Heidelberg & Ricoh celebrate 15-year strategic partnership

Pictured here at Heidelberg’s Wiesloch-Walldorf ‘Home of Print’ site in Germany, are (l to r) Heidelberg’s Dr Frank Schaum (Head of Digital Print Ecosystem) and Dr David Schmedding (Chief Technology and Sales Officer), with Ricoh Graphic Communications President Koji Miyao and Deputy General Manager Eef de Ridder.

The successful collaboration between two industry giants – Heidelberg and Ricoh – has now spanned 15 years and seen more than 3,500 systems sold, amounting to ‘over two billion pages annually, underlining the high market acceptance and industrial performance of the technology’,

Originally commencing back in 2011, when Heidelberg took on Ricoh’s Pro C901 device and sold it under the Linoprint brand, the current Versafire naming convention was latterly rolled out at drupa 2016. The presses are now on their third generation and currently encompass three models: the Versafire LM (mono), Versafire LV with fifth colour, and high-volume Versafire LP, all models fully integrated with Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow and digital front-end.

The primary focus of the partnership to-date has been on hybrid production ‘to exploit the strengths of offset and the versatility of the digital devices, which include a long sheet option on the colour models and the ability to handle substrates from 40-470gsm’.

Talking to the intention to ‘strategically expand this partnership going forwards’, Dr David Schmedding, Heidelberg Chief Technology and Sales Officer says: “Over the past 15 years, we have worked with Ricoh to consistently industrialise digital printing and fully integrate it into our digital ecosystem. For our customers, this integration means maximum flexibility, highest process reliability and a clear future perspective in hybrid production printing.”

Eef de Ridder, Deputy General Manager, Global Sales Division at Ricoh Graphic Communications adds: “As one of the few partnerships between offset and digital suppliers that has flourished, we remain committed to helping clients make the right technology choices for many years ahead.”

According to a statement, the companies confirmed that ‘from the very beginning, the goal was not to view offset and digital printing in isolation, but to fully integrate both technologies into a shared production environment’. To this end, Heidelberg has successfully integrated the Versafire systems into the Prinect workflow via a digital frontend (DFE) developed in-house, thus positioning them specifically as a complement to offset printing – enabling maximum flexibility, economical short runs, and individualised print products.

Jürgen Otto, Heidelberg CEO, adds: “This is a success story, not just for Heidelberg and Ricoh but for digital print. Today, the Versafire systems, which are perfectly tailored to the needs of the printing industry, exemplify our claim as a full-service provider and end-to-end system integrator of hybrid print production.”