NEW WIDE FORMAT SCANNER

Image Access introduces its first CIS wide format scanner

Image Access, the German manufacturer of the distinctive WideTEK range of CCD (charge coupled device) large format scanners, has introduced its first CIS (contact image sensor) wide format scanner option. It claims that the new WideTEK 36C, ("C" stands for "CIS"), offers "CCD scanner speed and quality at a fraction of the cost."

Other large format scanner manufacturers have made similar cost-saving claims for their new CIS-based wide format scanning solutions. The WideTEK 36C comes in at €5,9990 / USD $7990, (desktop use only; the floor stand is an optional extra). Despite its claimed fast, high quality color capture, some may feel that it is over-priced and under-featured by comparison to the the Contex SD Series which is eight inches wider with twice the optical resolution.

The Contex SD Series' extra benefits of 1200 dpi optical resolution and 44 inch image width are nice to have but are seldom used. The fact is that almost no Contex user scans wide format technical drawings at 1200 dpi optical resolution as this creates huge files which are slow to work with. Most scanner operators scan at between 300-400 dpi optical. As a result, the WideTEK 36C's 600dpi optical resolution offers as much resolving power as can be practically used in any A0 / E-size document.

Further, the WideTEK 36C's 36 inch / 914mm image width, (38 inch / 965mm document width), will accommodate every size of technical document or map except the elusive and rarely encountered over-sizes. Regarding price, perhaps the key issue, the comparable Contex SD color scanner, the top-of-the-range SD4490, is more expensive. Even if you take advantage of one of the many Special Offers on a SD4490, it will cost you about $2000 (excl) more. The WideTEK 36C's introductory price has a lot going for it.

Importantly, the Image Access WideTEK range is unlike all other wide format scanners. Unique features distinguish the WideTEK 36C from traditionally designed CIS alternatives, the Colortrac SmartLF Ci series being an exception. Among the practical innovations standard in the network-ready WideTEK range are a built-in PC, Operating System independence and scanning via a web browser. Unsurprisingly, Image Access is bullish about the price and potential of its first CIS wide format scanner.

Image Access' enthusiasm for its new product is reflected in their press release. We rate Image Access highly as engineers, innovators and honest communicators. So, for this reason, the many superlatives in their PR came as a surprise.

Image Access claim that the WideTEK 36C is "by far the fastest CIS scanner available", has "astonishing image quality" and that it produces "extraordinarily sharp and crisp images" using an "ingenious illumination strategy. This results in color accuracy that is "even superior to many CCD scanners". It uses an "extremely gentle paper transport" which avoids slip and skew in the source document. It is available at "a fraction of the cost."

Curious readers can see this "very special product" at:

the IRgA Conference, Las Vegas, April 27-28, 2011, Booth 400 & 402.

So, is there a reason for Image Access' unusually forceful product description?

Image Access is the last major CCD wide format scanner manufacturer to introduce CIS device that is more affordable than its CCD options. It has been able to take advantage of technical advances in CIS technology unavailable to its rivals when they designed their current CIS solutions some years ago. Without having seen the WideTEK 36C yet, Scanners4CAD's guess is that Image Access has produced a fast, high color quality, cutting edge wide format CIS scanner and has a lot to say about it.

Nevertheless, Image Access has some explaining to do. For years, it argued that while CIS had some benefits, CCD was the superior technology. Its 2007 White Paper, "WideTEK 36 Technology Explained" made that very point. Okay, that was four years ago, a lifetime in hardware, but, if CIS was once so inferior, what breakthroughs has Image Access now achieved to make the WideTEK 36C so much better in terms of its claimed high quality color capture quality and enhanced speed?

Scanners4CAD is averse to printing press releases as news, standard practice in the on-line wide-format imaging press. We spoke to Thomas Ingendoh, the impressive CEO of Image Access. His company's strengths and expertise lie in optical imaging R&D, software engineering and in the build quality which you expect from German engineering. As an engineer and technical innovator, he is critical of the woolly claims of other large format scanner manufacturers. We expect Ingendoh to tell it like it is.

A discussion with Thomas Ingendoh, CEO of Image Access

So, why CIS technology now - and why a 36 inch wide scanner?

"CIS technology has evolved over the years. It has improved and we have been able to take advantage of these developments, like using the best CIS sensors" says Ingendoh.

"Today the quality of CIS sensors is not the same across all vendors. Image Access is using CMOS sensors developed for industrial quality control, not the cheap ones which are used in consumer level scanners. We use three CIS sensors of 12 inches plus 24 pixels each to cover 36 inches. If you scan a 36 inch wide document with our scanner, there are two stitching points across the 36 inches. The competition uses six 8.5 inch sensors. This more than doubles the possibility of a stitching error in our main competitor's CIS scanner."

"The benefits of limited overall size and weight further justified the choice of a 36 inch width. The small footprint makes the WideTEK 36C a practical wide format desktop scanner."

But what about the need to scan larger size technical drawings and maps up to 44 inches wide?

