The group said it remained committed to a launch before the end of the year and set a price of around $1m (£640,000), although it said that total cost of ownership was more important than upfront costs.

Ipex 2010 will also be the launch pad for the latest version of its XMF workflow, Version 3.0, which will include support for variable data printing on the Jet Press 720, using PDF/VT and PPML formats.

Although capable of handling variable data work, Fuji is initially positioning the 2,700 sheets per hour press for short-run commercial print work. The elimination of makeready time is claimed to slash paper waste by as much as 50% for work and turn jobs and halves the time taken to complete a 1,000 run of a 32pp brochure when compared to litho.

"The first target is small batch production print," said Fujifilm Graphics UK director Keith Dalton. "In sheetfed, B2 represents 50% of the market and the majority of B2 work is for 500-2,000 sheets. That's the gap between toner and offset that the Jet Press 720 fills."

Fuji first showed the Jet Press 720 at Drupa 2008 as a technology demonstration and said it created unprecedented demand from customers who wanted the machine immediately.

Development has continued and, at the JGAS show in Tokyo last October, the machine printed in public for the first time. Hundreds of Japanese customers' test jobs have been produced by Fuji and controlled sales will begin in Japan this spring just before Ipex, which is being held in Birmingham from 18-25 May.

Although the machine at Ipex will be a simplex B2 four-colour machine, Dalton said: "The technology is capable of duplex, more than four colours and wider formats than B2, but we want to walk before we can run. Who knows what else will come?"