BLI Test Report

© 2014 Buyers Laboratory LLC. This report is the sole property of BLI. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected] © 2010 Buyers Laboratory Inc. This report is the sole property of BLI. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will

be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory Inc. • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected] BuyersLab.com © 2014 Buyers Laboratory LLC This report is the sole property of BLI. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected]

BLI Test Report

Replacing the bizhub PRO 1051, the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 gave a highly impressive overall performance in BLI’s evaluation. In total, it pro-duced 2 million impressions, for a misfeed rate of just one every 285,714 im-pressions. Offering excellent media-handling capabilities, the bizhub PRESS 1052 supports up to 350 gsm media (up to 300 gsm for duplexing, which exceeds the capability of several tested competitors), and coated media up to 300 gsm can be fed from all standard and optional trays, which are friction-fed and some of which also include air-assist technology. And because all the trays are universal, the device provides a maximum ledger/12" x 19" capacity of 18,000 sheets, which is much higher than the capacity offered by some

A B L I F I E L D A S S E S S M E N T

J U L Y 2 0 1 4N O R T H A M E R I C A N E D I T I O N

Ratings are based on a five-star system where five is the best.

Testing Method: The unit was evaluated at BLI’s U.S. facilities over an intensive two-month test period during which 2,000,000 impressions were printed spanning ten different media, with weights ranging from 80 gsm to 350 gsm and sizes ranging from letter-size to 12" x 19". All test files were submitted using a Windows XP workstation.

Tested Configuration: Engine with latest firmware as of test date (May 2014) with one PF-703 large-capacity tray, RU-510 Relay Unit, FD-503 Punch unit, multi-fold and post sheet inserter, FS-532 Finisher and SD-510 Saddle-stitch unit. Jobs were submitted using PostScript driver release 2.0.0.

More information on the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 is available through bliQ (www.buyerslab.com/bliQ).

Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052

105 PPM Production Printer

BLI Recommendation

BuyersLab.com

Media Handling

Productivity

Image Quality

Ease of Use

Job Management

©2014 Buyers Laboratory LLC. Reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory LLC. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected].©2014 Buyers Laboratory LLC. Reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory LLC. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected].

BuyersLab.com2 © 2014 Buyers Laboratory LLC. This report is the sole property of BLI. Duplication in any manner is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from BLI. Violators will be prosecuted. To purchase reprints of any BLI publication, contact Buyers Laboratory LLC • 20 Railroad Avenue • Hackensack, NJ 07601 • (201) 488-0404 • [email protected].

competing devices. Capacity is also high on the output side, as the unit can be configured with up to three high-capacity stackers, providing an uninterrupted stacking capacity of 15,000 sheets, which, again, is higher than that of competing units. In fact, when fully loaded with input and output options, the bizhub PRESS 1052 can run for about eight hours before requiring operator attention. The device can also be configured with a range of finishing options, including a perfect binder, inline ring binder, saddle-stitch finisher and cover inserter, among others.

The bizhub PRESS 1052’s high capacities contribute to the unit’s outstanding productivity, which earned BLI’s 5-star rating. In BLI’s extensive battery of productivity tests, it provided a better perfor-mance overall than most competitors. Particularly noteworthy is that when producing jobs with multi-tray switching and coated inserts, the unit ran at rated engine speed, outperforming all competitive models, two of them by very large margins.

The device was also more efficient than competitors when switching between letter and ledger output within a job, and handled heavy-grade stocks more efficiently than many competing models. Although unlike a few devices, it didn’t reach its rated speed with 300 gsm uncoated stock, it did run at a higher percentage of rated speed than most competitors. There was also no drop-off in engine speed when inline finishing options were used. In fact, its efficiency when producing jobs with the booklet finisher was the best of all tested competitors. Of the close to 20 tests in BLI’s battery of productivity tests, the only one in which the bizhub PRESS 1052 lagged behind its competitors was when running jobs with multi-tray feeding with heavy inserts, where it ran at 88.8% of rated speed, in contrast to most rivals which met or approached rated speed. A further boost to productivity, the device’s tandem print capability allows operators to split a job between two different bizhub PRESS 1052s with the same configuration, es-sentially doubling rated running speed to 210 ppm.

Although issues were observed with some types of output in default settings, the bizhub PRESS 1052’s image quality is good overall. The driver includes a wider range of image quality-adjustment capabilities than many competitors, including extensive dot screen adjustment options that allow operators to elimi-nate many of the weaknesses, which included grainier halftones, less smooth gradations from light to dark levels, and red and blue fine lines and text that were not as crisp as BLI would have liked.

