At drupa, EFI chief executive Guy Gecht has told printers they need to jump into new markets or else face a burning fire of business as commodity printing drives down prices and sustainability.
Practicing what he preaches, Gecht launched the new EFI Nozomi digital folding carton press; a new ink set, AquaEndure.
EFI’s biggest inkjet product development, the Nozomi 1.8m wide single-pass LED inkjet sheetfed direct-to-corrugated board wide press prints at 75mpm, producing up to 9,000 80cmx60cm boards per hour using a double-lane printing feature.
It prints up to seven colours, including white, at a 360x720dpi, handling materials up to 1.8x3m and thicknesses up to triple-wall board – at full rated speeds, according to EFI. Board substrates include traditional Kemi, model, bleach, and kraft materials. EFI says packaging produced with the press is fully industry certified for repulpability and recyclability.
EFI adds that, when commercially available in 2017, the 30.5m long EFI Nozomi C18000 press, the biggest piece of kit ever released by the company, will offer a lower acquisition cost compared to digital inkjet corrugated presses currently on the market.
The AquaEndure inkjet technology, EFI’s water-based inkjet platform targets customers making applications in areas like wall coverings, wraps, and flexible signage. EFI says AquaEndure inks cure using much less heat, have no odour, and can adhere to virtually any substrate.
The new Fiery XB DFE platform for ultrahigh-speed inkjet presses, specifically the new machines from Canon, EFI, Landa, and Fuji Xerox, offers a scalable DFE platform using Fiery software.
Other EFI innovations and machinery on show at drupa include:
The cloud-based Fiery Navigator, a digital print management platform for Fiery driven digital production presses;
The EFI Corrugated Packaging Suite and the EFI Publication Suite, offering out-of-the-box, certified workflow systems for end-to-end production automation;
Vutek super wide format printers;
Reggiani textile printers;
EFI wide format printers;
Additional inkjet capabilities with digital label, décor, apparel and ceramic decoration printing technologies;
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