Aprion Digital has signed up the first beta user for the 200m2-per-hour, six-colour roll-to-roll press it launched at Drupa.


The press went into a US firm, which Aprion declined to name, last December.


Israel-based Aprion, an offshoot of Scitex, will put a sheet-to-sheet version of the press into a German site next week.


The news came as Aprion moved to purpose-built premises in Israel to meet increasing demand.


The 6,000m2 building has 2,000m2 devoted to an assembly and manufacturing line, with another 500m2 assigned to clean rooms, which the firm said were essential for producing its patented MAGIC (Multiple Array Graphic Inkjet Color) drop-on-demand piezo inkjet heads.


Aprion marcom manager Joelle Inowlocki said customers in the US and Europe, including the UK, had already placed orders for final products, despite beta testing being incomplete. "Its a very good sign for us," she added.


Aprion said it had an order backlog of 7m ($10m) for its products. The roll-to-roll press has been designed for the wallcovering market, while the sheet-to-sheet version will handle corrugated board.


Inowlocki said the firm was still on track to become a 70m business within the next two years. "If everything goes to plan, were satisfied well certainly be there," she added.


President and chief executive Miki Nagler said the speed and quality gains made by ink-jet "can be likened over the past few years to those experienced by the silicon chip industry".


He said the next stage of the firms development would be "mass production of ink-jet presses".


Story by Gordon Carson