Craig Nethercott
The managing director of Canon Production Printing Oceania, Craig Nethercott, says the business will present its most extensive portfolio yet at drupa next month in Düsseldorf.
In an exclusive interview with Sprinter, Nethercott said a lot has changed within both his company and within the industry since the last drupa was held in 2016.
“In the eight years since the last drupa exhibition, Canon has had the opportunity to successfully work with a vast array of print service providers and has established itself as the leader in overall production inkjet, attaining leading positions in the web-fed, sheetfed and wide format segments we serve,” Nethercott said.
“At drupa 2024, we’re excited to share the fruits of our continuous investment in technology and business innovation with a global audience, and to present our most extensive portfolio yet of powerful digital production print, label and packaging technologies – ready to support our customers’ growth and diversification ambitions.
“We’ll also highlight the many collaborative partnerships that help us to innovate, to grow digital print adoption, and to inspire meaningful changes towards a more sustainable future,” Nethercott said.
At a recent pre-drupa press conference in Düsseldorf, a large number of products were unveiled ahead of the exhibition commencing on 28 May.
Canon Arizona 2300 with FLXflow technology
Previously known as FLOW technology, the new FLXflow offers not only the original ‘Hold’ functionality, which helps to hold media down on the flatbed table, but also the new optional ‘Float’ and ‘Instant Switch’ functionalities to improve media handling. Further features, such as additional quality modes, image layout controls and improved workflow integration, together with an interface that connects automation systems for continuous loading and unloading media, deliver increased workflow efficiency and productivity.
Catering to the mid-to-high volume market for large format graphics, the Arizona 2300 FLXflow supports a wide variety of substrates and applications. This enables customers, both in-house or commercial print service providers (PSPs), to continuously adapt to evolving consumer trends, such as the growing demand for personalised and made-to-order applications, while ensuring that customisation remains economically viable, even for samples and one-off orders.
Canon ProStream 2000 and ProStream 3160
The ProStream 2000 is a new series of web-fed inkjet presses for commercial and business communications print service providers looking for an attractive cost/performance ratio for applications on media up to 150gsm and on uncoated papers.
The new ProStream 3160 is the 160m/min flagship model of the ProStream 3000 series. A new polymer pigment ink set, also included with the ProStream 2000 series, ensures high, consistent offset print quality at rated speed, while extending the media grammage/speed range. Both the ProStream 2000 series and the ProStream 3160 enable ultra-fast production, allowing print businesses to move even higher volumes of work from offset and legacy technologies.
Printing at up to 133m/min on standard offset coated, uncoated and inkjet optimized media from 28gsm up to 150gsm, the ProStream 2000 series offers a better cost/performance ratio and is 20 per cent shorter than the ProStream 3000. It also consumes 10 per cent less energy than the ProStream 1800. The new series is the ideal inkjet investment choice for general and specialized commercial print service providers, who are predominantly producing high-quality applications on lower weight media or on a wide range of media types and weights and want to migrate high-volume work from offset to digital.
Papers up to 300 gsm are supported at reduced speed. The ProStream 2000 series will, however, equally appeal to book printers, who principally produce applications on uncoated media but are looking to diversify into coated media, as well as to business communications companies that want to expand beyond traditional print jobs, such as reports, invoices and statements, to premium direct mail, brochures and newsletters through a cost-efficient and flexible means of production.
The new series comprises two models – the 80m/262ft per minute ProStream 2080 and the 133m/436ft per minute ProStream 2133 – and can print duplex up to 1,790 four-color A4 impressions per minute or 11,300 B2 sheets per hour, equating to 62 million US letter/58 million A4 impressions per month, on web widths up to 558mm.
ColourStream 8200 and ColourStream 8110
Following the success to date of its ColorStream 8000 series of high-speed, web-fed inkjet presses, Canon today expands the series with two new models, the ColorStream 8200 and 8110. The ColorStream 8200 is now the most productive model in the series, with a maximum speed of up to 200 meters per minute (656 feet per minute). At 110 meters per minute (361 feet per minute), the ColorStream 8110 is ideal for print service providers (PSPs) wanting to invest in a new ColorStream press while maintaining existing finishing equipment.
Since its launch in 2011, the ColorStream range has proved to be an attractive investment for high-volume print production environments, with more than 1800 towers having been installed worldwide. Building on that customer demand, the new Canon ColorStream 8200 is the most productive and automated ColorStream press to date, minimising the need for manual intervention and offering excellent uptime and efficiency.
Operating at maximum speed, the ColorStream 8200 delivers 2,692 A4 pages per minute (2,860 Letter pages per minute). That level of productivity makes it perfect for business communication, transactional and book printers and PSPs needing to handle production peaks with ease while producing a mix of output, including transactional statements, publications, books, direct mail and product inserts.
Offering a print quality equal to the existing ColorStream 8000 models, the new ColorStream 8200 and 8110 models feature native 1200 dpi printheads and highly pigmented water-based polymer inks, for a wide color gamut on uncoated, recycled, inkjet-coated and inkjet-treated paper without pre-treatment. The use of durable, long-life components in the ColorStream 8200 and 8110, together with automation features, such as auto splice handling and tight communication with inline finishing devices, reflects Canon’s focus on supporting customers to achieve peak productivity, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact of its products and operations.
To maximise the efficiency of the ColorStream 8000 series, customers can combine it with PRISMAproduction, an integrated and scalable, high-performance workflow and production management platform that automates and integrates data input and conversion, prepress and print output. Enhancing files for high-performance production printing, PRISMAproduction enables AFP and PDF pre-flighting and make-ready, data enrichment and page composition in one flexible print workflow via a single platform. The batching functionality in PRISMAproduction also allows customers to optimize their order processing and production sequence in line with the ongoing trend in the reduction of run lengths, resulting in efficient output handling on the ColorStream 8000 series.
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