The 5th Toner

[Zwicker Press]

Our Ricoh tech was in today and we were talking about different production machines such as the Xerox 1000 with it's clear toner and he said that the new Ricoh machine (not sure which one) has a mysterious 5th bay that isn't used, but he was told by the engineers it's for "future uses". So maybe Ricoh plans to add a clear toner option to some future machines? Then, while discussing this we asked, why not an opaque white? Is that not feasible for some reason or is likely something we'll see in the coming years? I know I'd be on board for an opaque white toner.

 

[arossetti]

The 800/1000 actually has a 6th toner station which is not used and is for future development. The idea of the 5th and 6th color stations being used for light cyan, light magenta are the obvious choices but there is also a rumor of a white toner.

 

[OkiTech]

The funny thing is that going for white toner, they would need to make a 6 color machines with 1st & last for "future use" because white application would need to be under or over the image depends what is printing.. I.e. If you print on clear, to be visible from unprinted side - white over, from printed side - white under, print on dark colored paper - white under... Who ever will utilize it, most likely will make imaging units in one box with toner bank and make the swappable with keys so machine would know where each unit is and we'd be able to change color order like on press.