The new press was unveiled at a launch event in Sydney last night. David Procter (pictured), national manager of production printing at Konica Minolta Australia, told the audience that the press was the result of “five years of learning” in the light production space.

“We’re taking a step into the mid production market with the C8000,” he said.

“In the next 12 months we are looking to gain a fifty per cent market share in the mid range production market with the bizhub PRESS C8000. It’s an ambitious target, but based on the demand that we’ve seen already certainly achievable. We’ve had several signed orders pre-release and are expecting the first few months to be particularly strong.”

Click here to see pictures from the launch event.

Procter and Hiro Kaji, managing director of Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia, also pointed to the addition of a humidifier as a key difference for the digital press. The humidifier is intended to allow better handling of paper and reduce curling.

The company said in April that the press would be “targeted at traditional offset printers moving to digital”. A C6000 and C7000 model will be launched later this year.

The C8000 outputs at a resolution of up to 1200dpi, and uses a new Simitri toner and 8-beam laser unit which the vendor claims produces quality comparable to offset printing.

The press handles stock up to 350gsm, and reaches a maximum speed of 80 pages per minute for double sided-work, or 92ppm for single-side.

The C8000 first made a public appearance at May’s Ipex exhibition in the UK.

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