This year, Konica Minolta celebrates a major milestone: 20-years of pioneering innovation in the production print industry.
The world of print has transformed dramatically over the last two decades, with new technologies, greater demands and more-complex production challenges. While it hasn’t been a straightforward journey, it’s been a very rewarding one. Not to mention, a story of shared challenges and triumphs: with the customers’ needs always front and center.
Konica Minolta’s evolution has been driven by a commitment to understanding and solving the real-world issues customers face every day.
An evolving industry
Production print is a dynamic industry, here are just some of the key developments and milestones from the last 20 years:
The early 2000s
The start of the new millennium saw a transition from traditional offset printing to digital printing. Because the new digital technology made it possible for print providers to handle short print runs and offer faster turnaround times, digital presses quickly grew in popularity.
Early to mid 2010s
Businesses increasingly adopted on-demand printing, reducing storage costs and enabling just-in-time production for marketing materials and direct mail.
As a result, print providers could adopt automated workflows to reduce labor-intensive manual input. This period also marked the rise of software solutions that streamlined job management and improved production speed.
2015-2019
With sustainability becoming a key focus, print providers needed energy-efficient machines, more advanced technologies and recycled paper options, to reduce environmental impact. Particularly in the digital print industry, this required overcoming technical and environmental obstacles.
Having been under development since 1990, Konica Minolta made a breakthrough with our Simitri polymerized toner. This polymerized toner was chemically synthesized to achieve fine and uniform particles, meaning intense heat wasn’t needed as it melted at a lower temperature than pulverized toner.
2020
The pandemic accelerated the need for remote printing solutions and further emphasized the importance of automation. The integration of cloud services allowed for remote job submission, expanding the capabilities of print service providers and offering clients more flexibility.
