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In Tokyo last week, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc posted a 23 percent rise in half-year operating profit on robust sales of its multi-functional printers and flat TV components, and it raised its annual outlook to match market expectations.

Konica Minolta, battling with Canon Inc, Xerox Corp and Ricoh Co Ltd in the office equipment market, enjoyed robust demand for its high-speed multi-functional printers, which often have copy, printer and fax functions.

For the year to March, the Tokyo-based company raised its operating profit forecast by 10.5 percent to a record 116 billion yen ($1 billion), roughly in line with a consensus of a 115.6 billion yen profit in a poll of 15 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

The new forecast would be up 11.5 percent from a year earlier.

Konica Minolta, created in 2003 through the merger of camera and office gear makers Konica Corp and Minolta Co in a bid to enter the top ranks of office equipment manufacturers, also benefitted from strong demand for triacetyl cellulose (TAC) film.

Konica Minolta and Fujifilm Holdings Corp are the only two major producers of TAC film, which protects the polarisation plate used in liquid crystal display panels.

“TAC film (demand) hit a bottom in the (fiscal) first quarter, and it has been on a recovery path ever since,” Konica Minolta Senior Executive Officer Yasuo Matsumoto told a news conference on Thursday.

Operating profit came to a record 57.06 billion yen in the April-September fiscal first half, beating the company’s own forecast of 48 billion yen and up from a 46.26 billion yen profit a year earlier.

Net profit jumped 67.2 percent to 37.64 billion yen on sales of 524.96 billion yen, up 6.3 percent. 

ZINK Imaging, the innovators behind the recently-unveiled Zero-Ink™ digital printing technology, officially completed purchase of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility from Konica Minolta Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc. ZINK Imaging plans to begin manufacturing its Zero-Ink™ paper at the North Carolina facility this year. They will also manufacture other digital imaging materials for OEM customers.

“We are proud to support high tech innovation and manufacturing in the United States,” said ZINK Imaging President and CEO Wendy Caswell. “Adding the experience and knowledge base inherent in the Konica Minolta team further strengthens ZINK Imaging as a ground breaking technology and manufacturing company.”

ZINK Imaging originally announced its intent to purchase the Konica Minolta facility on June 14, 2007. The plant, located in Whitsett, North Carolina, is a coating and chemical mix facility originally built in 1989 for the production of a variety of imaging products. ZINK Imaging plans to hire the remaining employee base of approximately 60 individuals, including the senior management team.

The patented ZINK™ Paper is an advanced composite material with dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside. Before printing, the embedded dye crystals are clear, so ZINK™ Paper looks like regular white photo paper. A ZINK™-enabled printer uses heat to activate and colorize these dye crystals. With ZINK™ Technology, the printing process is now radically simple. Just add paper and press “print.” The result is high quality, long-lasting, durable and affordable images.

“Since our public announcement in February, we have seen incredible interest in our Zero-Ink™ technology,” said Wendy Caswell. “The purchase of a world-class manufacturing site will enable ZINK Imaging to expand beyond our facilities in Massachusetts and to successfully deliver upon the demand for ZINK™ Paper.”

Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta, the name usually brings to mind their camera or their photographic materials. However, it is also one of the top players in the printing and ink manufacturing business. The lines below will take you through a brief history of the company and touch upon their all-new environment friendly polymerized toner.

Konica’s Humble Beginnings
Like all other big names in the printing business Konica Minolta too has roots way back in the past and forayed into the printing business due to the potential of printers and inks in the market.

Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic materials at his Tokyo apothecary in 1873 and laid the foundations for Konica. Minolta was founded in 1928 to initially manufacture cameras and then went on to pioneer technologies such as a latent image transfer system, the world’s first magnification and reduction photocopier and the world’s first photocopier to produce two-color images in a single pass.

Konica Minolta gave its share of firsts to the world in the imaging and printing field. Among these was the world’s first double lens reflex camera in 1937, then the world’s first camera with a coated lens in 1946. The year1962 took the Hi-Matic camera by Konica Minolta beyond the realms of the earth and into space by astronaut John Glenn on Friendship 7.

Going onto the printing and copier field, Konica Minolta launched the world’s first copier to use latent image transfer in 1975, and then in 1983 came the copier with zoom magnification again another first! 1987 and 1991 saw the world’s first single-pass two-color copier and three-color combination copier and fax machines respectively. In 2001, Konica Minolta launched the polymerized toner.

Konica’s Environment Friendly Technology

The Polymerized Toner
People today are more environmentally conscious than ever. Leading this trend is the Polymerized Toner that Konica created to reduce waste and printing costs.

The Manufacturing Process:
The first step in the process is to synthesize resins that are approximately one hundred nanometers i.e. one billionth of a meter in diameter via emulsion polymerization. These polymerized resin particles are then chemically coagulated and fused into precise ratios. Coloring pigments and additives are added to obtain the standard colors.

The process also utilizes very little energy and hence conserves energy which now a days is a very important and expensive commodity!

What to Expect From the Polymerized Toner

Now why would one use the polymerized toner, here is why,

All Konica Minolta color laser printers use polymerized toner, which reproduces high-quality images to give its customers be it in professional photography or business documents, complete satisfaction and value for money.

The small diameter and uniform shape of these toner particles offer superior concealment, which means space previously left between each toner particle has now been eliminated. As a result, the toner provides consistent, high-quality images with improved reproduction of text and fine lines.

Since polymerized toner needs no oil for fusing, it produces natural-looking low-gloss color images and documents that can be written on as well as allow notes to be attached to, and are therefore suitable for business use.

Smaller toner particles have a better transfer rate to paper, which thus reduces the amount of toner used in image reproductions hence conserving the toner and reducing recurring toner replacement costs.

Polymerized toner is also friendlier to our environment. It requires less energy in its manufacturing process than conventional toners that use traditional kneading and pulverizing methods.

The amount of CO2, NOx and SOx emissions that cause global warming and acid rain are cut by approximately 30%.

Therefore if you are planning to buy a printer and are very conscious of the environment around you and would want to contribute to it’s betterment; and also be able to use technology then what are you waiting for go ahead and get yourself the appropriate printer according to your requirements from the diverse range provided by Konica Minolta.

In addition, rest assured you are getting value for money and you are not guilty of splurging on technology that will destroy our environment in the long run because Konica puts in efforts to make their products as environment friendly as is possible!