In a major announcement for drupa Fujifilm Japan has announced a breakthrough technology digital sheet fed inkjet printing press aimed at the commercial printing market. This press that is currently called the JetPress 720 images at 1,200 dpi with 4 gray levels on a sheet up to 720 x 520 mm (28.35 x 20.47 ins) in size. This is twice the size of any other sheetfed digital color press allowing up to four A4 pages in one pass in four colours. Fujifilm claim that the 1,200 dpi with 4 gray levels will give offet quality of printing. This is a higher resolution than all the new inkjet continuous feed presses being launched at drupa. The speed of the press is stated to be 2,700 B2 format sheets per hour. This works out at 180 A4 sheets/minute. The new inkjet printhead technology was developed by FUJIFILM Dimatix (FDMX) a leading company for industrial inkjet printheads, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujifilm. The wide printhead with a print width of 720mm was newly developed incorporating high density, long-life piezoelectric element arrays with high precision and can print high resolution images using single-pass inkjet technology at the high speed of approx. 180 sheets (A4 size equivalent) per minute.
Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd has developed the Jet Press 720 (temporary name), an inkjet digital printing system, which is a superior printing device that achieves high productivity, by incorporating this technology. Fujifilm will globally market the Jet Press 720, a revolutionary digital printing system realizing high-speed, large size printing at high resolution, to be supplied by Fuji Xerox. Fujifilm’s advanced chemical technology was leveraged to develop water-based inks which enable bleed-free, high quality images to be produced on a variety of coated printing papers by anti-curling and rapid coagulation ink technology. Compatible with a wide variety of coated printing papers it significantly improves the problems of conventional water-based inkjet printing systems, such as bleeding and deformation of the paper, for paper that is not specifically designed for inkjet printing. It also allows high quality printing on various coated printing papers without curling or wrinkling. High jetting stability is achieved utilising FDMX’s unique anti-ink clogging technology in the printhead nozzle. Furthermore, superior durability is realized by using MEMS technology that is employed in all major parts of the printhead.
The new printer is a very interesting new product that appears to fill a wide gap in the digital printing market. No other supplier makes a press that fits this popular offset print format. In terms of speed it is relatively slow compared with a B2 offset press. In digital printing terms it will in A4 page terms be the fastest digital sheet fed press in the market at 180 A4 sheets/min. The fastest press currently is the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press at 120 pages/min but this is only a B3 format press. The quality of the press will be very interesting to see. At 1,200 dpi with four gray levels it should be equivalent to the new Xeikon 8000, and if it is that good it will certainly satisfy the offset markets.
One very interesting question concerns how this product will go to market. It appears to have been jointly developed by Fujifilm and Fuji Xerox and is stated will be sold by Fujifilm. In many areas of the world Fujifilm sells Xerox products and in the UK Fujifilm have just announced it will be selling the Xerox iGen3 press. Will this new press also be sold through Xerox channels to complement the iGen and other Xerox and Fuji Xerox presses? Fujifilm has been developing its inkjet business over the past few years with acquisitions of companies like Sericol and Dimatix, but this is the first printing product to come from the company. Up to now it has sold a range of large and super-wide format products mainly through its Sericol subsidiary into the display, point of sale and signage markets.
There is no doubt this has to be one of the hottest new products to see at drupa.
Discussion
By Pat Berger on May 26, 2008
This looks like it could be a major advance in digital production.
Cost for consumables?
Cost for maintenance?
Ability to recycle paper after it has been printed with this type of inkjet?
It is extremely difficult to recycle paper after it has been inkjet printed.
The following links have a lot of information.
http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/CA6560226.html
http://www.ingede.com/
http://www.ingede.com/digital/digideink.html
There was a press release on injet and deinking.
Here is the link.
http://www.ingede.com/ingindxe/press/pr0801.html
http://www.ingede.com/ingindxe/press/pr0801.html
Thank you
Pat Berger
By Nicolas Goosen on May 27, 2008
Is this capable of variable data printing? and will its cost for static short-run work have it competing into higher quantities against offset than the other major digital presses?
Thanks,
Nicolas Goosen
By swarnangka on May 27, 2008
You said to have seen the future in one of your posts after seeing Kodak's Stream Concept Press. It was CIJ at 500 fpm producing offset class quality. HPs edgeline is also trying to creep upto that quality level. And now theres fuji.I would love to see a comparitive study on these presses after this inkjet Drupa from you.
Regards
By John Roberds on May 27, 2008
Andrew Tribute wrote commenting on the new Fujifilm Jet Press 720:
"At 1,200 dpi with four gray levels it should be equivalent to the new Xeikon 8000, and if it is that good it will certainly satisfy the offset markets."
I wonder if that will be the case. I operate Xeikons that have 600 dpi LED arrays and also a Gandi flatbed with 1080 dpi inkjet heads. There is no question the Xeikon prints with finer resolution than the Gandi; image sharpness, small type, etc. And I have seen output samples from the Xeikon 8000 and even our 2400 dpi Epson proofer isn't as crisp as the 8000.
I don't know the technical reason but I wouldn't assume that one can simply compare the "dpi" specs and draw the conclusion that two machines are equivalent because their specs are the same. There seems to be more to it.
By Andrew tribute on May 27, 2008
I'm looking forward to assessing all these products. They are aimed at somewhat different markets. The Fujifilm press is really an extension of the current sheet fed digital presses such as the Xerox iGen3 but in a larger format with higher productivity. There is still much to find out about it and I see it for the first time on May 28. The STREAM Concept Press is what it says a concept and I really don't expect to see a finished version until 2011 and then I expect it will only be 20 inch width with 30 inch coming around two years later. The HP is a real deliverable high perfromance press of lower quality initially but I expect it to be available in higher quality by the time the STREAM press comes to market.I will be writing about them all in the next couple of weeks so keep reading.
By Jurgen Devlieghere on May 30, 2008
“At 1,200 dpi with four gray levels it should be equivalent to the new Xeikon 8000, and if it is that good it will certainly satisfy the offset markets.”
John, the reason of different quality is simple: The Xeikon 8000 is indeed also 1200 dpi, but 4-bit, which is much deeper than 4 levels. The 4 levels (no print, small dot , medium dot, large dot) is only 2-bit.
It's indeed a shame that vendors are deliberately fuzzy about this, and even boldly state 900 dpi where it's actually 2-bit 600 dpi. Although I must say that it's getting better. If you read 'perceived' or 'equivalent' resolution you know it's referring to a 1-bit equivalent.
Note that also the Xeikon 6000 will ship with the 1200 dpi from now on (Drupa). For the 5000plus it's an option.
Discussion
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