The new Colorado 1630 joins the original 1640 and the flagship 2019-launched 1650 in the Colorado portfolio of four-colour LED UV printers.

While the new 1,800dpi machine is around a third slower than its siblings, it features the same frame and lists in a base model configuration at €36,000 (£31,000). It is preloaded with many of the flagship 1650’s features, all of which can be activated remotely “for a small mark-up” as users’ businesses grow, by Canon or its resellers without needing an engineer visit.

“What this means is that a customer can decide at the time they want to enable one [or more] of the three options available… even at the weekend, this is what we believe is the future of modular design and modular products,” said Wouter Derichs, sales and marketing director, Large Format Graphics, EMEA, Canon Production Printing.

Unlockable, pre-installed features on the new machine include the 1650’s FLXfinish, which enables gloss or matt finishing using the same inks and substrates, multi-roll functionality and double-sided printing via its “print-side-in function”.

During a press briefing last week, the Canon large-format team highlighted some of the target applications of the Colorado 1630 under the “never say no again” mantra. These included: indoor/outdoor banners, pop-ups, floor graphics, labels, shelf wobblers, self-adhesive liners, laminated litho, menus and tablecloths, soft signage, wallpaper (especially via Wallpaper Factory offering), backlits, blue-/white-backs, posters, window graphics and T-shirt transfers.

The 1630 has a maximum speed of 111sqm/hr, compared to the 159sqm/hr of its siblings, which in production mode translates as 39sqm/hr and 22sqm/hr for gloss and matt respectively.

As well as different chassis covers to the 1640 and 1650, it runs different printheads, UVgel 425s, and smaller ink bottles, 750ml compared to 1ltr. However, it uses the same top-of-the-range UVgel 460 stretchable inkset as the 1650, which Canon said offers 40% lower ink consumption than rival technologies.

The new 1630 is available for order now and has been beta tested by three Dutch users spanning a wide range of applications including signmaking and display graphics.

Michele Tuscano, head of global partner channel & vice president EMEA - Large Format Graphics at Canon Production Printing, said that since launching the Colorado series in 2017, more than 2,000 have been installed worldwide, half of which have been installed in the past 18 months.

“Enabling our customers and partners to expand their application possibilities and grow their business is an essential driver for us.

“That’s why we’re introducing this new addition of the 1630 to the Colorado printer family, so customers can benefit from a highly automated, robust and stable printer with a modular architecture that offers a great deal of flexibility at an attractive investment level.”

Separately, during the 1630 pre-launch briefing, Canon also showed a teaser video of a new entry-level Arizona flatbed printer which is set to be launched in early summer.