In terms of job management, the touchscreen display provides a wealth of information, including device status, media levels/sizes and queue status, all from the default screen. The queue itself includes some valuable features including the ability for operators to edit job tickets on the fly and preview images of the jobs. And the scheduler feature provides the operator with a visual aid to track job status and get an indication of when certain paper types will soon need replenishing. In addition, the unit’s remote console utility was impressive, allowing users to have total control over the device remotely via the web. Although the device’s media catalog is fully integrated with the print driver, one aspect of the unit’s paper handling that BLI feels needs improvement is the synchronization of tray media settings between the device and the driver; after changing the paper in any of the paper sources to a different type, the operator must manually update the paper type in the driver to avoid media conflicts requiring the operator to resend jobs. Further, media details from the driver need to be manually updated every time the driver is opened.

While there is no EFI controller option available for the device, Konica Minolta advises that the Konica Mi-nolta controller will be able to interact with EFI via Fiery Central Solo, which will allow the device to fit bet-ter into in-house and commercial printshops which will often have other engines driven by EFI controllers. According to Konica Minolta, a Creo controller is now available for applications that need more processing power, such as direct mailing. Based on its very strong overall performance in BLI’s evaluation, BLI con-cludes that the bizhub PRESS 1052 offers an excellent blend of all that’s most important to monochrome production environments.


Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 BLI Test Report


Advantages

• Scheduler feature uses color coding to indicate approximate remaining supply of each type of paper loaded

• Support for up to 350 gsm media in simplex mode, up to 300 gsm in duplex mode

• More efficient than competitors when switching between letter and ledger output

• More efficient handling of heavy-grade stocks than many competing models tested by BLI

• Highly productive when switching between drawers for jobs with mixed regular and coated media

• No drop in engine speed with finishing options; highest efficiency of competitive models with the booklet finisher

• Extensive finishing options including perfect binding, ring binder and 50-sheet saddle-stitch capability

• High output stacking capacity via three inline stackers

• High-capacity multi-tray post-process capability

• Advanced cyclic set support and tab-label programming capabilities

• User-friendly media catalog programming

• Full integration between custom media catalog and print driver

• Highly featured drag-and-drop hot folder support via PageScope Direct Print utility

• Extensive on-the-fly job ticket editing from the device’s suspend queue

• Professional and intuitive custom gray curve programming available via Tone Curve utility

• True 1200-dpi LED print engine and advanced image adjustment options in driver, including CIE color con-version, wide range of LPI selections (40- to 300-lpi) plus screen angle adjustment

• 300-lpi line screening delivers crisp, fully formed red, blue and black fonts down to 3 point and fine lines down to 0.25 point

Shortcomings

• Media details from the driver need to be manually updated every time the driver is opened

• No three-edge trim for saddle-stitch or perfect bindery finishing

• Finishing / output options limited to three or four (depending upon configuration)

• No ability to bypass jobs submitted with media mismatches, resulting in device downtime until operator action is initiated

• Jobs which include media in weights of 301 gsm and above are unable to start until the final page has been RIPped, which can result in a delay in large jobs

• When reproduced in default print mode, red and blue fine lines and text suffered some breakup

• Halftone output produced with line screen frequencies above 200 lpi shows fine detail loss in some areas

• CIE conversion is defaulted to off, with default mode delivering below average color to gray image con-version

• Fine line precision option in driver caused defective output on some fine lines and text

• Minimal misfeed removal details at the user interface

• No EFI print controller available




Media Handling

The media catalog, an integral capability of the system that enables the operator to define the library of media used with the device, is well designed, easy to use and inte-grated with the printer driver.

— However, the operator needs to manually update the paper tray settings in the driver every time the driver is opened. It would be preferable for bidirectional feedback between the engine and driver be automated.

Paper tray settings have to be manually updated every time the driver is opened.

Unlike with some other tested Konica Minolta production engines, which enable an oper-ator to show the weight of paper in each drawer in any of several formats (gsm, or the equivalent weights for cover, index or bond stock), the bizhub PRESS 1052 displays paper weights only in gsm.

The media catalog enables operators to include a front-to-back and zoom-compensation registration profile (which is set up at the device) for each media type.

