Product Overview
Online Finishing in Production Environments
The DDP 92 printer from Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc. is now available with a Booklet Maker that easily keeps pace with the 92 ppm high-speed print engine.

Features
The Booklet Maker is capable of center stapling/folding a maximum 16 sheets with 20 lb. paper or a maximum of 15 sheets using 20 lb. paper plus 1 sheet 110 lb. Index. For applications that require just folded output (without stapling) a maximum of 3 sheets of 20 lb. paper is possible.

In-line finishing now includes booklets on-demand and sheet insertion
For short run booklet creation an optional Booklet Maker with Inserter is available on the DDP 92. Small booklets are produced by folding standard Letter (SEF) paper, and regular size booklets are created by folding Ledger (SEF) paper. Up to 20 regular size 5-sheet booklets can be delivered to the special output stacker for booklets. With a 200 sheet input capacity the Inserter supports custom paper sizes ranging from 8.27” to 12” (Width) to 7.2” to 18” (Length).    

Booklet Publishing
Online/In-line booklet publishing is done by requesting collate, center fold, and saddle-stitch booklet-finishing features for professionally finished sets. These features are selected from the RPSA DDP 92 printer driver’s friendly user interface.

Depending on the your requirements, several different booklet sizes can be created. A standard Letter size/A4 booklet will use paper twice as large as a standard page for input (11x17/A3). A booklet that is half the standard page size uses Letter size/A4 and is folded in half to Statement/A5 dimensions. This type of finishing requires that the paper travel through the finisher with the shorter edge leading so that it may be creased in half.

Normally, printers feed the Letter size/A4 paper through with the longer edge leading to speed up the number of pages printed per minute. Rotating the Letter/A4 to feed in the short edge orientation will enable online booklet finishing, but it also slows the print speed down. Even though some printing speed may be sacrificed in online booklet creation it is usually much faster than the traditional offline production time when small quantities are being produced. And the collation/binding accuracy achieved is increased dramatically.

On-demand users typically print documents of less than 10 pages in length and usually less than 10 copies, but some users in Training, Sales or Marketing organizations may have requirements for much larger quantities, special stock or special finishing. Typically, much of the finishing that requires a long life cycle, bleeds/trimming, unique stock, or book-style binding is “outsourced” to either an in-plant print shop or a local print/copy shop. In this scenario the booklet is assembled and bound using a separate process from the print production.

While offline booklet creation offers special features for finishing, it may slow down the production schedule significantly. The majority of booklets that are produced in an on-demand fashion are time critical and not kept for very long by the user. If booklet-finishing requirements are basic and the production schedule and life cycle of the booklet are relatively short, then online booklet publishing is the best choice.

When booklets are sent somewhere else before the collation, folding, trimming, punching, and binding are done the risk of errors and the potential for reprints increases quickly. If the user is able to control the finishing through an online process the risk of errors and reprints decreases.

The need for printing large quantities of booklets is reduced in an on-demand environment because only the booklets that you need are printed. In this environment, user errors in finishing requests or invalid instructions are less likely to have a negative impact because smaller quantities are being produced. On-demand finishing eliminates the requirement for large, outsourced production runs, associated errors, and the need to store large quantities of booklets in inventory.

One additional advantage of using online finishing is that it integrates well with the distribute-and-print scenario. Now booklets can be sent electronically over an Intranet/Internet and when they arrive at the point of need finishing can take place immediately after the printing process.

Booklet Terms

Saddle-Stitch - Binding method which places staples in the center fold of a booklet, magazine or catalog.

Center Folding - Creating a fold along the center of a printed page producing the standard booklet form for printed materials. Typically used with Saddle-Stitching.

Booklet Stacker - This is an output feature that stacks completed booklets, aligning them with the folded edge facing out.

Sheet Insertion - The Booklet Maker can insert cover or insertion sheet(s) that are a different paper type, or even pre-printed pages.

