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Ricoh > Digital Ricoh
Ricoh 240W |  | This is the machine that fired the shot heard round the world and shook up the thinking of the wide format community. Ricoh has taken a here to fore, "untouchable" segment of the copier business i.e. wide format and turned it into a low volume, commodity dog fight. Traditionally wide format has been viewed in copier industry as the peculiar domain inhabited by people who talked about "A", "B" and "C" size prints instead of letter and legal copies. Volumes we expressed in square feet or number of "D" size prints per minute instead of copies (letter or legal) per minute. Wide format sales reps were "older guys" with "years of experience" who had access to the darkened inner sanctums of the "CAD Department." They didn't even speak to the "puppies," the up and down the street "door knockers" who's stock in trade was the sale sixty copy per minute "rice rockets."
Ricoh strategically realigned an entire segment of wide format industry by building a wide format machine on a document (letter - legal) platform. The operative word here is "planed obsolescence." Historically wide format machines have been built to have service lives well in excess of five years. Many wide format machines are still in use today after twenty years of service. By and large, traditional, (pre 240W) wide format machines will be sent to the scrap heap by technological changes, long before the wear out. The 240W turned the segment one market on its head. It gave the inexperienced "document copier" sales rep a machine that he could sell in the same way they have sold letter, legal machines in the past; on a "plug and play" commodity basis.
Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with this form of marketing or with the 240W as long as you keep two things in mind:
1. The 240W was designed with an operating ceiling of 4,500 square feet of 750 "D" size prints per month over a period of three years. That's the limit, don't push it or it will bite back in the form of early equipment failure. At the end of three years, be prepared to replace the unit and start the payment cycle all over again.
2. The 240W is designed to be sold on the cookie cutter plan. It does not take a great deal of industry understanding to place this box. As a result, don't expect the sales rep to "understand your problem." He is there to move a box, that's how he gets paid. If you need creativity and understanding, try and find a Ricoh dealer who's industry orientation is wide format. He will probably also is a dealer for one or more of the other major wide format manufacturers. |
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Configuration
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Desk Top
with optional manual buy pass, one roll or two
roll configuration
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Warm-up
time
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Less
than 2 minutes
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First
copy out
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22
seconds ("D" size
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Copy
speed
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4 "D"
size prints per minute
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Resolution
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600 x
600 dpi
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Reduction and enlargement
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Zoom 25%
to 400%
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Multiple
copies
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1 to 20
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Network
protocol
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TCP/IP,
IPX/SPX, lpr/lpq, HTML, SMB
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Print
Controller
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Supported Output file Formats: HP-GL, HP-GL2,
HP-RTL, Calcomp 906/907, WMF, BMP, CALS, T6X,
CIT, PCX, PostScript 3 (optional), CGM
(optional)
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405-488-7292
P.O. Box 14469 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73113
[email protected]
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