Users can edit custom media profile settings easily using the Paper Set Reg/Del icon. This allows the operator to select the media from the custom profile list and edit any of the settings. Setting adjustment options include name, weight, colored paper, punch, both sides adjust (zoom and image shift), process adjust (offset image edge adjust), gap detection and curl adjustment.

MEDIA HANDLING




Tray-level front-to-back image adjustment can be edited via two methods, the first of which allows for manual adjustment in increments of 0.1 mm. The second method entails using a chart adjustment utility, in which a front side image and a back side image are printed and the operator is required to enter eight measurements. Front-to-back adjustment is then handled automatically by the utility.

Duplexing is supported for media weights up to 300 gsm, exceeding the capability of several competitors tested by BLI.

Media weights of 301 gsm to 350 gsm are supported in tray 4 and 7 and 10 (the middle LCT trays in the optional high-capacity feeder that offers a straight paper path into the engine). All other drawers support up to 300 gsm, whereas some competing devices do not support 350 gsm media.

All trays are universal, providing a maximum ledger/12" x 19" capacity of 18,000 sheets, which is much higher than the capacity offered on some competing devices.

The bizhub PRESS 1052 supports up to 300 gsm coated media from all standard and optional trays.

All trays are friction fed, with trays 3 through 11 also including air-assist technology, which can be set to auto, on, or off by the operator at the control panel.

— Trays 1 and 2 (under the engine unit) are loaded face down, while all other paper input trays and the interposer trays are all loaded face up, which could result in loading mis-takes on side-critical media such as offset shells, pre-printed letterhead paper and forms.

High-Capacity Tray Paper tray below engine unit with production-class build quality

— The device cannot print media in weights of 301 gsm and above face down, forcing the operator to switch to face-up printing in N to 1 format, with the job unable to start until the final page has been RIPped, which can result in a delay in large jobs.

The trays do not have any indicator of paper levels remaining, with users limited to a




small icon per tray on the touch screen. Some competing devices include LEDs on each tray which can be seen from a distance. The scheduler function compensates for this by giving the operator an approximate indication of the remaining amount of media of each type, enabling the operator to gauge approximately when paper will need to be replaced.

The Scheduler utility allows operators to see at a glance when operator intervention will be required.

A dehumidifier option is available for use with the PF-703 high-capacity paper feeder, allowing for better handling of offset media.

A relay unit (RU-509) with mechanical de-curl functionality and additional humidification (HM-102) de-curl option is available, providing greater control over flat output delivery, aiding offline finishing workflow.

A roll-feed unit is not available for the device. According to Konica Minolta, a roll-feed unit will be made available next year.

Up to three high-capacity stackers (LS-505) can be installed on the device, providing an uninterrupted stacking capacity of 15,000 sheets, which is higher than that of competing units.

— The stacker option does not support offset stacking of documents including tab media.

A high-capacity multi-tray post-process unit (PI-PFU) is available, providing up to a 5,000-sheet capacity (1,300 / 1,850 / 1,850 sheets) for pre-printed and other insert mate-rials—considerably higher than that of most competing units, some of which can be limited to a mere single-tray inserter feed and a capacity of 400 sheets or less.

The dedicated saddle-stitch finisher (SD-506) offers booklet creation from up to 50 sheets (200-page booklets) and also includes half-fold, tri-fold and in and out folding of up to five sheets. Most devices are limited to single-fold letter in-out and saddle-stitch bindery of 25 sheets or less. A side trimmer option allowing for the creation of full-bleed ledger booklets is also available.




An available folding unit (FD-503) provides half-fold, Z-fold, double-parallel, gatefold and tri-fold in and out folding, hole punch and a dual 500-sheet capacity post-process inserter.

— Unlike with several competitors, a square-edge bind option is not available for the unit’s saddle-stitch finisher options. Konica Minolta has informed BLI that a finishing option is to be introduced at the end of the year that will allow for square-edge binding with the device’s saddle-stitch finisher options.

A perfect binder finishing option (PB-503) is available, allowing inline production of per-fect bound books of up to 30-mm spine thickness (up to 300 sheets). A separate cover inserter is included supporting up to 500 sheets (based on 216-gsm media thickness).

— Unlike some rival perfect bindery options, the PB-503 does not include a three-side trim option, which would allow for inline full-bleed book production. Konica Minolta has informed BLI that a finishing option is to be introduced at the end of the year that will allow for three-side trimming for inline full-bleed book production.

