Press Release Almanac: 16 October 2008
The upcoming Visual Impact trade show brings out the best of the best: Fujifilm launches the new Acuity Advance, Océ releases its Arizona 350 GT and DES shows off its Daytona T600UV. Meanwhile, major movement from Konica Minolta with the bizhub PRO C5501.
Fujifilm launches the new Acuity Advance UV inkjet printer
Océ releases next generation Arizona Flatbed
Konica Minolta launches new light production printing bizhub PRO C5501 PROfessional Series
DES introduces most cost effective flatbed UV
Fujifilm Sericol's new Acuity Advance wide format UV inkjet printer is the next generation of the highly successful Acuity HD2504, which was launched in April 2007 and has quickly become the fastest selling flatbed UV inkjet printer in the market today.
While the Acuity Advance maintains many of the leading design features of the Acuity HD2504, the Advance model incorporates a modified printhead array to achieve up to 40% faster printing speeds than the HD2504. In production mode the print speed is up to 22m2/hr, whilst in high quality mode the speed is 15m2/hr. In addition, the Acuity Advance expands the possibilities with the introduction of a white ink option, to complement the standard four colour CMYK offering. Utilizing Fujifilm Sericol Uvijet UV inks, the Acuity Advance delivers unmatched flexibility, allowing users to print a very opaque white under, over or between print layers.
The Fujifilm Acuity Advance UV inkjet printer has a print area of 1.25m x 2.5m, and prints onto substrates as thick as 48mm. Incorporating small drop, grayscale printhead technology, the Advance delivers near-photographic image quality, and includes a true flatbed platform to easily print onto a wide variety of rigid substrates. Additionally, an optional roll-to-roll module is ideal for printing onto all types of flexible media.
The Acuity Advance will be unveiled at the SGIA tradeshow, October 15th, on the Fujifilm Sericol stand and will be exhibited locally at the Sydney Visual Impact Image Exhibition from October 30th. Commercial shipments of the new Acuity Advance will commence in November.
Océ-Australia Limited has announced the release of its next generation Arizona, the Océ Arizona 350 GT wide format uv cured flatbed printer, offering high production speeds and support for white ink printing.
The new printer will make its debut in Australia at the Visual Impact expo in Sydney, October 30 to November 1.
Using UV curable inks and Océ VariaDot imaging technology to deliver near-photographic image quality, the Océ Arizona 350 GT can print on a wide variety of rigid substrates and offers printing onto flexible roll media via the roll media option.
It delivers production print speeds up to 22.2 square meters per hour on rigid media and up to 17.5 square meters per hour using the Roll Media Option. This enables users to print nearly sixty 1.22 x 2.44 m boards, or more than 150 square meters of flexible media in a single eight-hour shift.
The Arizona 350 GT prints onto rigid media up to 1.25 m wide x 2.5 m long x 48 mm thick, using four-color (CMYK) plus White UV curable inks. With the Roll Media Option installed, users can print onto flexible roll media up to 2.2 m wide.
The white ink option which can be installed at the factory or in the field, enables under-printing for non-white media or objects, over-printing for reverse backlit applications on transparent media and/or printing white as a spot color.
Océ Product Manager for Display Graphics, Adrian Morris, says news of the Arizona 350 GT has already prompted a rush of enquiries from graphics professionals.
"The Arizona 250 GT is one of Océ's most successful products and according to the independent wide format report FLAAR 'the best-selling dedicated flatbed printer ever designed'. The Arizona 350GT is derived from the same DNA as the Arizona 250GT so our expectations are high."
"Our Arizona success so far has been based on the exceptional image quality combined with reliability, quick return on investment and first class support. The Arizona 350 GT builds on this platform with a maximum print speed increase of 40% over the Arizona 250 GT for those who demand the highest quality output whilst requiring additional production capacity and white ink.
The Océ Arizona 350 GT, along with the White Ink Option, opens the printing possibilities to more exotic print applications that command premium prices.
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Following the success of the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO colour digital presses, the next generation series provide customers with enhanced colour capabilities and improved image quality.
The extensive range of new hardware, along with the high-performance, highly integrated end-to-end software solutions presented for the first time at this year's drupa.
With print speeds 55 A4 colour impressions per minute the bizhub PRO C5501 offers a large through-put and heavy duty cycle too. To better meet customers' needs, the bizhub PRO C5501 digital press now also supports three print controllers: the external controllers IC-304 Plus powered by Creo, the IC-305 EFI Fiery and the internal IC-408 EFI Fiery controller.
Furthermore, impressive media flexibility ensures , commercial printers, implants and graphic design environments can meet the most diverse requests in terms of print jobs: All systems can process paper formats from A5 to A3+ (330 x 487 mm) and weights ranging from 64 to 300 gsm via the regular paper feeders and the bypass tray.
Advanced image and colour quality ensure that colour is precise and consistent in larger print runs: Simitri HD high definition polymerised toner is used with all four newly launched colour digital presses. The environmentally friendly toner ensures fine lines and superb image quality. Another integral part of the bizhub PRO colour digital presses is the S.E.A.D. technology, Konica Minolta's own screen-enhancing active digital processing technology. This proprietary technology does its share to improve image quality, colour consistency and sharpness of text. It was originally developed for the bizhub PRO C6500 series, the highly successful predecessor of the new series.
The sturdy compact build of the C5501 PROfessional together with improvements to the advanced finishing qualities make room for continued growth in meeting customers' demands and, in turn, boosting their business opportunities. The new series C5501 PROfessional can be equipped with finishing features for stapling, punching, folding and booklet making.
"We are confident that the C5501 PROfessional Series will top its predecessors in terms of success," says Brett Palmer, national product manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia. "The new bizhub PRO Series provide our customers with the three essential elements of high quality colour production printing, which are outstanding colour, superior image quality and high production speed which amounts to continued growth for our customers' business".
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The Daytona T600UV is the most cost effective entry level 'Fixed bed' flatbed UV printer designed and manufactured by the U.S-based Raster Printers Inc.
"It is obvious that the Raster Printers R&D team utilized their vast experience to produce a product which meets the majority of the industry's requirements when it comes to white ink layer option, photo quality images, rigid substrate handling, productivity and affordability," commented Eli Friedlander, product manager at DES.
The ink set can be configured to CMYKLcLm or CMYK+White. The design concept of a stationary vacuum table with precision movements of the gantry and print head carriage enables an extreme accuracy of ink droplet placement. The high 1080dpi print resolution provides photographic quality images and exceptionally sharp text while the UV ink the necessary outdoor light and abrasion fastness.
Any 'Screen printing grade' substrates up to 50mm thick such as Corflute, Acrylics, Composite ALU, Sign white, Ceramics, Banner vinyl and translucent Polypropylene can be printed.
The Daytona T600UV printer is supplied with a powerful HP PC workstation and EFI Fiery RIP, including industry specific options such as Spot Color matching. EFI Fiery XF with BESTCOLOR technology brings out the best in a printer, benefits include:
* deliver outstanding quality
* faster and easier to use
* eliminate errors
* reduce waste
The printer is supported by a professional team of factory trained technicians with access to a full range of spare parts and consumable items are stocked locally. DES experts will be on hand to give advice and demonstrations on this very unique photo quality signage printer at the Visual Impact exhibition this year.