Venlo, The Netherlands, January 12 - Océ has taken a giant leap forward in wide format colour printing technology with a new range of products that includes unveiling the world’s fastest colour CAD plotter.

 

Pride of place goes to the new Océ TCS500 wide format colour printing, copying and scanning system. It’s the fastest and most productive colour CAD plotter in the world that will start being shipped to customers – including the UK – from next month. It has a productive colour inkjet print engine, a dedicated Océ Power Logic controller and a full workflow integration capability.

 

The Océ TCS500 system has numerous features and is twice as fast as its leading predecessor, the Océ TCS400, and is capable of printing an A0 CAD line drawing in monochrome in only 40 seconds or printing it in colour in only 60 seconds.

 

The new wide format colour and black and white system range will help users of technical documents that rely on them for their livelihood to get the right document in the right place at the right time to enable them to focus on core tasks rather than solve printing, copying and scanning problems.

 

The different customer groups include architects, engineers, construction firms, government, utility companies, manufacturing organisations and commercial printers that offer wide format printing copying and scanning.

 

Dynamic Switching Technology
When printing colour documents previously using typical colour inkjet plotters, a user had to select one of many print settings. If the setting was wrong the system would print too slowly or the document had to be reprinted because the quality was not high enough. Today, with Océ’s unique Dynamic Switching Technology, the system does it for you. It will intelligently detect the type of file you are printing and adjust the settings to optimise speed and quality. In fact the system is so intelligent it will even adjust the settings for different areas of the document during printing.

 

Variety of data formats
The Océ TCS500 system is particularly powerful at printing Geographical Information (GI). It contains a variety of data formats, in general local authorities will use a combination of aerial photography overlaid with Ordnance Survey data from OS Master Map or OS Land Line. This spatial data is also supported by data layers to compose statistical information, ranging from crime statistics, employment rates, socio-economic classifications to exposing areas at risk from flooding by mapping flood plains. As GIS data files are often composed in layers they are often complex to process and can exceed 100Mb in file size.

 

Processing power
Océ points out that that many competitor wide format colour printers lack processing power for complex file types. They contain a small internal buffer memory and lack the capability to spool an entire file. Therefore it is common for GIS files to either suspend or hang colour-printing activities from a few minutes per plot to several hours as the printer memory cannot digest the information being sent. GI files often cause network bottlenecks, lock software applications and delay print jobs to impact on the overall productivity of a project team/department, leading to continued frustration.

 

High capacity output
Océ’s TCS500 system has a powerful print controller that processes these files quickly and the high print speed enables these documents to be printed quickly. The documents being processed and printed can be viewed remotely to save wasted trips to the printer to see if the print has been made. The system has up to three media and rolls and a high capacity output unit that is able to stack up to 100 prints. If folded documents are required the output can be folded on the integrated Este Folder.

 

The Geographical Information Services within the National Assembly for Wales is already using the Océ Power Logic Controller for its work in processing and printing large files. The technology is a “vast improvement”, according to Gareth Robson, Team Leader for the agri-environment division within the GIS department.

 

The Pendleton Survey in 2004 assessed the availability and accessibility of on-line planning information services on Local Authority websites in England and Wales. The survey was commissioned by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister to assist the monitoring of e-planning progress and the distribution of the Planning Grant funding.

 

This survey indicates the requirement for planning documents to be attached to on-line applications. The Pendleton criteria states that local authority website users should be able to view on-line a digital version of the application form, photographs or any documents accompanying a planning application i.e. any building plans or drawings.

 

Solving problems to achieve objectives
The Océ TCS500 system enables local authorities to solve their printing, copying and scanning problems in order to achieve their objectives and additional government funding through programmes identified by Pendleton.  Southend Borough Council was an early adopter of Océ TCS Technology. Its web management portal manages revision control and designers and contractors only have access to the latest revisions.

 

For Architects, Engineers and Construction firms drawings often include 3D rendered images, multiple layered and files consisting of imported graphics are complex to process and frequently disrupt printing activities.

 

Dominic Fahy, Marketing Manager of Océ (UK) Ltd’s Wide Format Printing Systems, said: “The new Océ product line provide world leading productivity and include the world’s fastest Colour CAD Plotter system. Anyone who is serious about productivity will benefit from the unique combination of throughput, ease of use, quality and reliability that the systems provide. The Olympic Games represents a £7 billion construction project and we know that productivity is a key concern for many of the Océ clients who are key players in the construction project teams. It follows that the TCS500 will play a key role in colour technical document production in what will be one of Europe’s largest construction projects.”

 

Wilbert Verheyen, newly-appointed Director of Océ (UK) Ltd’s Wide Format Printing Systems, said: “The key market trends we see are that continuing digitisation is leading to a decrease in the analogue printing volume. However, we have seen our market share grow dramatically in this area as some competitors withdraw or fail to update their product lines.  At the same time a shift is taking place from digital black-and-white to colour. This is being facilitated by faster and higher volume colour systems as well as very low volume systems.

 

“Our new product line, particularly with our flagship Océ TCS500 hybrid with scan to file system, is the world’s most productive colour wide format printing, copying and scanning system and will provide a great opportunity for growth this year.”