Canon has unveiled the VarioPrint iX series, a sheetfed inkjet press offering 320 A4 images per minute on stocks from 90 to 350gsm, suitable for the ‘full spectrum’ of commercial print applications.
Designed for customers with production volumes between 1 and 10 million A4 images per month, Canon claims the new press ‘combines the image quality and media range of offset or liquid toner systems with the productivity and cost efficiency of inkjet’, with envisaged applications ranging from marketing collateral and premium direct mail to catalogues, magazines and books’. The VarioPrint iX will offers productivity of over 9000 SRA3 images per hour, or 320 A4 images per minute, on a range of media, including offset coated paper.
The new press builds on the VarioPrint i-series platform introduced in 2015, which has now notched up more than 250 installations worldwide. Its features include a new proprietary polymer pigment water-based ink, used in conjunction with Canon’s ColorGrip primer that is used only in inked areas, and a drying system that combines air and heat with humidification to protect the paper, yielding pages that are flat and immediately ready for immediate finishing. The company’s iQuarius technologies for image quality comprise true 1200dpi processing married to 1200dpi printheads co-developed with Kyocera, and nozzle control via an inline scanner that automatically checks and aligns single nozzles during production to avoid streaks, while also compensating for blocked or failed nozzles.
‘The appeal of inkjet is its excellent productivity in the face of ever-tighter deadlines and higher volumes of short-run jobs needing quick changeovers,’ explained Peter Wolff, vice president, production printing products at Canon Europe. ‘With the VarioPrint iX series, there’s no longer a need to compromise between quality and media range, or between productivity and cost efficiency.
‘Commercial printers can now say yes to virtually any order, with confidence that print quality is flawless, media options are vast, and quick turnarounds are no problem. And all of this is achievable with the VarioPrint iX series. Customers wanting to offer the broadest portfolio of high-quality applications now have a sheetfed inkjet press that helps them to grow their volumes, as well as manage smaller, more diverse jobs flexibly and profitably.’
