Lier, 7 April 2003 – Xeikon International, the world’s leading supplier of digital color production systems, today announced that it introduces the Q-Pack Upgrade to increase image quality and stability on its full range of web-fed digital colour presses. The Q-pack aims to raise the bar on image quality and consistency, abandoning printing artefacts considered typical for digital colour printing such as banding and ghosting effects. Installing the Q-pack not only improves the overall image quality on a Xeikon press, but also increases stability of the image quality during print runs. The Q-pack includes a newly developed, highly accurate encoder and tuning system for the imaging stations. The encoder detects and immediately corrects web speed deviations. This results in a more precise and smooth toner transfer from the imaging system to the substrate eliminating banding, which is especially critical when printing smooth surfaces containing intermediate tones. The Q-pack further includes process fine-tuning algorithm software to optimise the operation of the speed of the imaging stations. These modifications make it easier for the operator to maintain optimal image quality, by reducing shadowing effects that appear in some designs. Frank Deschuytere, Vice President Research and Development of Xeikon International says: “Xeikon focuses on extending the competitive advantages in print quality, productivity and cost per page which the Xeikon installed base today has versus competitive systems. Introducing the Q-pack today is yet another step in improving these advantages and in making the gap with competition wider.” Since the start of Xeikon International about a year ago, the company has been focusing on supporting the existing customer base. The first product initiative introduced a few months ago was the Xeikon OmniVac air treatment module, which reduces maintenance time and improves lifetime of critical spare parts. The Q-pack is a further step in this program, and Xeikon plans to introduce further improvements to the installed base.