The Japanese offset manufacturer is heading to Düsseldorf under the banner of ‘Komori On Demand’ – showing how both litho and digital technology can meet the needs of today’s impatient industry.
Komori was only prepared to reveal a few details of its inkjet plans, saying customers would have to come to the show to find out the full story.
The two prototype machines – one web-fed and one sheetfed – are being dubbed ‘technology exhibits’.
The 20-inch, four-colour inkjet web hits speeds of 150 metres per minute at resolutions of up to 1,200dpi.
The 29-inch sheetfed press can reach 3,300 sheets per hour (sph), and is expected to go head to head with the two B2 inkjet presses already on the market, the Screen Truepress JetSX and the Fujifilm Jetpress 720, which will have its commercial launch at Drupa 2012.
However, it is believed the Komori sheetfed inkjet press will feed paper short-edge first, allowing it to accommodate a B1 sheet size. If so, this could effectively double the production speed of its rivals, though this was not confirmed.
Komori will also display a number of Konica Minolta Bizhub Pro C8000 toner-based digital presses on its stand, following this week’s news of a global sales deal between the two Japanese firms.
It is unclear what impact this news will have in Australia, where Konica is in a sales partnership with Heidelberg, a relationship unique to our market. ProPrint could not reach the local representation for comment.
As befits an offset manufacturer, Komori’s presentation at this week’s Drupa Media Conference in Düsseldorf included plenty of news on the litho front.
At the trade fair, it will show the Lithrone G40P, an eight-colour perfector that offers speeds of up to 15,000sph on a max sheet size of 720×1,030mm.
Drupa will also mark the entrance of a new packaging press, the Lithrone GX40 Carton.
These machines come with a diverse array of in-line technology options to meet Komori’s promise of ‘offset on-demand’.
Added extras include its KHS-AI ‘integrated management system’, which offers features such as smart sequence, letting users program several jobs at once, smart start-up, which allows the machine to start at 12,000sph, as well as ‘smart feedback functions’.
Another option is A-APC, which stands for Asynchronous Automatic Plate Changing System. Komori product specialist Peter Minis said: “Regardless of the number of units, the plate changing time is fixed to 75 seconds. You can imagine the time it will save on a perfector.”
Joining all of this will be Komori’s first A1-format press, the Lithrone A37. This four-colour, 37-inch machine is “designed to be a pressroom workhorse” and can also be optioned with scanning density control.
Drupa takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany on 3-16 May 2012.
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