The Sharp Pro Series MX6500/MX7500
Here’s the deal: “As businesses look to gain control of their outsourcing costs without sacrificing quality, the Print On-Demand market will continue to see production work trickle down from traditional printing methods to digital. The Sharp Pro Series MX-6500N and MX-7500N were developed to satisfy these needs by providing production class features with multifunction versatility, reducing costs while providing professional results in-house.”Those comments are from Mike Marusic, senior vice president, Marketing and Business Solutions Group, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America in a press release for the Pro Series MX-6500N and MX-7500N color document systems, which were introduced in early September.
These new products round out Sharp’s high-speed, high-volume product lineup, offering speeds of 65 ppm and 75 ppm, respectively. The target markets encompass Print On-Demand environments such as Central Reprographics Departments (CRD) and In-Plant print shops where productivity, consistent high image quality and ease-of-use are essential. The Pro Series can be configured with the optional MX-PE10 EFI Fiery Server.
The press release further notes that the MX models provide multifunction versatility with features that enhance operability and maintain consistent results with superior image quality and increased reliability.
Recently I spoke with Sharp Senior Product Manager Kent Villarreal about this introduction. He tells me that these new devices have been well received by Sharp’s dealer community and in its direct branches.
“It fills a void in our lineup and allows us to reach into a new market that we were representing just by our monochrome device,” says Villarreal. “This builds on that success and is a sister product to the Hercules family.”
He emphasizes that this is not a ‘me-too’ product.
“We really listen to our customers and try to understand what their needs are and build products with features that will not only be differentiators [but meet their] needs,” says Villarreal. “We have some key differentiators that nobody else has in the industry.”
Perhaps the most notable differentiator is the ability to produce full-bleed booklets of up to 80 pages via the aforementioned edge-to-edge printing capability. “Nobody else in the industry can do this,” says Villarreal. “And we do it with it with the smallest footprint in the industry and with a toner-based device. This has created a lot of buzz within our dealer community and with our customers.”
The tight integration of the MX-PE10 Fiery Sever with Command WorkStation job management interface and the Sharp 15.4″ touch-screen provides control and ease-of-use and virtually eliminates the need for multiple workstations, what Sharp is calling, “an industry first.”
