Fujifilm will be present with digital presses across all sectors of the printing industry, according to Taro Aoki, head of digital press solutions for EMEA. Speaking at the launch of the Jetpress 750HS in Brussels last week, Aoki outlined Fujifilm’s strategy: “Within five years we will cover the whole of the printing market, including with workflow solutions.”
The new version of the B2 inkjet press becomes available in November, both as a new press and as an in the field upgrade from the current Jetpress 750S. The new version retains the option to print top quality at 3,600 sheets an hour, but now includes a performance mode option to print at 5,400sph, the fastest four-colour B2 digital press currently available.
As well as a switch to 1200x600dpi resolution, this involves the use of Vividia HS ink. In high quality mode a primer of Fujifilm’s rapid coagulation coating is needed to provide the optimum surface for the water based ink. In performance mode the new ink contains its own barrier element to prevent ingress into paper and to enable the ink to adhere to a coated paper.
The upgrade to the HS version follows feedback from existing users wanting to expand in the area where the inkjet press can be effective compared to litho, so enabling printers to move more jobs from analogue to digital while also increasing the margin that is possible on lower end work. The new press will use 25% less ink per sheet, says Aoki.
The company has bagged two orders for the press from European printers, Ebro Colour in Germany and commercial printer Grafica La Paz in Spain. The German company is upgrading from a Jetpress 720. Fujifilm will take back the earlier version of the press and put it through a thorough refurbishment programme before releasing it to the market, opening up a customer base that could either not afford a new machine or which does not have the workload to justify the investment until the work is there.
The new commercial press will also print on 600 micron board, suitable for lightweight carton boards in the packaging market. Fujifilm is attacking packaging with the FP790, a press for flexible packaging and the LP350, a narrow web UV press that was announced in the US last week.
“In addition, we are approaching the commercial print market and print on demand sector with litho plates and the Jetpress and Revoria presses,” says Aoki. “We are also present in large format inkjet with the Acuity and Onset presses. The basic philosophy for all these is the same: we are the developer and manufacturer of our own printing equipment.”
And where it cannot address markets with a pure inkjet press, it is able to offer a printer to any width using Samba heads to enable users to add a variable element to an otherwise static image.
