Premiered at a run of 'innovation days' at the manufacturer’s Swiss headquarters on 26-28 June, the new four-colour, 220mm-wide machine is angled at commercial printers and other companies looking to get into digital label printing. It is a full production system, taking jobs all the way from PDF file to finished label.

Heidelberg-owned Gallus expects to begin delivering Smartfires to customers from September this year, at an initial price of €149,000 (£132,000).

Head of digital solutions Michael Ring said: “The Smartfire is a very cost-effective way for companies to address the ultra-short-run marketplace and make their entrance into digital label printing. We see it competing with machines from Trojan, though they do not offer inline conversion, and Mark Andy, whose offer is more expensive.

“It gives you the capability to fulfil many short-run, fast-turnaround jobs you may not have been able to fulfil adequately before.

“For example, for a special event a pub might want to order a short run of 100 or 200 commemorative beer labels. With the Smartfire, this could be turned around in no time.”

The Smartfire prints and finishes labels at a speed of 9m/min with a resolution of 1,600dpi using Gallus’ favoured Memjet printheads. An integrated finishing unit die-cuts and laminates labels after printing.

Potential customers would include commercial printers new to digital and looking to add labels to their remit, as well as the brands themselves looking to bring short-run label printing in-house and label converters looking to address the short-run market.

According to Ring, the demand within the market has been “enthusiastic” and the first UK customers may be announced shortly. In the UK, the machines will be available through Heidelberg.