An inline ring bindery option (GP-502) is available, which allows for up to 100 sheets and a cover to be bound together at rated engine speed.

A GBC StreamPunch (GP-501) is also available for the unit.

An integrated end-of-line dual-tray staple finisher option (FS-532) is also available, pro-viding cover and side stapling and an optional 25-sheet saddle-stitch and folding func-tion, hole punch and a dual 200-sheet capacity cover inserter.

A paper tray cannot be opened while actively feeding the paper path, avoiding the poten-tial for jams that can occur on rival devices. Any tray not actively feeding the paper path can be opened and refilled during device operation, allowing for uninterrupted print workflow.

However, an operator cannot change the type of media (color, weight, or type) from the user interface in the middle of a run.

BLI noted the device’s good tab-handling capabilities, which include WYSIWYG load-ing orientation (in trays 3 through 5) and automatic flushing of unused cyclic set sheets when cyclic set size exceeds the number of tabs inserted into each set of the print job. Unwanted cyclic pages exit to the proof tray.

The device does not have automatic cyclic set jam recovery but does advise the opera-tor to check the cyclic set tray to ensure that the next cyclic set sheet to be inserted matches the current job in progress when printing recommences.

PRODUCTIVITY




Productivity

The Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052’s embedded controller (RIP) is powered by a 2.8-GHz processor equipped with 2 GB of RAM and a 250-GB hard drive. Three perfor-mance modes are available—Off, which is the default setting; Quality, which focuses on maintaining darkness and output quality versus speed; and Performance, which focuses on maintaining speed versus output quality. Throughput speed productivity results were best in Off mode; BLI’s 1,600- and 3,200-page RIP tests were best in Performance mode.

The device is capable of running 24-hour shifts with no downtime thanks to its uninter-rupted paper refill, toner refill and cascade multi-stacker tray design.

Fully loaded with paper input and output options, the device can run for more than 7.95 hours—which compares very favorably with competitive units— producing approxi-mately 56,000 letter-size impressions (two-up double-sided on ledger-size media) before attention is required (based on BLI tested productivity results).

The device does an internal check every 10,000 impressions, which takes approximately one minute to complete, apart from which there is no disruption to throughput speed during long production runs.

The controller is able to RIP a job while another is in progress, ensuring a constant feed of rasterized data to the print engine, thereby minimizing pauses when large numbers of jobs are being processed. During BLI’s tests, the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 seamlessly moved from one job to the next with no delays.

The device delivered consistent output speeds, matching rated speed when running simplex and duplex letter jobs on both 80- and 200-gsm media.

When testing letter throughput speeds in simplex mode on uncoated heavier-weight media, the device experienced less slowdown than several competitors with 300 gsm media and less slowdown with 350 gsm media than the two models that support it.

When testing letter throughput speeds on 130-gsm coated media in simplex mode, the device also met its rated speed, and ran significantly faster than two of its competitors.

The device was able to meet its rated speed when switching between drawers for both the same or different media types within a job. In addition, the device ran faster than its competitors when switching between standard 80-gsm uncoated and 130-gsm coated media. The device’s drop-off from rated speed was also minimal when inserting pre-printed covers into simplex letter-size jobs.

When heavier-weight media are incorporated into standard 80-gsm workflow, the adjust-ment time required by the device to compensate for the revised fusing demands is mini-mal when compared to the majority of competitors tested. The device delivered speeds of 103.37 ppm with 200 gsm covers, 90.06 ppm with 300 gsm covers and 89.41 ppm with 350 gsm covers.




The device ran closer to its rated speed than the majority of its competitors when switch-ing between letter and ledger output, and ran faster than two of its competitors with higher rated engine speeds, which is an advantage in certain workflows such as when incorporating large spreadsheets into financial reports or incorporating building plans into architectural design documents.

+ With ledger simplex and duplex workflows on 80-gsm media, the device exceeded its rated speed and ran at a higher percentage of its rated speed than most competitive models tested.

The device showed no drop in productivity when using finishing options, actually running slightly higher than rated speed in all the finishing tests and at a higher percentage of rated speed with the booklet finisher than all other competitive models.

— The device cannot print media in weights of 301 gsm and above face down, forcing the operator to switch to face up printing in N to 1 format, with the job unable to start until the final page has been RIPped, which can result in a delay in large jobs.

The device has a remote control Web utility that allows operators to see the current status of the device, have full control over the queue and adjust system settings if required. This can reduce the chances of device downtime when operators are not within the device’s line of sight and enable better management of workflow by operators when not in the office.

