Ricoh has unveiled a pair of new devices designed to make professional, high-quality apparel printing easier, faster and more flexible. The RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 6000 Direct to Garment (DTG) printers boast an incredibly short route from design to print, thanks to intuitive software and print speeds as fast as twenty-seven seconds a shirt. These devices print at 600-dpi quality even on traditionally difficult media, such as dark poly 50/50 blend.
Meanwhile, Ricoh’s own industrial-grade printheads empower businesses to reliably produce high-volume orders as well as a custom one-off prints. These features combine to provide an excellent springboard for those looking to launch garment printing as a standalone business or who want to expand their print portfolio.
The RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 6000 printers build upon AnaJet’s (a Ricoh company) history of fast, high-quality garment printing. These efficient, flexible and highly productive printers open new worlds to print shops and their customers. The RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 6000 printers take garment printing to the next level by enabling users to print directly to shirts, socks, and canvas grocery bags, and to produce metallic foil applications, creating eye-catching output.
Media options can include high-quality, durable prints on natural fibers, light poly and dark garments with up to 50/50 blends. Water-based inks deliver soft, long-lasting, and eye-catching vibrant designs. Built-in white ink circulation dramatically improves ink flow and minimizes waste while making high-quality prints viable on even the darkest of garments. The 2.3 inches of laser-assisted table height automatic adjustment eases printing on thick materials, such as hoodies with zippers. Granular drop-size controls help create even sharper applications.
For those looking to bring the printing of branded apparel in-house, the RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 6000’s low turn times and high quality can help reduce outsourcing costs for gift shops, universities and promotional products printers alike. These devices are designed specifically to make DTG printing fast and easy. A new, easy-to-use color touch screen control panel further streamlines the print process. The included AnaRIP software enables users to print files directly from a USB flash drive or any networked PC – without manual color separation, a time-consuming process traditionally required for screen printing.
Designs can be easily previewed and modified based on the color of fabric they are being printed to, so designs look the same on the screen as they will on the garment. This minimizes the need for costly test prints and in-depth technical tinkering. A print can be finished in as little as twenty-seven seconds on the RICOH Ri 6000 or fifty-one seconds for RICOH Ri 3000 and then the ink is cured via heat press or tunnel dryer. Optional Spark software, designed to seamlessly integrate with AnaRIP, offers intuitive personalization, various features and effects, and a customizable proposal system for instant quotes and more.
“Branded garments are one of the most popular graphic arts applications in the world. Offering them can encourage customers to turn to your business for more work. But for many businesses, it’s difficult to find a powerful, capable, flexible device they can use comfortably and efficiently,” said John Fulena, Vice President, Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh USA, Inc. “So we wanted to make DTG printing both as flexible and as streamlined as possible. With the RICOH Ri 3000 and Ri 6000, our customers can start bringing lucrative, high-quality garment-printing in-house easily. A job can now be finished in under thirty seconds with just a few simple clicks. That’s an amazing profit-per-second ratio.”
The RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 6000 features Ricoh’s stainless steel, industrial-grade printheads, which are self-cleaning and self-maintaining, and are rated at 100 billion actuations for higher output, promoting uptime. These durable printheads are manufactured under strict quality standards in an ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified factory in California. Ricoh and AnaJet are also bringing world-class training and support to users, including one-on-one comprehensive training and telephone, email and on-site premium technical support with certified technicians.
The RICOH Ri 3000/Ri 60000 will be sold via AnaJet, with limited availability via Ricoh sales channels.
For details on Ricoh’s full line of products, services and solutions for the production print market, please visit www.anajet.com and www.ricoh-usa.com and follow @RicohProPrint on Twitter, Ricoh USA Production Print on LinkedIn, and Ricoh USA Production Print on Facebook.
