Agfa Graphics announces that the first :M-Press Tiger is successfully installed at the customer site. At Fespa 2009 in Amsterdam, Agfa Graphics announced major improvements to the imaging system of the :M-Press resulting in higher printing speeds and better output quality. Today the first :M-Press Tiger is operational.

The SMP group in London started with:M-Press back in 2006. "The M-Press has been a very good investment in digital for us," said Mark Turner Director of manufacturing at SMP. "And now the upgrade really pays off. Due to the unique concept we kept the Thieme base line and just replaced the inkjet shuttle to get the latest technology".

"The recent speed increases and quality improvements keep :M-Press Tiger ahead of all other solutions in this segment," explains Tom Cloots, Director Business line :M-Press at Agfa Graphics. "The :M-Press Tiger is three times faster than its predecessor with an unparalleled image quality."

SMP President Bradley Slade says: "When we saw the advantages of the Tiger, we immediately knew we wanted the upgrade for our :M-Press. It is not just the speed of the engine, but also the higher quality printing modes and the ability to select gloss level with absolutely no impact on productivity. For us the :M-Press Tiger offers a clear cost advantage when compared with every other digital solution we looked at. Today we even start to take away a significant amount of workload from our Litho presses and put them on :M-Press Tiger."

THIEME KPX's Managing Director Bill Kippax agrees that it is more than just the speed: "The :M-Press is now capable of printing at up to 1,583 m² an hour (which equals 770 m²/hr on the floor if you include loading and unloading). Moreover, the :M-Press TIGER has a colour gamut better than ISO coated V2. So, the output quality on the :M-Press goes far beyond traditional screen printing - it really is the next generation of screen printing."

Besides the pure replacement of all existing screen print work, screen printers can now develop new applications that were previously impossible.