Maximum Throughput Speeds

Number of Clicks Achieved in Hour*

Impressions per Minute

Number of Opera-tor Intervention Steps

Number of Forced Device Stoppages

Letter Simplex 1,558 103.87 0 0

Letter Duplex 1,562 104.13 0 0

Ledger Simplex 1,734 115.60 0 0

Ledger Duplex 1,760 117.33 0 0

* Maximum throughput speed over the course of an hour was determined by running the device using single-page test documents for 15 minutes and extrapolat-ing the results out to one hour. The test device is fully loaded with the media and toner supplies prior to job commencement and the stacker/s emptied. Timing starts after the first page has been output to remove processing and initiation time. Operator intervention times are classified as paper and toner changes and stacker emptying based on a fully loaded cut-sheet device. Forced device stoppages are classified as events that stop the device pending operator intervention such as a stacker/finisher unload. In the event that a forced stoppage is required, BLI operators wait until the stacker/finisher full message appears, then unload the stacker/finisher immediately to minimize the delay period.




In BLI’s media impact on productivity test, 10 sets of a 60-letter-image job are sent to the device, with throughput time assessed between sets 2 and 10. The number of images in the print file is reduced to compensate for inserts and oversized images in certain jobs, as specified below. (1) p1, p10, p20, p30, p40, p50, 60 printed from different tray, both trays loaded with 80 gsm paper(2) p1, p10, p20, p30, p40, p50, p60 printed on 200 gsm media(3) p1, p10, p20, p30, p40, p50, p60 printed on 135 gsm coated media(4) p10, p20, p30, p40, p50 printed on ledger media, both trays loaded with 80 gsm paper (printed document size, submitted reduced to 55 pages to maintain 60-page-letter-impression size)(5) p11, p21, p31, p41, p51 printed on ledger media, both trays loaded with 80 gsm paper (document size submitted reduced to 55 pages to maintain 60-letter-impression document size)(6) p1 and p60 printed on 200 gsm uncoated media (7) p1 and p60 printed on 300 gsm uncoated media (8) p1 and p60 printed on 350 gsm uncoated media (9) p1 and p60 fed from post process inserter, (document size submitted reduced to 58 pages to maintain 60-letter-impression document size)

Maximum Throughput Speed Across Multiple Workflows

Letter with double-side staple 105.6

Letter with single-corner staple 105.38

Booklet on ledger 111.36

2-up duplex on ledger 80 gsm 120.95

2-up simplex on ledger 80 gsm 109.95

Letter with pre-printed covers (9) 95.09

Letter with covers printed on 350 gsm media (8) 89.41



Mixed letter and ledger (5) 99.18

Mixed letter and ledger (4) 99.78

Multi-tray switching with coated inserts (3) 106.01

Multi-tray switching with heavy inserts (2) 93.26

Multi-tray switching with same media type (1) 105.23

Duplex letter UC 80 gsm 106.2

Letter C 130 gsm 105.11

Letter UC 350 gsm 70.69


400 60 80 14020 120100






RIP Efficiency Analysis - Simplex 1,600-Page NASA Test File

Time to Release From PC(seconds)

RIP Time(seconds)

Time to First Page Out(seconds)

Time for Job Com-pletion(seconds)

Speedfrom Job Release to Final Page (ipm)

Speedfrom First Page Out to Final Page (ipm)*

Simplex 1,600-page NASA test file printed on letter 24-lb. bond

577.06 616.83 8.13 920.6 104.29 105.18

Simplex 1,600-page NASA test file sent twice as single-set jobs printed on to letter 24-lb. bond 103.6 104.06

*BLI analysts noted no delays between the completion of the first job and the beginning of the second job.

Testing of RIP time, imposition handling and first-set-out time is conducted using a 1,600-page PDF with high-resolution images and text elements running throughout the file. The file is sent to the paused PostScript driver print queue at the desktop where the job is allowed to spool completely prior to release, removing the test PC impact from the test process. Completion times for various stages through the job cycle are recorded as seen above in the table. The job is then repeated, this time with the same job spooled twice at the print queue. The queue is released again and the times are again recorded. The times for the second set are taken from the moment the data starts to be fed to the RIP (i.e., when the job first shows the printing message in the print queue.)

