MIAMI, Jan. 23 -- Oce, a global leader in digital document management and delivery solutions, is demonstrating the Oce Arizona 60UV hybrid inkjet sign printer in its booth #1971 at the Graphics of the Americas conference in Miami, FL, January 23-25, 2004. The Oce Arizona 60UV is an entry-level printer that uses UV (ultraviolet) curable inks to produce large format display graphics on rigid and flexible substrates. The Oce Arizona 60UV is unique in that it is the first inkjet printer to combine both flatbed and roll-to-roll printing capabilities with UV ink technology at an entry-level price. Other hybrid models in its price range use either aqueous or solvent inks, and other flatbed UV systems are priced several times higher than the Oce Arizona 60UV. The Oce Arizona 60UV uses piezo printing technology and UV-curable inks to produce outdoor-durable graphics. Using the collapsible, rigid-media tables included with the system, an operator can print directly onto rigid substrates up to 60 inches wide by 96 inches long by 3/8 inches thick. Printing directly onto a variety of uncoated rigid substrates such as foam-core style mounting board, PVC sheets, styrene, aluminum-plastic composites and more is easy and profitable with the Oce Arizona 60UV. Roll-based media, such as banner and PSA vinyl, in widths up to 64 inches can also be used. "The Oce Arizona 60UV gives lower-volume shops some of the same capabilities as their bigger competitors," said Joyce Virnich, Vice President of Marketing for the Wide Format Printing Systems division of Oce North America, Inc. "The ability to print onto both rigid and flexible media gives these shops the ability to compete on price and turnaround time. Being able to produce rigid or flexible prints on one piece of equipment enables these shops to grow their businesses with an affordable capital investment." UV curable inks promise several advantages over solvent-based inks. Since UV-curable inks "cure" instead of "dry," nozzle dropout caused by ink drying in the print heads is avoided. This reduces maintenance and increases printer productivity. UV-curable inks image well on a wide range of media, and on certain materials deliver better printing performance than solvent-based systems. In addition, there is no concern regarding fume exhaust. This eliminates the need to install a fume extraction system and enables the Oce Arizona 60UV to be placed in most any working environment. Ideally suited for sign shops, reprographics houses and franchise operations, the Oce Arizona 60UV offers affordable, quality, outdoor durable graphics for a wide range of applications such as point-of-purchase displays, exhibit graphics, backlit signs, banners, real estate signs and more. Intended for operation in light production environments, it is user- installable. The Oce Arizona 60UV uses Oce ColorBlend(TM) six-color printing technology to deliver an apparent resolution of 600dpi. Print speeds are up to 55 square feet per hour in four-pass mode. It uses Oce Arizona 7200UV inks, packaged in 0.5 liter bottles. The Oce Arizona 60UV requires Onyx Workflow Software version 6.0 or later. Availability The Oce Arizona 60UV is currently in customer trials. Production shipments are expected to begin in Q2-2004 in the U.S. Hardware and ink pricing will be announced at a later date. The Oce Arizona 60UV joins the company's popular Arizona family of outdoor-durable printers, which includes the Oce Arizona 90, Oce Arizona 180, Oce Arizona 500, and Oce Arizona 600 roll-based printers and the Oce Arizona T220 and Oce Arizona T220UV flatbed printers.