Xeikon has announced that Ronald Shepard has been appointed National Document Sales Manager and Trillium Specialist – USA. Shepard’s primary objective is to further grow the market penetration of the Xeikon 8000 Series of digital color presses for the document printing market. He will also focus on driving Xeikon’s success with its patented High Viscosity Toner (HVT) technology, called Trillium. Shepard will report to Todd Blumsack, Xeikon’s VP of Sales – North America.

The Xeikon 8000 Series of presses have enjoyed strong sales growth since their introduction in Q1-2012. The Series consists of three press models, all of which feature high precision LED-array imaging technology to deliver true 1200 dpi resolution and 4-bit per spot color depth. In addition, the Xeikon 8000 Series offers a media width of 20.2 inches and unlimited print length. With monthly duty cycles of up to 10 million pages, the Xeikon 8000 Series supports a broad range of document and commercial printing applications, including direct marketing/direct mail, transactional printing, books and Photobooks, point-of-sale banners/posters as well as wall decoration such as borders, murals & wallpapers.

Trillium, Xeikon’s soon-to-be-released HVT based technology, was announced at drupa 2012. It delivers a combination of high image quality and speed. A key strength of Trillium technology lies in its ability to print mid-to-high image coverage jobs with outstanding quality, which makes it particularly suitable for direct marketing and commercial printing applications. In addition, Trillium technology offers significantly lower running costs while maintaining the high eco-sustainability standards for which Xeikon products are known. As a result, print providers will no longer have to choose between high image quality, productivity/throughput and affordable cost. Xeikon plans to install its first beta unit based on Trillium technology in the first part of 2014.

“We are pleased to have someone of Ron’s caliber and sales leadership join the Xeikon team,” Blumsack says. “He has a proven pedigree for delivering successful results and has a great opportunity to drive our document printing business in the US forward.”

A resident of Centennial, CO, Shepard has 30 years of experience in publishing and document imaging sales. Most recently, he was Director of Sales and Marketing for Heidelberg CSAT America. He has also held senior sales positions with HP Indigo America, Eastman Kodak Company, and the Pro Lab Inc.