Image Quality

Halftones Fine Lines Text Solid Darkness Solid Consistency Mixed-Page-Element Handling

Halftones were reproduced to a good standard in default mode. Color images, however, were not as well defined when converted to gray in default mode, but improved markedly when the CIE con-version option in the driver was enabled.

Using default settings, black fine lines and fonts were reproduced to a very good standard down to 0.25 point and 3 point, respectively; reverse white on black background fine lines were also very well reproduced down to 0.25 point and Arial text was clearly defined down to 3 point, with Times New Roman being clearly defined at 5 point.




— Reproduction of red and blue fine lines and text in default mode was not as good, with both red and blue circles at 0.25 point suffering from breakup. Red and blue horizontal and vertical lines at 0.25 point were also not reproduced as well as by some competing units.

— Text screening mode enhanced red and blue fine line reproduction to some extent, but still resulted in output with breakup and poor legibility at 3- to 5-point font sizes.

To output the highest-quality fine lines and text, BLI recommends utilizing the driver’s extensive dot screening options, which allow the operator to select the dot shape, line screen resolution and angle. At the maximum 300-lpi screen resolution, fine lines and text were reproduced to a very high standard. It should be noted, however, that utilizing the highest LPI resolution has a detrimental impact on halftone reproduction.

Though it would be preferable for the functionality to be integrated in the print driver rather than a separate utility, the Tone Curve utility provides users with professional-grade custom gray curve programming capability, with the ability to store multiple curves for future use. It includes a viewer that changes to show the effect on output as the curve shape is adjusted. Furthermore, the user can import the viewer image (as a single-page PDF file) that will be displayed as a proof of how the gray curve will change the appear-ance of the output, which is a very useful feature.

— Halftone output produced with line screen frequencies above 150 lpi started to show fine detail loss in some areas, especially darker contrast regions, with significant detail loss above 200 lpi.

— The driver includes a fine line precision option with four precision-level selections. During its analysis BLI discovered that this option had a highly detrimental impact on some fine line and text output and is apparently a glitch that needs to be investigated.

Solids were reproduced reasonably well, with good front-to-back consistency.

— In BLI’s high coverage test, which requires the device to reproduce saturated black sheets over a print run of 100 consecutive pages, the bizhub PRESS 1052 suffered from slightly more density drop-off compared to some units tested.

While output of BLI’s mixed-element test target in default mode was not as good as with some other devices tested, the degree of adjustments that can be made to fine-tune the output far exceeds that offered by competing products, allowing operators to have far greater control over the final output of the device.

For fine line and font output with no halftone images, BLI recommends the higher LPI dot screen settings (200 lpi+) as a starting point.

For documents with both halftone images and text/fine lines, BLI recommends using the lower-range (120 to 150 lpi) dot screen frequencies.

IMAGE QUALITY




100% Solid Coverage Density Measurements

Uncoated Media Coated Media

Min. Optical Density 1.22 1.34

Max. Optical Density 1.60 1.67

Average Optical Density 1.39 1.53

Variance 0.38 0.33

BLI assessed solid black reproduction using the default device and driver conditions over the course of a 100-sheet print run, using a 100% coverage document. The BLI test target was sent to print on 100-lb. index UPM DIGI Color Laser ledger uncoated media and 110-lb. index UPM DIGI Finesse ledger coated media (when supported), with density readings taken at nine different locations on the printed output on the 1st, 50th and 100th page using an X-Rite 508 densitometer.

Front-to-Back Solid Density Measurements

Uncoated Media Coated Media

Front-Page Average 1.42 1.70

Back-Page Average 1.39 1.70

Deviation 0.16 0.07

Measurements are taken on test prints produced using default settings on both uncoated and coated paper (when supported) using an XRite 508 densitometer. Measurements are based on 15 readings spaced across the long edge of an ledger test chart. The higher the density measurements, the darker the image. Density measurements are taken on both the front and back printed samples, with the front sample being a single-page file and the back printed sample being a duplex print of a two-page test chart with page one blank. An average across the 15 results for each test chart is recorded, along with the max deviation. The larger the deviation, the greater the difference in density across the page.

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

0 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100

Opt

ical D

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y of

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ted

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Electronic True Black Fill Percentage

Halftone Reproduction on Uncoated Paper

Uncoated Media

Coated Media




Overview of Image Quality Test Procedures

Halftone Analysis: BLI uses proprietary test files and the European Color Initiative Altona test file to assess halftone and color-to-gray conversion capabilities. The test files are printed on both coated and uncoated media across a selec-tion of image quality driver settings.

