12 August, 2008 – Inca Digital Printers announces that the Inca Onset, one year after its introduction, has been considered an innovative technology worthy of a PIA/GATF Intertech Technology Award for 2008.

At the end of April 2007, Inca introduced the Onset, a revolutionary large format UV digital flatbed printer. Since then, nine Inca Onset printers have been delivered to companies worldwide. They are all reporting exceptional speed and quality that changes the way they operate their businesses. Handling print sizes up to 10.5x 5 ft (3.2 x 1.5m) at speeds of up to 6 458sq ft /hr (600m2/hr), using new bi-directional modes the automated Inca Onset delivers an exceptional 125+ full bed sheets (or 375 - 3' x 5' (0.90 x 1.5m) posters) an hour. Edge-to-edge printing allows images to be printed to bleed on substrates up to 0.39 inches (10 mm) thick and up to 10 kg at full speed, providing enormous versatility in terms of what can be printed as well as the ability to proof a job on the material on which it will finally be produced. For all its sophistication, the Inca Onset is extremely easy to operate by one operator, with a nominal 20-minute set up time at the start of each day.

The InterTech Technology Awards were inaugurated in 1978 as a way to honor the development of technologies predicted to have a major impact in the graphic arts and related industries. PIA/GATF sponsors the awards as a service to the industry in order to spotlight the wide range of technologies that contribute to the advancement of techniques and processes used in the graphic arts. The InterTech Technology Awards have become a solid indicator of significant trends in graphic arts technology; over 80% of technologies that receive an award experience continued commercial success in the marketplace.

The InterTech judges felt that this year's entries represented some truly innovative and unique technologies that will have an impact on graphic arts and related industries. The judges had the following to say about the Inca Onset, "This will change the large format market in a significant way and has the ability to take away share from other printing applications. The speed is a significant improvement, and there is great market potential with the diverse range of materials it can print on."

In his testimonial letter to the InterTech judges, Scott Crosby, Holland & Crosby Equity Partner, concurred. "The biggest thing we have noticed is the increase in productivity. With the Inca Onset, we get to print even faster, with more predictable and consistent output. As an example, we recently conducted a rerun of an exact job we printed last year. It was completed in 5 hours versus 20 hours last year, representing 4X efficiency (and a saving of 15 hours)."

"The quality of the output is another step forward. Customers are commenting that the full-color digital printing is striking, and are particularly impressed with the quality of the gloss settings. Now, we deliver a gloss finish without the need to put a clear coat using another process. Also, with a 5-foot (1.5m) printhead, posters with large blocks of solid colors are exceptional, without the banding typically found on many inkjet printers," Mr. Crosby continued. "Perhaps the most significant indicator of the impact of the Inca Onset is that before 25% of our work was digital. Now, it is already 70%. We believe that Inca Onset is one of those remarkable products that truly provides a significant leap in the way printers can conduct business."
 
Bill Baxter, MD of Inca Digital remarks, "We are sincerely honored that the PIA/GATF judges have deemed the Inca Onset a 2008 InterTech Technology Award recipient.  When we introduced the Onset a year ago, I commented that we believed the Onset represents the second major advance in inkjet print production since the first initial introduction of the flatbed press in 2000 and has been engineered from the ground up to achieve new levels of performance. Its design drew on our vast experience of jetting inks and includes some of the core technologies we have developed to produce other Inca presses that already lead the wide format display market in speed and output. Reports from installations throughout the world support our optimism."