FUJIFILM AIMS FOR 6000SQM AN HOUR

Fujifilm is in a joint development with Spanish corrugated inkjet developer Barberán to bring high quality, single pass inkjet printing to the global sign and display market that it says will print at 6,000sqm an hour.

The two companies are working together to bring a new digital press to market late next year. Fujifilm says a number of major sign and display businesses have already signed agreements to take the first machines.

The deal follows extensive talks over two years, to develop a print solution for what is a growing market. Barberán has established itself as a world leader in high productivity industrial presses for the corrugated market over the last ten years – with 30 customers in North America alone. This new partnership combines Barberán's manufacturing expertise with Fujifilm’s knowledge of inkjet integration, ink chemistry and its extensive experience in the sign and display market.

The new press will print with a bespoke new Fujifilm ink and primer, developed at its multi-award-winning factory in Broadstairs, UK, making it suitable for printing on a range of substrates, including plastic and particleboard.

At 30 metres 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 1.6 metres, at speeds of 6,000 square metres per hour. A number of major sign and display print businesses in North America and Europe are already impressed enough with the technology to sign an agreement to take the first machines when it is available late next year.

Dave Burton, business and commercial director at Fujifilm wide format inkjet HQ, said, “We choose our partners carefully and Barberán is no exception. We’ve been in close talks with them for more than two years because they have a huge amount of expertise in industrial print manufacturing and we saw an opportunity for a mutually beneficial relationship. 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 different requirements of the sign and display market.

“Fujifilm has a huge market presence across the whole graphics sector, from analogue to digital,” Burton continues. “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. We’ve played a key role in that transformation and, with this project, we can take that process a step further – supporting digitisation for some of the highest volume sign and display production businesses in the world. We will be able to provide a path to digital transformation for businesses printing such massive volumes that (for now) offset processes often still make more economic sense.

“That breadth of experience, and our unrivalled expertise in ink development, combined with Barberán’s skill in heavy engineering, also makes us the perfect partnership to provide a business development opportunity for high-end flat sheet sign and display printers.”

Eladio Lerga, technical director of Barberán adds, “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.”