Ames, which prints textbooks, lab manuals and other books for higher education publishers, will now benefit from the innovative flash-fusing technology on its newly installed Xerox Corporation 980 Color Continuous Feed Printing System. Flash-fusing is a process that only heats the toner not the paper. It does not use pressure rollers or make contact with the paper, allowing the device to print on a wide array of paper stocks and specialty media.

Ames will use the Xerox 980 to significantly expand its textbook business as well as grow into new markets, said Steve DeForge, president, Ames On-Demand.

"The Xerox 980 gives us exactly what book publishers are craving - faster, competitively priced print jobs that don't sacrifice image quality," said DeForge. He added that the company explored inkjet technology in competitive products but found the image quality of toner, color management and ease of operation in the Xerox product to be superior.

Speed is vital to Ames, whose publishers order text books via the Web on very short notice for professors and higher education institutions. Ames also expects the Xerox 980 to enable them to enter new markets, including transpromotional documents such as bills and credit card statements with relevant consumer content and high volume variable data printing. Personalized printing enables graphics and images to be easily changed for individual pieces without stopping or slowing down the printing process. Entry into the K-12 education market is also planned.

"Demand for color in digital printing is mounting at an incredibly rapid pace," said DeForge. "We want to be on the front of the curve and the Xerox 980 will put us there."

The Xerox 980 - a pairing of two Xerox 490 Color Continuous Feed print engines - is available for installation worldwide. It prints at 600 dpi resolution and maintains full rated speed when printing full color or black and white, regardless of the number of colors used or the weight of the paper. It prints 226 feet per minute (69 meters) or 493 images per minute two-up, simplex on 8.5" x 11" paper, and 986 images per minute when in the duplex configuration.

About Ames On-Demand
Ames On-Demand, a division of the Ames Safety Envelope Company, is a full-service printer specializing in on-demand digital printing and sheet-fed printing and binding, fulfillment and distribution. Founded in 1996, the company uses the latest digital technology to handle a variety of printing projects on short notice for customers in the publishing, software and hardware documentation, training and education, healthcare, and financial services industries. In addition to the Xerox 980, Ames also has four Xerox iGen3™ 110 Digital Production Presses and five Xerox DocuTech™ 6180 Production Publishers.

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