Photocopiers: 2010 Round-Up for Canon

Wednesday, 05 January 2011 08:00

Having seen the release of the first models in the new imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers platform, 2009 was a very big year for Canon. But 2010 has been equally eventful. In April, came the launch of the new imageRUNNER 2500 monochrome photocopiers series – giving small and medium-sized businesses productive, cost-effective printing, copying and scanning in a robust and compact package. Then later in the spring, Canon announced two further imageRUNNER Advance ranges, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6000 and Canon imageRUNNER Advance 8000 photocopiers, providing the very highest standards of professional monochrome digital printing for medium-larger sized workgroup environments, Central Reprographics Departments (CRD’s) and the light production sector. Canon went on to release several new production printers within the imagePRESS range during summer and finally September saw the last models in the imageRUNNER Advance series released onto the market, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2020/30 colour photocopiers, for the highest quality small to medium-sized office printing. Here, we bring you all the most important developments from the world of Canon photocopiers from 2010 and look forward to the year ahead.

Spring 2010: The Canon imageRUNNER 2500 Monochrome Photocopiers Series

The Canon imageRUNNER 2500 monochrome photocopiers series came in to replace the ageing imageRUNNER iR2018/30 models, providing a range of ten highly compact photocopiers/MFP’s. Productivity is higher than ever in the class, with the imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers achieving printing speeds of up to 45 pages per minute (ppm). Bring to that colour scanning, quick and simple send options and rapid recovery from sleep mode and the Canon imageRUNNER 2500 monochrome photocopiers series really is a very impressive package. Large intuitive displays provide the most user-friendly access to date and with the option of scanning direct from USB memory keys, double sided printing as well as internal staple finishing options, the Canon iR 2500 photocopiers series also provide an unbeatable level of versatility.

What’s more, the Canon imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers series is designed to be ‘service-friendly’, providing easy access for administrators and service engineers for quicker diagnosis and replacement of parts. A higher yield drum unit reduces maintenance times and requirements too. With the Canon imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers also coming network-ready, with iW Management Console, IT administrators can monitor any device in a network and seamless integration into systems is guaranteed with the presence of both PCL and Postscript capabilities.

The Canon imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers series is also compatible with Canon’s eMaintenance tool which helps maximise uptime, providing powerful, rapid remote diagnostic capabilities. Along with those ‘service-friendly’ features, the Canon imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers series also offers class-leading energy efficiency credentials – very low TEC ratings and Energy Star Certification.

Spring 2010: The Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6000 and 8000 Monochrome Photocopiers

The imageRUNNER Advance 6000 and 8000 models bring all the platform benefits of other imageRUNNER Advance series photocopiers – bio-plastic construction, enhanced security options and user-interface personalisation while also offering manifold improvements over the older iR 5000 and iR7000 monochrome photocopiers they’re replacing. The Canon imageRUNNER Adv 6000 photocopiers provide professional monochrome digital printing suitable for short-run printing while the Canon imageRUNNER Advance 8000 photocopiers offer digital monochrome printing and photocopying in the light production category, suitable even for commercial printing environments.

Ideal for office/professional mono printing and the requirements of corporate marketing departments and the CRD sector, the imageRUNNER Advance 6000 photocopiers series offers six models all with a range of powerful features. The ‘i’ models in the range all offer PCL as standard, while all iR Adv6000 photocopiers offer UFRII and the option of Adobe Postscript, for straightforward printing of documents from common business applications. All photocopiers also feature Fiery for environments where Variable Data Printing (VDP), page separation, faster processing and hot folder printing is required.

There’s a larger 8.4” or 10.4” colour SVGA screen on the Canon iR Adv Advance 6000 photocopiers too and capabilities for larger paper and other media handling. As far as scanning functionality is concerned, the iR Advance photocopiers offer colour scanning, with original paper weights of up to 228 gsm, 300 sheet DADF capacity and colour scanning speeds of up to 200ipm. The Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6000 photocopiers also bring impressive connectivity options and an extensive array of finishing tools – including an external booklet finisher, external staple finisher, an external 2-hole punch and an external 2/4 hole punch.

Again, the imageRUNNER Adv 8000 photocopiers feature larger displays – this time it’s a 10.4” colour SVGA. Intelligent Advanced Space build means that even as light production devices, the imageRUNNER Advance 8000 photocopiers remain relatively compact. There’s also improved media handling and a larger paper capacity. As far as scanning is concerned, there are similar improvements as on the 6000 photocopiers, including higher paper weight handling, a 300 sheet DADF and more than double the scanning speed as compared with the imageRUNNER 7000 – 200 ipm. There are also five fold-patters to choose from compared with just the one on the previous models.

Autumn: the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2020/30 Colour Photocopiers

For compact, colour photocopying and multifunction printing, September saw the release of the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2020/30 colour photocopiers. These new colour photocopiers have been designed to fit into smaller office locations and serve the needs of small to medium-sized businesses to deliver impressive reliability, economy and productivity in a very compact, environmentally conscious but also robust build.

Last of the photocopiers to be released in the award-winning imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers platform, the C2020/30 models offer all the platform benefits of the series: they’re the first photocopiers on the market to introduce parts made from high grade, fire retardant bio plastic, they offer improved user-friendly features – such as large intuitive graphic interfaces easy network integration – and for those concerned with environmental impact, Canon iR Advance photocopiers offer outstanding energy efficiency.

The Canon iR Adv C2020/30 colour photocopiers offer the new imageRUNNER Advance Essentials software suite which gives users much greater control over their device with features such as one-touch workflow creation, document publishing in addition to basic document tracking and accounting. The photocopiers also support MEAP, allowing for integration with customized business processes and third-party software applications.

The imageRUNNER Advance C2020/30 colour photocopiers also offer much larger displays than previous devices – a 5.7” full-colour TFT user interface with menu personalisation options and a quick menu for frequently-accessed functions. The machines offer good print speeds, 20ppm and 30ppm respectively. For scanning, the Duplexing Automatic Document Feeder (DADF), will achieve 44 images per minute in both colour and black and white, while internal finishing capability allows for a greater range of output options.

The new C2020/30 colour photocopiers will deliver 1200 by 1200 dots per inch (dpi) print resolution for truly exceptional output image quality. The oil-free ‘pQ’ toner produces sharp text with well-defined corners and rich, clear images. As with other devices on the Canon imageRUNNER Advance photocopiers platform, the C2020/C2030 colour photocopiers are manufactured from components fabricated from both recycled plastics and part plant-derived bio-plastic.

2010 has been a very eventful year for Canon photocopiers. Most notably of all, it’s seen the final releases in the multi-award-winning imageRUNNER Advance platform, with the launches of the mid-sized Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6000 series of monochrome photocopiers as well as the Canon imageRUNNER Advance 8000 monochrome models. And the last major release of the year, the Canon imageRUNNER Advance C2020/C2030 colour photocopiers, brought the many benefits of the Canon imageRUNNER Advance platform to small/medium-sized office environments. Users looking for quicker, affordable printing and colour scanning on the standard Canon imageRUNNER platform were greeted with the new Canon imageRUNNER 2500 photocopiers series, with models that achieve faster printing speeds than ever in the class. With the Canon imageRUNNER Advance platform now complete, Canon Copiers wonder what 2011 has in store...