Heidelberg is set to launch its B1 digital inkjet sheetfed press at drupa next year, with folding carton printers the first target market. The world’s biggest press manufacturer has been developing the press for the last two and a half years, and is a co-operation between Heidelberg, which will manufacture the hardware – chassis, feed, transport, delivery – and Fujifilm, which is providing the inkjet technology.

Jason Oliver, vice-president of digital printing at Heidelberg

Based on Heidelberg’s Speedmaster platform, the folding carton press will print on one side only using Fujifilm’s water-based Samba inkjet heads. The Heidelberg inkjet press will compete directly with Benny Landa’s nano technology; with Landa already announcing it will launch a B1 folding carton sheetfed digital inkjet press the S10 at drupa. The Landa folding carton press, first seen at drupa 2012, has since been redesigned and has had its beta testing delayed until later this year, with no word on when it will be released. Heidelberg says its inkjet press will be available soon after drupa, which takes place next June. Jason Oliver, vice-president of digital printing at Heidelberg, says it is crucial that the new inkjet press matched customers’ quality expectations. Oliver says, “Top quality is what people are used to in commercial print. We are industrialising inkjet printing and digital printing to the point where it is competitive with offset. “It is not about inkjet quality that’s good enough it has to be good. The new press will ship soon after drupa. This has to work out of the gate. “Speed is dependent on the number of heads and the print resolution. There is some scalability there. It is 1200x1200dpi native but we can tweak it down to increase the speed. And inkjet speed is ever-increasing.”

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