Ingendoh pooh-poohs this. "The only drawing size we cannot scan with our 36 inch wide WideTEK 36 scanners is the very hard to find F-size at 44 x 68 inches. Also, documents that are longer than 36 inches can be rotated very quickly in less than 1 second. An E-size document (34 × 44 inches) scanned at 400dpi in color can be rotated from portrait to landscape mode in just 15 seconds. In 400dpi turbo mode, the same scan takes only 8 seconds to rotate."

Turbo mode? Used by Contex, this scanner speed specification is an anathema to Image Access (and others). (Contex quote Turbo Mode Scanning Speed "while scanning 36-inch wide document" - clearly Image Access' image width is a common size!) In 400 dpi turbo mode, the scanner scans at 400 dpi optical across the width of a drawing and at 200 dpi optical along its length, thereby giving the scanner the appearance of being able to scan faster than it would be able do so at true 400 x 400dpi.

Will Image Access now be using "turbo mode" as a scan speed specification?

"Our view of "turbo mode" has not changed" says Ingendoh. "Ideally, it should not be used. It is very confusing. However, Contex's brochures only specify "turbo mode" speeds. Our marketing department said that we must mention something similar in respect to "turbo" and therefore we came up with "turbo mode quality". Our 200dpi turbo mode is actually a 300 x 200dpi mode (Editor's Note: improved image) and the quality is very comparable to Contex's 400dpi turbo which is 400 x 200dpi." (Editor's Note: ie. diminished image).

So, what are the major new benefits of the WideTEK 36C?

According to Ingendoh, three things stand out most of all - its speed, accurate color capture and its sensitive paper feed. Regarding scan speed, Scanners4CAD has no doubt that Image Access' CCD scanners are fast. BERTL, (Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories Inc.), an organization whose assumptions and conclusions we do not always agree with, did find, as we had maintained all along, that the WideTEK 36 "is the fastest wide-format color scanner on the market today". (June 2008).

"The WideTEK 36C is fast", says Ingendoh. "It's the world's first CIS scanner to offer production scanning speeds."

Scanners4CAD has issues with fast production scanning. It is usually done at low resolution to gain the benefit of scanning speed. To speed the process up, scanned images are seldom, if ever, checked by the operator before saving them. It is not the way to create high quality scanned images. Production scanning invariably lacks the quality control needed to capture each document's individual image potential.

"The WideTEK 36C is the fastest CIS scanner available, running at 6.6 inches per second at 200dpi in color, 4.4 inches per second at 300dpi in color and 2.2 inches per second at 600dpi in color. Grayscale and binary speeds are doubled but are limited to 10 inches per second at 200dpi to ensure safe paper handling. All of these speeds are guaranteed due to the Scan2Net technology integrated in the scanner`s built-in PC" says Ingendoh.

Like the other products in the successful WideTEK CCD face-down product range, the new face-up WideTEK 36C is a true standalone system capable of scanning directly to FTP servers, USB drives, cloud applications in the internet and or copying to plotters directly without the need for a standalone PC. Again, some issue about image quality must be raised about scanning direct to FTP servers, USB drives, cloud applications, etc. The scanned image must always be checked before it is saved.

"Face-up scanning is the more natural way to work", says Ingendoh. As shown in the illustration, right, the LED illumination and CIS arrays are housed in the scanner hood and look down on the face-up document.

Image Access pioneered the use of white light LED illumination in CCD scanners. Powerful LED illumination contributes to the WideTEK 36C scanner's speed. (To scan fast, you need a bright light source; to scan faster, you need a brighter light source.) LED illumination offers the benefit of instant-on, no warm-up, no waiting, walk-up scanning. LEDs use less power and make consumables like fluorescent tubes redundant. Their working life is greater than the mechanical parts of any scanner.

"The WideTEK 36C is illuminated by more than 1000 LEDs which produce sharp, crisp images with color accuracy superior to many CCD scanners."

"Our sensors have two rows of high color quality LEDs across a length of 12 inches. The LEDs directly illuminate the target sheet through 2mm of high quality glass, avoiding intensity and color losses associated with the consumer level CIS elements which us three (RGB) LEDs on both ends of a light distributor element. Our dual light design eliminates all wrinkles in the scan because they are averaged out by the two row illumination approach."

"Our design not only eliminates wrinkles but also tolerates slight changes in the angle of the scanned surface which in other scanner designs produces shadows or darker and lighter areas depending upon the inclination of the single light source relative to the surface. To avoid this, our competitors have to "iron the document against the glass surface" with great force which as a side effect can cause glass to scratch easily."

"We cannot guarantee that the surface of the glass will never be scratched but it is a lot less likely than in other products. First, the glass is hardened; second the pressure rollers do not touch the glass surface but rather maintain a minimal distance of 0.2mm which is enough space for 160gsm paper to go through without any force. The high depth of focus of our rod lenses allows us to avoid having to press the document against the glass surface. The pressure rollers are also very light weight and rest on springs. They give way up to 3mm if a paperclip or staple comes by."

