Seri Expo, Paris, France – 11 February 2004 – Agfa and Thieme announced today that they are working together to develop a flatbed digital press for screen printing applications. The new system will offer quality and speed advantages unavailable on the market today. The flatbed press is to use next-generation inkjet technology. The two companies have agreed to combine their strengths, expertise and proprietary technology to develop and market this new system jointly. “We are confident that Agfa’s overall imaging and inkjet expertise, as well as our solutions approach to prepress, are an ideal complement to Thieme’s market and technology leadership on the screen printing market,” said Agfa’s vice-president of Imaging Solutions, Jan Van Daele. “The new system will resolve the quality and productivity issues that to date are inherent to inkjet presses for screen printing applications.” “The screen printing market is evolving at a rapid pace but imaging technology to date has failed to offer real-life solutions that will generate additional revenue streams for screen printers,” said Konrad Vosteen, Thieme’s product manager for Digital Printing Systems. “Our agreement with Agfa holds great promise for the screen printing industry.” The companies plan to first show this new technology at Fespa 2005 in Munich, Germany. Agfa reached an agreement with Barco last month to acquire dotrix NV, a Belgian based company which develops, manufactures and sells digital colour printing solutions for industrial applications. Both this acquisition and the co-operation with Thieme are demonstrations of Agfa’s commitment to the printing industry, especially with high-end inkjet systems. These add to Agfa’s own strong market position on the digital colour proofing and large-format digital printing markets with its :Sherpa systems.