Epson says it is bringing a new dimension to inkjet printing technology with its PrecisionCore print heads, claiming they will combine the quality of inkjet with the speed of laser for every application.
The company has so far launched a range of home, office and small business commercial models to see how the market responds, but will bring out larger commercial printers late this year, starting with the SurePress L-6034VW 340mm wide digital label press
The new label press, which was shown at Labelexpo last year, can print at 15m a minute – three times faster than the previous model.
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Epson Australia business manager Craig Heckenberg says the printers suitable for small printing businesses released in this launch can print short runs of brochures, flyers and documents.
He says PrecisionCore is fully scalable and all future Epson printers will use it, maintaining Epson’s high quality but with dramatically faster speeds comparable to laser printer, and with less setup time, 50 per cent lower printing costs and 70 per cent lower energy costs than laser.
“Anyone looking at buying a digital print device should take a good look at it. There’s no warm-up time and it delivers higher productivity without any drop in quality,” Heckenberg says.
“We have already seen movement from laser to inkjet in the home and office markets and I would like to think commercial printing will follow that pattern.
“It allows laser customers to increase speed and save money, and what business would not want that?”
Heckenberg says Epson is aggressively targeting the laser market to grow its business opportunities and extend its market share and apply the technology to new applications.
“The characteristics of PrecisionCore allow us to play a part in different markets we did not have as much of a presence in,” he says.
“The development cost us $500m and is the next big leap in our inkjet technology.”
Along with the newly-launched smaller printers, Epson is releasing the F2000 garment printer that can print customised designs onto t-shirts in minutes.
Heckenberg says: “That could be a whole business model for a small print company.”
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