce Display Graphics Systems is a leading provider of professional, large format solutions for indoor and outdoor color display graphics applications. Oce solutions are specifically designed to enhance the revenue and profit opportunities for service providers by combining hardware with workflow software and the expertise to help companies expand into digital large format color. From extremely high-quality UV curable flatbed printers to outdoor-durable roll-based systems, Oce offers a total solution including hardware, software, imaging supplies, finishing systems, service & support, and financing. Customers benefit in working with a full-service partner they can count on to help their businesses grow.

About Oce

Oce is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. The company's solutions are based on Oce's advanced software applications that deliver documents and data over internal networks and the Internet to printing devices and archives -- locally and around the world. Supporting the workflow solutions are Oce digital printers and scanners, considered the most reliable and productive in the world. Oce also offers a wide range of display graphics, consulting and outsourcing solutions.

Oce employs around 22,000 people, with 2009 revenues of approximately $3.7 billion, operates in around 100 countries and maintains research and manufacturing centers in the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Romania and Singapore. Oce North America is headquartered in Trumbull, CT, with additional business units in Chicago, IL; New York City; Boca Raton, FL; Salt Lake City, UT and Vancouver, BC. North American revenues represent approximately half of Oce's worldwide business, and employment is approximately 10,000. For more information about Oce, visit www.oceusa.com. Outside the U.S., consult http://global.oce.com.

"Oce" and the Oce logo are registered trademarks of, and "Oce VariaDot" is a trademark of, Oce-Technologies B.V. "Oce Arizona" is a registered trademark of Oce Display Graphics Systems. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks and are the property of their owners and are respectfully acknowledged.

SOURCE Oce North America