Las Vegas, USA – Addressing market requests for even higher quality and faster throughput, Agfa has announced that it has incorporated new greyscale technology and faster production modes in the latest revisions to its market leading :M-Press Tiger digital press. This latest upgrade means the :M-Press Tiger can now output up to 13,640 sqft/h (1267 sqm/hour) with even higher image quality, making it the fastest engine worldwide in a class of its own.

The addition of Agfa's latest UPH 2 (Universal Print Head) greyscale technology enables the :M-Press Tiger to print with variable drop sizes as small as 10 pico litres to allow :M-Press customers to deliver high quality POP printing for fashion, retail and cosmetics with even sharper images and finer detail. The drop size will no longer only depend on printing resolution but also on colour and image content. Results across all production modes now boast smoother highlights and mid-tones, with no noise or grain, and crisp text even at the smallest sizes, enhancing the versatility and flexibility of the machine for all applications.

The addition of true greyscale technology also means that fewer passes are required to achieve the required quality, significantly increasing the effective printing speed of the :M-Press Tiger. The incorporation of the revised print-heads has enabled an extra mode to augment the machine's productivity, with a new fine art capability joining the existing choices of photo(graphic), high quality and express print modes to allow users to compete with offset poster printers.

Even at the highest speeds, graduated tints and solid colours both benefit from additional depth and vibrancy coming from the greyscale print-heads, offering smooth results with no banding. The Agfa :M-Press Tiger brings to the display industry a truly versatile production press which offers consistent and reliable high-speed ink-jet printing with the unique ability for screen-printing to be incorporated in-line to add spot and special colours, metalics or clear varnish.

The Agfa :M-Press Tiger is the only wide-format production solution to offer the flexible benefits required by print companies who want the versatility of ink-jet combined with the low throughput costs and special effects only available with the screen-printing process. Its ability to produce the highest quality on flexible and rigid materials up to 10 mm thick makes this the most highly productive system available, making it ideal for all types of applications, including general displays, retail advertising, exhibition and event graphics, point-of-sale and all jobs where throughput speed and high quality are both essential prerequisites.

"The :M-Press Tiger has been designed and constructed as a true replacement for traditional graphics screen printing," states Richard Barham, Vice President for Inkjet Systems at Agfa Graphics. "With these latest changes we bring even higher quality and faster throughput to the Tiger and build on its unique field upgradeability, so our existing customers can stay competitive without having to change their system."