The three printers, the Anapurna H2500i, the Anapurna H2050i and Anapurna RTR3200i, all come with air-cooled LED UV-curing as standard, enabling them to save energy and reduce operational expenses, according to Agfa.

Anapurna product manager Philip Van Derauwera said: “We are very happy with the result, and that we did not compromise on image focus. To ensure that we meet our quality standards we have enhanced the printers, not only from the LED lamps but also ensuring that ink works well and adhesion of the inks works well. The parameters are good so I am happy about it.” 

Van Derauwera said that Agfa has known of this technology since 2004 but it was in the past year that it decided the technology was at a standard where it was happy to go ahead. “You want to do this all in one go. If your move is only partial, you won’t have an impact,” he said.

The names of the printers indicate each individual width size, the 2500i is 2.5m, the 2050i is 2.05m and the 3200i is 3.2m with roll-to-roll. Each printer uses six Konica Minolta print heads and prints in six colours - cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light magenta and white. Printing speed is up to 127sqm/hr. 

The 2500i comes with optional automatic-board feeder. The 3200i has dual-roll printing, which according to Agfa enables the doubling of productivity when printing on smaller media, such as paper, vinyl or polyester. Agfa will take orders for the new printers at Drupa but pricing is yet to be revealed.

Van Derauwera is particularly excited by the air-cooled 16 watt/sqcm bulbs in each printer. He said they will save time and energy and reduce the need to change bulbs.

He added: “Mercury lamps always tend to generate more heat. For us the game-changer is the LED technology, which is giving our printers notable advantage. For our customers who can choose between a mercury bulb or LED curing, my assumption is many people will be choosing LED.”

“Needless to say, there is no need to change your bulbs anymore so the uptime for the customer goes up. The goal is that the bulbs will survive the lifetime of the printer.” 

Van Derauwera highlighted that customers will no longer have to pay for new bulbs or dispose of the old ones, and that energy bills will go down.

The printers join Agfa’s new Advantage N platesetters, launched last week, which focus on CTP technology for newspaper web-offset printing.