Fine Line and Text Analysis: BLI uses proprietary test files created in Adobe Illustrator and converted into PDF at press-quality settings. Files take into consideration both black and color conversion elements in both foreground and background.

Assessments of fine lines and text are carried out using both default and maximum resolution settings. Fine lines are assessed at 0.25-, 0.5- and 0.75-point thickness at 90-degree and 45-degree angles and fonts are reviewed in Arial (sans serif font) and Times New Roman (serif font) in standard and italic formats down to 3 points.

The background colors used are white, black, global red, global green and deep blue sea. Images are viewed using an 8x magnification Agfa loupe and the finest line/smallest font recorded before break-up/legibility issues occur.

Solid Darkness: BLI uses a four-page proprietary test file with 15 patches of solid black distributed evenly across the long edge of a ledger image, with the image repeated on pages one and four with two and three left blank. The doc-ument is printed in duplex, and the solid density of the 15 patches on both sides is measured using using an XRite 508 densitometer; the minimum, maximum and average, along with the deviation between the lightest and darkest measure-ments, are reported.

ECI Altona Test File

BLI Fine Line and Text Test File1

BLI Fine Line and Text Test File2

BLI Solid black/grayscale Test File




Solid Black High Coverage Consistency: BLI assesses solid black reproduction using the default device and driver conditions over the course of a 100-sheet print run, using a 100% coverage document with nine locations specified for density measurement. The BLI test target was sent to print on 24-lb. bond UPM DIGI Color Laser ledger uncoated media and 110-lb. index UPM DIGI Finesse ledger coated media, with density readings taken at nine different locations on the printed output on the 1st, 50th, and 100th page using an X-Rite 508 densitometer.

Mixed-Page-Element Handling: BLI assesses mixed-page-element handling using proprietary and industry stan-dard test files. Test files are sent using both default settings and with different image quality adjustment options selected. Quality of fine lines, fonts, solids and light/mid and dark con-trast halftone images are assessed to determine the best settings to deliver high-quality output across all elements. The test is repeated on both coated and uncoated media (if both are supported).

BLI 100% Coverage Solid Black Test File

BLI Mixed-Page-Element Test File




Ease of Use

The touchscreen control panel is easy to master and will make training of new users a quick process.

The main screen of the touchscreen provides a wealth of information for the operator, including device status, consumable and paper levels, RIP resources and the job queue, which includes the time to completion of the current job and details on jobs residing in the queue.

BLI technicians found the touchscreen control panel easy to navigate.

Toner loading and waste toner bottle replacement were simple, mess-free processes. Toner can also be loaded on the fly.

— There is no toner gauge at the user interface to indicate the amount of toner remaining in the bottle.




The toner bottle and waste toner container are easy to access at the front of the device.

Loading paper into the trays was easy, as the trays feature sturdy sliding guides for both the length and width which can be locked. The trays can be locked in the raised position to enable more accurate guide locking.

The levers to slide the guides in the PF-703 large-capacity tray are located fairly deep inside the trays, making adjusting paper size slightly more cumbersome than with some competing machines.

— While the user interface indicates a misfeed location with a letter and number which coincide with the same letter and number labeled inside the device, there are no addi-tional animations or graphics provided to assist with the clearing of misfeeds.

The unit’s smart jam removal ensures that various sections cannot be opened until all preventive steps to prevent the tearing of paper have been performed. For example, in some cases a section of the device cannot be opened until an operator first opens a separate panel and moves a lever to forward a misfed piece of paper to a location where tearing of the paper is less likely.

Setting up of new media in the catalog was easy, aided by a large QWERTY keypad on the touchscreen which makes data entry quick and accurate.

USB host ports on the touchscreen stand can be used to install a keyboard and mouse to further improve navigation on the touchscreen and speed up data entry.

— While there is good integration between the media catalog, paper input modules and the print drivers, which makes working with custom media easier than with some alterna-tive units, there is a caveat, in that the driver needs to be manually updated whenever a different size/type of paper is loaded. The driver asks the user to choose media by tray rather than by type; without the manual update, the driver sends the job with the old media tray setting rather than the newly changed setting. This creates a media mismatch and hangs up the queue until the job is deleted and resubmitted.




The graphical print driver is well laid out and provides a high level of functionality and job programming capabilities.




The driver offers extensive image quality selections, which BLI found to be intuitive and to offer a high degree of adjustment capabilities.

