Canon has added to its long-established Arizona line of flatbed wide-format printers with the introduction of the Arizona 135 GT, a 1.25 x 2.5m LED UV-curing unit that can also be upgraded to provide roll-to-roll printing, covering most rigid and flexible substrates, from an entry level price of around €69,000.
Designed to be sold both direct by Canon and via the reseller channel, the new machines is claimed to be economically viable from 2000sqm per year but able to cope with peak production of a hundred square metres in a single shift. Maximum productivity is 34.2sqm/hr.
The base model just offers flatbed capability, able to handle a wide range of substrates up to 51mm thick and weighing 50kg/sqm. It has a vacuum system that is said to be able to flatten ‘even warped rigid media’. The field-upgradeable 50kg roll media option allows print across a 2.2m width, at a price of around €85,000.
The CMYK plus a ‘best-ever maintenance-friendly’ white ink set is the same for all materials, and can print on glass composites, acrylic, wood, metal, the usual display board substrates, corrugated board, magnetic films, various synthetic roll and rigid media. Applications from conventional sign and display to retail, PoS/PoP, OOH day/night advertising and functional items like membrane switches are all supported. The inks are Greenguard Gold-certified, allowing production of materials for use in schools, hospitals and food environments.
The printer ships with Canon Xpert prepress software, which allows for double-sided printing, nesting, step-and-repeat and job batching by media and print setting. Via extensions for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, it also allows 3D previewing for artwork designers, and comes with a set of product ‘recipes’ that may be shared between printers and their clients, helping to generate new opportunities.
The Arizona 135GT is said to be built for low total cost of ownership and to use as much as 50% less ink than other vendors’ 5-channel fixed droplet size alternatives, though the Canon unit does employ variable size droplets, from 6 to 30pl, which, coupled with an ‘apparent’ resolution of 1440dpi, aids image quality An average usage of 8ml/sqm including maintenance was quoted.
Michele Tuscano, head of global partner channel and vice-president EMEA – large format graphics at Canon Production Printing, commented, ‘As a family of flatbed printers, the Arizona has become renowned for its image quality, productivity, reliability and application versatility, achieving multiple awards and resulting in over 7500 installations worldwide. In bringing the Arizona 135 GT to market, predominantly through our partner channel, we’re looking to offer sign makers, print service providers and offset and screen printers, among others, either starting out in the large format graphics industry or those that want to diversify into new applications the ideal flatbed platform for printing multiple applications on both rigid and flexible media. As the latest member of the fifth generation of Arizona printers, the Arizona 135 GT offers users the same core technology and benefits of its mid-volume siblings at an attractive investment level and we’re confident that it will again prove to be as popular as its predecessors with customers.’
