Mortsel, Belgium - The latest addition to Agfa's portfolio of wide-format digital ink-jet printers introduces LED curing technology for the first time on a UV-curable 2.5 m flat-bed and roll-fed platform. Agfa Graphics' Anapurna 2500LED incorporates many of the company's established technologies with advanced refinements to make it a high quality, cost effective solution for print service providers, display producers and sign-makers.

The :Anapurna 2500LED uses the latest durable UV-curable inks and has been designed to accommodate the company's latest UPH-2 greyscale print-heads, successfully introduced in the :M-Press Tiger. These heads, together with an automated maintenance system, deliver 764 nozzles each. The eight picolitre output, combined with a maximum output resolution of 1440 dpi, ensure crisp text down to 4 point as well as smooth solid colours and fine photographic detail.

Incorporating LED curing in this advanced system brings reduced running costs and the ability to print on a wider range of materials. The :Anapurna 2500 LED's technology uses low power solid state diodes which need no warm-up time and offer a very long life when compared with mercury arc UV lamps. Because the ultra-violet radiation is more consistent and the diodes generate no infra red, even heat sensitive and traditionally difficult media can now be handled with confidence.

"The incorporation of LED UV-curable technology in the new :Anapurna 2500LED offers greater flexibility on more materials and substantially lower energy costs," said Willy Van Dromme, Business Line Manager for Wide Format Inkjet at Agfa Graphics. "The launch of our 2500LED printer will see the start of a revolution in the wide-format printing sector as users look to reduce their running costs and maintain high quality output on all types of media."

Suitable for sign-makers, POP printers and display producers who want consistent, high quality results with lower running costs and greater versatility, throughput speeds on the :Anapurna LED2500 are up to 54 square m/hour (581 square ft/hour) on both rigid and flexible materials. Users will also benefit from the printer's practical 2.5m width that can print industry standard 2.4 x 1.2m (8 x 4ft) boards across the long edge to reduce printing time.

The machine, which is available now, is shipped as a total solution including workflow, roll to roll system, two rigid tables and a start-up quantity of :Anapurna ink.

Agfa Graphics' :Anapurna 2500LED has recently been successfully introduced into the market and is on display for the first time at FESPA 2010.