"If an object of more than 2.5mm thickness passes through the paper feed mechanism, the total force against the glass plate will not exceed approximately 300g. If a diamond was to be pressed against the glass with 300g force, the force would be too little to scratch the glass. Our paper transport is so gentle that you can put a note of paper on top of the scanned document and scan it without any movement of the note relative to the document. In other words there are no forces that stop the paper movement and therefore scratching of the scanner glass, often a problem in all other CIS devices, is eliminated" says Ingendoh.

Is the WideTEK 36C ENERGY STAR compliant?

"While all our older WideTEK CCD scanners are ENERGY STAR compliant, the WideTEK 36C does not qualify because it runs a 24V EPS (external power supply)" says Ingendoh.

"Still, it is a truly green scanner with the lowest power requirements in its class. Various legislations govern the power consumption of an EPS. We comply with the CEC level 5 standard which requires less than 0.5W in sleep mode. Also, the WideTEK 36C has a built-in PC whose needs must be factored in. By comparison with the total system power requirements of competing scanners (with an attached host PC), the WideTEK 36C needs only about 20% of the energy at scanning time and less than 10% in sleep mode."

PRICE

So, what is the "fraction of the cost" that this new CIS scanner promises?

Image Access' CCD large format scanners have a typically higher price than those from Contex and Colortrac. For the higher price Image Access offer a true networked product that works like no other - scanning via a web browser - and which includes a built-in PC which ensures you can use it with PCs, Macs or Unix systems, etc. Its engineering quality is solid and reliable but heavy. All Image Access scanners arrive on a palette.

CIS technology makes the WideTEK 36C lighter and its pricing more affordable.

The desktop unit price ie. without the optional floor stand starts at €5,9990 / USD $7,990 (excl.). This includes the integrated PC and a two year return to depot warranty. The scanner's generally small size and the rubber feet underneath allow it to be placed on a desk or table top. The standard warranty is two years return to depot. (Presumably you need to retain the box and the palette during this time).

Image Access also offers a money-saving bundle which includes a floor stand, all the available Scan2* software options like Scan2iPF which outputs scans directly to a Canon imagePROGRAF wide format printer; Scan2USB which saves scanned images directly to a USB memory device; an unlimited license for the Batch Scan Wizard, and an additional one year extended warranty contract, all for €7,680 / USD $9,990 (excl.).

Technical Support and firmware updates can be accessed via a Customer Service Portal. It is possible for Image Access hardware and software engineers to access a WideTEK scanner remotely from Germany on request to run diagnostic tests.

WideTEK 36C Technical Specifications at a glance

• Autoformat Size Recognition
• DIN Formats DIN A5 to DIN A0
• US ANSI Formats Legal, US E
• User defined Formats
• Document Width - Up to 38 inches (965mm)
• Document Thickness - Up to 0.1 inches (2.5mm)
• Paper Path - Face up, Front entry, Front or rear exit
• Scan Width - Up to 36 inches (915mm)
• Optical Resolution - 600 dpi
• Color Depth - 36 bit color, 12 Bit gray scale
• Scan Output - 24 bit color, 8 bit gray scale, bitonal, photo mode
• File Formats - JPEG, PNM, TIFF decompressed, TIFF G4 (CCITT), PDF (optional)
• Interface - 1GBit Fast Ethernet with TCP/IP based Scan2Net® Interface
• Sensor Type - 3 x dual light CIS modules
• Light Source - Approx. 1000 LEDs on two sides

• Scan Speed (24 bit color)
• 600 x 600 dpi - (2.2 inch/sec)
• 300 x 300 dpi - (4.4 inch/sec)
• 200 x 200 dpi - (6.5 inch/sec)

• Scan Length
• Full scan width at 150 dpi resolution, 24 bit color depth - 1496 inches (38m)
• Full scan width at 150 dpi resolution, bitonal - 15,748 inches (400m)

• Dimensions and Weight
• Scanner
• (H x W x D) 195 x 110 x 410mm / 7.7 x 43.3 x 16.1 inches
• Scanner plus Floorstand
• (H x W x D) 1045 x 1100 x 410 mm / 41.2 x 43.3 x 16.1 inches
• Weight Scanner Approx. 30 kg / 66 lbs
• Weight Scanner incl. Floorstand Approx. 50 kg / 110 lbs

SUMMARY

Image Access is the only manufacturer to offer overhead book scanners, small format (DIN A2) flatbed scanners and sheet-fed wide format scanners for documents between 36 and 48 inches in width. It also offers the only wide format duplex scanner (capable of scanning both sides at once). All scanning solutions are based on its proprietary Scan2Net technology platform.

The WideTEK 36C is Image Access' most affordable wide format scanner yet. It is not your average CIS scanner. It is a true networking solution from a company whose products on release have consistently been at the cutting edge. Because it has benefitted from CIS advances unavailable in older, rival models, we see no reason to doubt Image Access' claims for their newest wide format scanner, namely that it does represent the CIS state-of-the-art which they so loudly and proudly claim.

For further information, contact:

• Thomas Ingendoh,
• President and CEO, Image Access GmbH.
• www.imageaccess.de

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