Tried & Tested: Xeikon 5000
Nosmot Gbadamosi, PrintWeek, 20 March 2009
This digital press’s ability to carve a market niche meant it prospered in an increasingly competitive market, discovers Nosmot Gbadamosi.
When Xeikon unveiled the 5000 in 2005, it was up against tough competition. The digital print market was showing signs of maturity and had already gained acceptance from many in the commercial sector.
It was a unique product, says Greg Neesham, UK sales director at Punch Graphix, the parent company of Xeikon. But we were still competing with the Xerox iGen3, HP Indigo 3050 and the Kodak NexPress.
Despite such strong rivals, the web-fed 5000 managed to carve out a niche for itself. The direct-mail sector was one
market that it appealed to, but there was an even bigger bonus for Xeikon: with the ability to handle substrates up
to 350gsm, the machine that evolved from Xeikon’s DCP 500D and the 100 series was also highly attractive to label and packaging printers.
Format flexibility
The Xeikon 5000 could handle paper widths of 500mm with virtually no restrictions in sheet length and accommodated formats up to A2 full-bleed or B2. The machine also came with a built-in densitometer, which reduced paper wastage. In addition, the 5000 had larger condition rollers.
But the two big selling points were, firstly, the option of a fifth colour, which could be a spot colour or clear ink for security printing. Xeikon currently offers two types of security toner (clear toner and white toner), which light up when exposed to UV light.
And secondly, the 5000 incorporated a new generation of form-adapted (FA) toner, which was added to the press in 2006. The Pantone-accredited toner was approved for indirect use on food products, a must for the packaging market. Better coverage also meant it used 11% less toner compared with Xeikon’s previous toners on similar jobs.
You were able to use less ink because it was rounded. This meant it printed on the page more smoothly and was a higher resolution, adds Neesham.
To date, there have been 30 machines sold in the UK and although the product has not been replaced, Xeikon’s next model up was the 6000 – a faster version of the 5000. While the 5000 could print at a speed of 130 pages per minute (ppm), the 6000 had a speed of 160ppm.
The Xeikon 8000, launched at Drupa last year, can go even quicker at 230ppm. The slimmer version also comes with an X-800 digital front-end that gets more out of high-end variable data printing.
Despite the launch of faster machines from Xeikon, the 5000 has been continually updated. In 2006, the resolution was doubled from 600dpi to 1,200dpi. You can still buy a machine with a 600dpi printhead, but the higher resolution printhead can be retrofitted on certain models, says Neesham.
Most of the refinements made to the 5000 have been software based, including improved functionality, which allows customers to print on a barcode for extra security.
According to Neesham, Xeikon doesn’t currently have many secondhand models. All the machines installed are still in use, but a used model would fetch around £220,000, he says.
Prices for new 5000s start from around £350,000. Machines bought new are sold with a 12-month warranty and service contracts are dependent on customer’s needs. There are 15 Punch Graphix engineers in the UK.
