The world’s biggest press manufacturer Heidelberg has announced it will be launching its B1 digital inkjet sheetfed press at drupa next year, with folding carton printers the first target market.
The press has been under development in Heidelberg for the past 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.
The drupa launch will be for a folding carton press which will print on one side only using Fujifilm’s water-based Samba inkjet heads. It will print onto standard paper stocks. It will be based on Heidelberg’s Speedmaster platform.
The Heidelberg inkjet press will in all likelihood go head-to-head with Benny Landa’s nano technology, with Landa already announcing it will launch a B1 folding carton sheetfed digital inkjet press 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.
Speaking to Proprint sister magazine Printweek the Heidelberg vice-president of digital printing Jason Oliver said it was imperative that the new inkjet press matched customers’ quality expectations. “Top quality is what people are used to in commercial print. We are industrialising inkjet printing and digital printing to the point where it’s competitive with offset.
“It’s not about inkjet quality that’s ‘good enough’ it has to be good,” he stated. The new press will ship “soon after” Drupa. “This has to work out of the gate,” Oliver added.
Speed is dependent on the number of heads and the print resolution. “There is some scaleability there. It’s 1,200×1,200dpi native but we can tweak it down to increase the speed,” said Oliver. “And inkjet speed is ever-increasing.”
Oliver made the announcement at LabelExpo as the company officially launched its digital label press the DCS 340 which is a hybrid with conventional and inkjet printing, and which is a three way co-operation between Heidelberg, Gallus which it now owns 100 per cent, and Fujifilm. Two have alreasdy been sold with ten more in the pipeline.
Heidelberg is also working on a colour version of its 3D object printer the Jetmaster Dimension, which until now has been monochrome. Heidelberg believes it has a great future printing on everything from soccer balls to aeroplanes.
Back in 2013 Heidleberg’s new CEO Dr Gerold Linzbach allocated one third of Heidelberg’s R+D budget for inkjet printing, a ratio that is only going to increase.
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