The driver’s Booklet fold/staple selection allows an operator to automatically submit a booklet job without the several clicks typically needed to assemble a booklet job and have it be output.

The Tone Curve utility is easy to use and offers a high level of functionality that will be appreciated by production users, though it would be preferable for this functionality to be integrated into the driver.

BLI operators found Konica Minolta’s PageScope Direct Print Hot Folder utility, which offers drag-and-drop functionality for bringing jobs into predefined print workflows, to be easy to use, with easy to follow instructions.

The ability to easily edit job tickets directly from the device touchscreen queue is a real time-saver in the event that settings were missed or need to be changed, eliminating the need to resubmit the print job from the desktop.

Paper loading is face up for the large-capacity trays and post-process insertion unit; however, trays 1 and 2 underneath the main engine unit are loaded with paper face down (to allow for the flip-over during feeding), which could be confusing and lead to costly mistakes when feeding side-critical media such as forms, NCR and preprinted offset shells.

Programming of tab printing was intuitive from the driver, with a preview of the label indicating when label size exceeds the printable area on the tab.




Job Management

While the device’s warm-up time from sleep mode is longer than most engines tested, at 6 minutes, during warm-up an operator can still scan or copy to memory, and can still access the scan/store feature. The device’s paper drawers can be released once the engine starts to drive during the warm-up time.

Jobs submitted via the print driver can be sent to print, wait, secure print, store in a user box, proof print, or hold.

bizhub PRESS 1052 Job Queue

Job-building capabilities are extensive, with advanced page-level programming capabili-ties including mixplex, subset finishing and mixed-media selection options.

Image quality adjustments are also extensive, with CIE color-to-gray conversion, a wide array of screening options with line screen adjustment from 40 lpi to 300 lpi, the ability to adjust line screen angle, and the ability to create custom tone curves using Konica Minolta’s Tone Curve utility. BLI would prefer to see the CIE conversion left as the default mode.

Extensive job ticketing capabilities are available at the user interface for jobs sent to the hold queue, including quantity, simplex/duplex, output tray, binding direction, sort/group, staple, fold and staple, multi fold and punch. In addition, a sample can be printed prior to running the job in its entirety. Multiple held jobs can be released in one session.

— There is no ability via the job ticket capability to enter free-text notes from the print driver to provide specific instructions regarding a job.

Editing can only be done on one job at a time, versus on a batch of jobs.

Via job ticketing, a page-by-page preview is available in which individual pages can be printed.




Additional job list features include output history, send history, incomplete history and spool queue. Jobs can be moved to the top or up one step, deleted, or suspended.

Users can directly route PDF, PS, TIFF, JPEG, PPML and TXT files to the engine using either the device’s embedded Web server or the drag-and-drop hot folders created using the PageScope Direct Print utility.

A rich feature set of print attributes can be associated with hot folder print submission, including tray assignment (not media type) for main and cover pages, imposition layout options, finishing features, basic image quality features and set quantity.

Note: BLI did not test Konica Minolta’s PrintGroove production workflow suite as part of this test assessment.

The device has a remote control capability via a Web utility which allows operators to see the current status of the device, have full control over the queue and make system settings if required. This can reduce the chances of device downtime when operators are not within the device’s line of sight and enable better management of office workflow when the key operator is out of the office.



John Lawler, CEO

Anthony F. Polifrone, Managing Director

Gerry O’Rourke, Managing Director, BLI International

Patti Clyne, Senior VP of Sales

Daria Hoffman, Managing Editor

Dr. Simon Plumtree, European Managing Editor

Lynn Nannariello, Assistant Managing Editor

Tracie Hines, Senior Editor, Competitive Analysis Reports

Jamie Bsales, Senior Product Editor, Solutions

George Mikolay, Senior Product Editor, A3 MFPs

Marlene Orr, Senior Product Editor, Printers and A4 MFPs

Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor, Scanners and Environmental

Carl Schell, Senior Writer

Priya Gohil, Senior Editor

Jessica Schiffenhaus, Associate Editor

Kaitlin Pendagast, Research Editor

David Sweetnam, Head of European Research and Lab Services

Pete Emory, Manager of Laboratory Testing

Martin Soane, European Lab Manager

Pia Beddiges, Manager of Competitive Services

T.R. Patrick, Art Director

Anthony Marchesini, IT Director

BUYERS LABORATORY LLC • North America • Europe • Asia

BLI Test Report

Documents

Transcript of BLI Test Report