Company History

The imagio Neo 350 series, featuring Ricoh’s energy-saving technology called QSU*1, won the Energy Conservation Grand Prize*2 for the first time in this sector. News of the award stirred users’ interest in the energy efficiency of this digital copier, generating great momentum to the development and widespread use of environmentally friendly models.

*1 QSU stands for “quick start-up,” which is Ricoh’s proprietary technology that offers both energy conservation and user friendliness. QSU realizes minimal power consumption when the copier is in the standby mode and quick recovery when the user wants to photocopy.
*2 The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize in the 11th Energy Conservation Grand Prize.

The Ichimura Nature School is an NPO for youth development founded in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kiyoshi Ichimura, the founder of Ricoh and the Ricoh San-ai Group. It was established in Matsuda-machi, a town in the Ashigarakami District of Kanagawa Prefecture in October 2001. Based on the concept of “learning how to live from Mother Nature,” the project offers farming and other programs for children to provide them with opportunities to develop leadership skills and a self-reliant attitude.

Ricoh Technology Center was established to consolidate development functions for imaging and solutions products (MFPs, printers, etc.) that were formerly located in separate sites in Japan, including the Ohmori Plant (Tokyo) and Atsugi Plant (Kanagawa Prefecture), into a single center. The organizational integration was planned to streamline activities in a range of development areas, from element technology and production technology to product assessment, spurring cross-divisional, cross-functional activities, thereby improving development efficiency.

PxP toner is a polymerized toner with polyester developed by Ricoh, applying its original ester elongation method. While offering higher-definition quality achieved by fine, uniform and highly shape-controllable particles, this toner allows for lower-temperature fixing, thereby contributing to energy-saving machine operations. In addition, CO2 emissions stemming from the manufacturing process can be reduced to around 65% of those of conventional ground toners. To start mass production of the PxP toner, a new plant was constructed on the premises of our Numazu Plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.

San-ai Dream Center is a commercial facility which was completed in January 1963. The project was organized by Kiyoshi Ichimura, the founder of Ricoh, who wished to create a symbolic structure of the Ricoh San-ai Group. In 2006, a new billboard was installed on top of the building in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Ricoh’s founding. The lighting installation was designed to present a vibrant image of new sprouts shooting and flower buds opening under the theme of “birth and growth.” This was replaced in September 2014 by the present 100% natural energy powered billboard.

Promotions

Ricoh Technology Center in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, received the fourth Nikkei Manufacturing Award hosted by The Nikkei, a well-known financial daily in Japan. The Nikkei Manufacturing Award recognizes excellent factories, R&D centers as well as programs and systems adopted in these facilities. The Ricoh Technology Center received the award for successful initiatives in development process reforms that increased efficiency by consolidating formerly separate divisions for development, design and pre-production into a single organization to encourage cross-functional activities.

RICOH Pro C900 was launched to pioneer the RICOH Pro series, a new production printer brand. The product was a full-fledged print-on-demand model designed to demonstrate the high-speed, high-productivity capability of achieving 90ppm (A4 landscape) for both color and monochrome copying. It represented the fastest performance model in the category*, and satisfied the high-standards required in commercial production printers, in terms of definition quality, stable performance and reliable operation.

*Color production printers marketed at a standard unit price of 30 million yen or less (as of May 7, 2008)

Reconditioning products is an important resource-recycling project at Ricoh. Products are reconditioned mainly by using parts that meet our quality assurance standards. The imagio MP C3500RC/C2500RC series was Ricoh’s first reconditioned digital full-color MFP series. While attaining an average 80% mass content of reused parts, these models met quality standards on par with newly manufactured products*.

*Products wholly composed of newly manufactured parts or like-new products containing some remanufactured parts