Three Konica Minolta systems – the bizhub PRESS 1052, 2250P and C1100 – were recently honoured with BLI PRO Awards as ‘Outstanding Production Devices’ in the monochrome light to mid-volume, colour mid-volume and monochrome mid- to high-volume categories.
It was the third year in succession that Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe has won these coveted Awards. Each system’s performance clearly impressed the BLI jury. As David Sweetnam, Head of BLI’s European Lab and Research Services, noted, the C1100 delivered “an impressive all-round performance” and the PRESS 2250P was an “excellent and cost-effective choice”. Pete Emory, BLI Director of Laboratory Testing, described the PRESS 1052 as an “excellent blend of everything that’s most important in monochrome production environments”. “We are very proud that the PRESS 1052 won a BLI 5-star rating for productivity,” said Michael Mølbæk, Senior Manager, Production Printing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “That we also received BLI PRO Awards for our PRESS 2250P and PRESS C1100, the latter with very high ratings in all categories, proves that our production printing systems can meet the market’s highest expectations.”
“Excellent blend of everything”
The 105-ppm bizhub PRESS 1052 is the BLI’s 2015 PRO Award winner in the category ‘Outstanding Monochrome Light- to Mid-Volume Production Device’. By matching or surpassing its competitors in almost all the nearly 20 speed tests, this system earned BLI’s highest 5-star rating for productivity and outperformed all its competitors through running at the rated engine speed when producing jobs with multi-tray switching and coated inserts. “Not only is it highly productive,” said Pete Emory, “… it (also) offers excellent media-handling capabilities, and its input and output paper capacities are so high it can run for about eight hours before requiring operator attention.”
“Impressive all-round performance”
Earning high ratings across the board in all the categories covered by BLI’s Production Field Test, the 100-ppm bizhub PRESS C1100 is the BLI’s 2015 PRO Award winner in the category ‘Outstanding Colour Mid-Volume Production Device’. As one of the best production devices BLI has evaluated to date, the PRESS C1100 scored no less than 4.5 stars (from a maximum of five) in all the tested categories. “The bizhub PRESS C1100 will be a good fit in mid-volume production environments regardless of whether productivity, image quality, media handling or ease of use is the main concern,” said David Sweetnam. “This system was one of the few production units to earn BLI’s highest 5-star rating for colour consistency, text and fine lines. And it outperformed its closest competitors when printing on A3 and larger paper.”
“Cost-effective choice”
Impressive paper handling, powerful productivity and a wide range of adjustments to help achieve optimum image quality earned the tandem-engine bizhub PRESS 2250P BLI’s 2015 PRO Award in the category ‘Outstanding Monochrome Mid- to High-Volume Production Device’. BLI cited in particular its performance on A3 and larger media, where it surpassed the performance of competing devices. Other strengths of this tandem-engine system that contributed to the PRO Award included extensive job-building and advanced page-level programming capabilities; highly featured drag-and-drop hot folder functionality; an easy-to-use media catalogue; and Konica Minolta’s Tone Curve utility, which provides users with professional-grade custom grey programming capability.
