Visitors to London know the problem with catching one of the red buses. You can wait for a very long time with no buses arriving and then three come all at once. This is the situation with B2 format digital presses. Ever since Indigo showed the basis of such a product many years ago (admittedly with no imaging engine so it never worked), the world has waited for a B2 format sheet fed digital press. Finally at the drupa both Fujifilm and Dainippon Screen showed prototypes that work of such a product with both promising delivery in 2009.

They are not alone in this new territory of digital printing. Elsewhere at drupa there is another such press but this one is quite different. It is also shipping today. This comes from the Far East and is the QPress from Jadason Enterprises from Hong Kong, China. It is a very interesting product. This a electrophotographic (xerography) press that prints in five colors on one side of the sheet. The print engine has a maximum image area of 515 x 724 mm (20.2 x 28.5 inches) and prints on both coated and uncoated substrates from 64 - 350 gsm. The imaging resolution is 1,200 dpi. Print speed for a B2 sheet is 20 pages/min and this is stated to give a speed of 100 A4 pages in a 5-up imposition. (Probably best to say 80 ppm A4 in a four -up imposition). The printer can be driven by an Compose Systems (also from Hong Kong) digital front end (Harlequin RIP) and a Compose digital workflow.

I was given a price indication of $350,000 and a click charge per sheet of $0.12 including full service. I thought the quality looked good. The product can print the second side in a second pass without affecting the fusing of the first side of the sheet. My comments that I made about the Fujifilm and Screen products about possible lack of productivity by not having automatic duplexing and not connecting to inline finishing also apply to this press, however the price is far lower than the price indicated for the Fujifilm press so it is more attractive as a business proposition at this time. Little is known about plans to sell the product curently.