The 100m/min 3.2x3.2m Kongsberg C64 was launched at last year's SGIA Expo, while the entry-level V Series had its initial launch in Asia in 2011 and is now being rolled out worldwide.
The C Series, which also includes the 3.2x1.6m Kongsberg C60, features a composite carbon traverse beam instead of aluminium, enabling full production speed on much larger sheets without any loss of accuracy.
In the past, CAD/CAM cutting table manufacturers have had to reduce the running speed to avoid deflection at the centre of the beam when milling or creasing thick substrates at high speed. The switch to an extremely rigid carbon construction overcomes this limitation.
Meanwhile the V Series features two models, the 1,750x1,620mm max sheet size V20 and the 1,750x3,420mm max sheet size V24, and is an entry-level product for the packacing and sign & display markets.
Esko vice president EMEA Armand Gougay said: "Initial market testing in Asia generated strong demand for these new tables. We are now scaling up manufacturing to make these models available through all Esko channels."
The V Series Sign & Display features the same tool set as the packaging version, with the addition of a 1kW routing spindle and an iCut camera for reading the registration marks.
"It's for smaller print shops who have a need to produce signs in the lower scale - maybe not full week production because then you need a more productive Kongsberg table like the XN, the XP or the C - but if you produce 3-5 hours per day you would be better with the V Series," said Knut Johansen, product coordinator for Kongsberg at Esko.
"And its pricing is more favourable than the bigger models. Take a V24 with a router head and a package of tooling for rigid materials like plastic, corrugated, foam board and an oscillating tool and crease tool you're ending up at €75,000."
This is versus around €100,000 on the Kongsberg XN; the smaller V20 would cost around €65,000 with the same tooling package. Maximum cut speed for the V Series is 30m/min and maximum acceleration is 3m/s/s.
Deliveries of the Kongsberg V Series will begin in Europe in June.
Esko will also showcase the i-cut Layout+ nesting and layout preparation module, which has been re-developed as a 64-bit application, as well as its ArtiosCAD, Studio, Automation Engine and Colour Engine software.
Esko's Fespa stand (B2-238) will have a "racing theme" that Gougay said "fits perfectly with our ability to speed up sign and display graphics production - from prepress through finishing".
