Itasca, IL - Xeikon, a division of Punch Graphix, today announced that Strategic Content Imaging, Inc. (SCI) has entered into an agreement to acquire up to three additional Xeikon 8000's. This will take SCI's tally of Xeikon digital color presses to five, as the company already has two Xeikon presses, a Xeikon 8000 and 6000.

"Due to its unparalleled combination of quality and print capacity, the Xeikon 8000 is a perfect fit for our book printing and publishing, direct mail, and commercial print applications," said Burt Scherman, President of SCI. "There is no other technology currently available that offers these unique capabilities. In addition, the inline finishing capabilities of the Xeikon technology for the automated production of book blocks has enabled us to strengthen our value-proposition to our expanding customer base and further enhance our competitive advantage."

The Xeikon 8000 plays in a league of its own. The digital press boasts an astonishing image quality of 1200 dpi at 4 bits per spot and a speed of 244 letter-size pages per minute. It can handle monthly duty cycles of up to 8.5 million pages and substrate weights ranging from 27 lb text to 16-point board stock. Being web-fed, it has unbeatable format flexibility running substrate widths from 12.6 in. to 20.2 in. and unlimited, flexible image length. In addition, it is the only high volume digital color web press that prints on both sides of the substrate in a single pass. The press comes with the latest generation of Xeikon's unique X-800 digital front-end and Productivity Adapted (PA) toner technology. The X-800 digital front-end is intuitive, modular and based on open standards. It enables the implementation of fully automated workflows in any production environment.

"We're thrilled to be a part of SCI's continued success and growth in the book printing and publishing, direct mail and commercial printing markets. They have experienced the unique capabilities of our technology first-hand. Their commitment towards exceeding customer expectations is perfectly matched by our aim of providing tools for the long-term success of the print community," said Michael V. Ring, VP of Sales and Chief Marketing Officer of Xeikon's North American operations. "We look forward to many more years of mutually beneficial partnership with SCI."