Xeikon products, offered in Australia by Flint Group, comprise a range of dry toner-based digital web production presses for the commercial, carton printing and label printing sectors. For document production, Xeikon’s 9000 series – featuring the 9800, 9600 and 8500 presses – combines quality and productivity, speed, versatility and flexibility, at an excellent price/quality ratio, says the manufacturer.
In carton printing, Xeikon’s digital fleet moves into an opportunity window that offset technology cannot access. From the entry level 3050 to the premium-level 3500, the range offers web and sheet solutions. And for labels, Xeikon offers its CX3 with a faster running speed, lower operating costs and versatility, and its CX500 for larger-sized labels or printing requiring opaque white or extended gamut.
Web inkjet
Océ Printing Systems has developed three distinct press platforms, commercially available today to meet the various market requirements for print communication strategies, explains Océ Australia’s McKenzie. These are the Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma, Océ ProStream PR1000 (and the cutsheet Océ VarioPrint i300).
The Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma with all-new Chromera inks is a continuous-feed inkjet system that gives customers greater reach into the commercial printing segment, enabling them to benefit from emerging opportunities around marketing and graphic arts, premium direct mail and transactional printing, he says.
A second platform is the Océ ProStream PR1000 which prints on uncoated, inkjet-optimised, gloss and matt-coated offset papers at a premium quality and at a rate of 80 m/min or 1,076 A4/min. “We deliberately took a greenfield approach to design, with a commitment to create a product that would open up fresh business opportunities for commercial printers, particularly in high-growth segments such as premium direct mail and marketing collateral,” notes McKenzie.
Kodak’s Prosper 6000 range of presses stands alone in both productivity and page cost, largely due to the combination of throughput capabilities, as well as Kodak’s patented range of environmentally friendly water-based inks, says Paul Haggett, sales & marketing director, Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division, A/NZ.
“The Prosper 6000 presses are genuine workhorses, with installations in the USA regularly outputting up to 90 million high quality pages per month and able to consistently deliver print quality that’s comparable to offset — approaching 200 lpi on a range of uncoated, coated, glossy and silk papers.
The appeal to commercial printers is its ability to provide full-colour 4-over-4 perfecting output with a print width of up to 62.1 cm at speeds up to 300 metres per minute.” He adds, “When integrated with other print technologies, such as flexo or offset, the Prosper 6000 hybrid web press delivers a truly unique value proposition in packaging applications, such as folding cartons.”
To complete the offering, the Uteco Sapphire EVO powered by Kodak Stream technology has a very strong business proposition for printers in the label and flexible packaging industries, says Haggett.
EFI’s Nozomi C18000 offers high-quality, high-speed digital LED printing up to 75 linear metres per minute (with one- and two-lane printing) on stocks up to 1.8m wide. It offers resolutions as high as 360x720dpi, and single-pass, LED, digital DoD piezo inkjet with four levels of greyscale.
The trend to ship/shelf-ready packaging for popular ‘big-box’ retailers has seen multiple products remain inside the outer corrugated carton from warehouse to shelf, notes EFI. That provides an opportunity for higher quality, full colour graphics rather than single-colour blocks. EFI also identifies strong growth in online shopping and in corrugated packaging used by online retailers such as Amazon to protect goods on their journey from automated warehouses to customers’ addresses.
Screen has upped the ante on productivity aboard its flagship Truepress Jet 520HD by introducing its Near Infrared (NIR) Dryer for this press. The new technology dramatically advances productivity for work that requires high image quality and expands print applications for high-speed inkjet across a broad landscape of products.
Peter Scott, managing director of Screen GP Australia, says the new Screen NIR Dryer technology, built into the existing press frame and structure of the 520HD, extends drying performance for both lightweight uncoated stocks and heavier weight, coated litho substrates. The result is an expanded range of applications and even higher productivity on difficult to dry substrates.
HP PageWide presses are available for corrugated packaging, high-volume commercial and sign and display applications. The HP corrugated range comprises the HP PageWide C500, T1100 and T400S presses. The presses offer combined onboard prepress and printing, enabling the end of the ‘brown box’, says HP, and ushering in production of high-value boxes printed with powerful marketing collateral.
Meanwhile, the HP commercial presses comprise the PageWide T200HD, T300HD and T400HD web press, minimising wastage in catalogue and brochure printing. And for industrial printing, the HP Scitex 11000 and the HP Scitex FB7600 and FB750, use HP’s HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology, which provides precision colour, tone and clarity, says HP.
Matt Ashman, sales manager for Durst ANZ, says the Durst Tau portfolio – the Durst Tau 244/330 RSC E and 330 RSC – offers clean-sheet design without compromise for optimum productivity and print quality in a labels and packaging press.
“This is achieved through the use of Durst’s patented media transport system coupled with Samba piezo inkjet head technology delivering actual 1200x1200dpi resolution with a two-picolitre drop size at unheralded speeds of 78 lineal metres per
minute,” he says.
The Durst Tau RSC portfolio provides “the most scalable, high-performance and quality proposition in its class”, says Ashman.
“Offset-like print quality is opening many more applications than ever before. Lowest TCOP allows short and medium print runs with high margins – and high opacity, single-pass white printing helps customers’ business expansion.”