Booklet Maker Key Features

• Saddle-Stitch, Center Fold, and Stack Completed Booklets
• Insert pre-printed stock (with optional Inserter)
• Full software control
High speed finishing
• High volume
• Heavy weight stock
• Regular stapled output in finisher also

The capacity of booklet stacking is 20 sets of center stapled, 5-sheet booklets of Letter/A4 on Ledger/A3 size, or 33 sets of 3-sheet booklets (without staples) of ledger size.
The standard finisher tray capacity of stapled sheets is 100 sets of 2 – 9 pages of Letter/A4. The finisher tray will also hold 50 sets of larger size paper such as Ledger/A3 with 2 – 9 pages.

Production Ready Booklet Maker
The Booklet Maker is capable of keeping up with the DDP 92 throughput and its demanding 800,000 page maximum monthly print volume. This new price/performance opens up document publishing opportunities for operations from corporate department and in-plant production printing, to quick-printers, commercial printers and facilities managers.
The document production capabilities of the Booklet Maker are well suited for fast turnaround of professional quality booklets such as sales and marketing collateral, training manuals, product documentation, and a variety of other on-demand publishing applications. The Booklet Maker inserts cover or regular sheets that may be different paper types, or pre-printed pages. This insertion is done post-fuser, allowing the insertion of various media types and eliminating the risk of any fuser-related damage.

In The News

Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc. Announces New Booklet Maker and Upgraded Duty Cycle for the DDP 92 Production Printer

Increased duty cycle to 800K and new in-line DDP 92 booklet maker offer increased productivity for today’s Print On-demand applications.

SIMI VALLEY, CA — April 23, 2002
Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc., Inc. (RPSA), a leader in high-speed printing, announced today the immediate availability of the DDP 92 Booklet Maker with inserter. This superb in-line finisher provides professional quality finishing at a lower cost than similar publishing solutions. Standard features include folding, saddle stitching, and sheet insertion, all ideal features for creating high-quality booklets, brochures, catalogs and more.

The new DDP 92 Booklet Maker offers application flexibility for many types of projects. Not only can this printer accommodate brochures created by folding standard letter size (SEF) paper, but it can also support standard letter size booklets created by folding 11” x 17” / ledger (SEF) size sheets. Up to 20 letter size, five sheet booklets may be delivered to the output stacker. With a 200 sheet input capacity the sheet inserter can adjust to many unique paper sizes ranging from 8.27” x 7.2” (W x L) to 12” x 18” (W x L). Sheet insertion on the DDP 92 publishing finisher occurs post fuser, allowing you to insert various media types without the necessity of running them through the fuser. This is a benefit to many customers that want to insert color pages, or have other temperature-sensitive stock.

Increased Duty Cycle Proves DDP 92 Engine Can Handle High, Sustained Demand
With a new 800,000 page maximum monthly print volume, customers are assured that this production quality printer will support their high-speed, on-demand printing requirements. This powerful 92 page-per-minute capital asset ensures sustained productivity for many customers, from corporate users to quick print shops and large commercial printers. Unlike many copier-based engines, this added ruggedness and reliability is also ideally suited to the data center and high volume system report printing. Many organizations are merging their print on-demand and system printing requirements and the DDP 92 is one of the few engines that can operate equally well in either environment.

Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc. delivers heavy-duty, print engines and provides a powerful and scalable software server workflow system for document production and management. This enables the DDP 92 to fit into many different customer environments and print applications. The DDP 92’s industrial strength components also ensure that you get the highest quality output, page after page.

About Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc., Inc.
Founded in 1962, Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc., Inc. (RPSA) is recognized worldwide for its innovations in printing solutions. RPSA is a subsidiary of Ricoh Printing Solutions, Ltd. Co. Ltd. one of the world’s most advanced print engine manufacturers, and part of the Ricoh Group of companies. The RPSA/Ricoh Printing Solutions, Ltd. Team combines world class print engines, print controllers, software technology and imaging supplies to make it a global leader in the development and manufacturing of the most powerful, yet easy to use, digital network printers.

For further information regarding new DDP 92 product enhancements or for information on any of the Ricoh Printing Systems America, Inc., Inc. products, please contact Gary Coon, Marketing Manager, Worldwide Printer Business at 805.578.4053 or gcoon@rpsa.ricoh.com.