Fujifilm and corrugated press specialist Barberán have announced the joint development of a single-pass inkjet for sign and display applications to launch in late 2023.
Following extensive and successful talks over two years, Fujifilm has agreed terms for a joint development with Spanish industrial print manufacturer Barberán, to bring a high-speed, single pass inkjet press to the sign and display market.
The new press will print with new Fujifilm ink and primer, developed at its factory in Broadstairs, UK, making it suitable for printing on a range of substrates, including plastic and particleboard. At 30m in length and with a built-in print engine, the machine will be able to print on all typical sign and display substrates, up to a width of 1.6m and at up to 6000sqm/hr. A number of sign and display businesses have reportedly already signed agreements to take the first machines.
David Burton, business and commercial director at Fujifilm, said, ‘We choose our partners carefully and Barberán is no exception. They already have a single-pass product that is proven in the corrugated sector, and we have the expertise to help them adapt it for the very different requirements of the sign and display market.
‘Fujifilm has a huge market presence across the whole graphics sector, from analogue to digital. It’s a market presence that spans commercial print and packaging, as well as sign and display which, of all the graphics sectors, has digitised most rapidly in the last two decades.’
Eladio Lerga, technical director of Barberán, added, ‘We’re really excited to be bringing our technology to a whole new market. Fujifilm’s breadth of experience in print for sign and display will be crucial to this – as well as its expertise in inkjet ink chemistry and inkjet systems. Working together we can maintain our print speeds and quality, and adapt our systems to accommodate a much wider range of substrates and to meet the very different market requirements of this sector.’
