Making the announcement at Canon’s annual Commercial Printing Business Day at its Customer Experience Centre (CEC) in Poing, Munich, Canon executive vice president of commercial printing Christian Unterberger said: “We are delighted to have now installed 1,000 continuous-feed inkjet units worldwide so far.
“This is the sixth year in a row we are the number one in continuous-feed printing globally. When you talk about products, it is realistically the ColorStream that is leading the market, and the 6000 is really the product that is going to continue to do this. What we really want to achieve is to show we can unfold communication power in terms of print.”
The Drupa-launched Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma, along with a new range of Chromera inks, sold well at the show, he said. Canon boasted strong sales at the event in June, reaching its show sales target for the 100ppm imagePRESS C10000VP after just three days. It also launched its 2200 series of Arizona flatbeds at the exhibition.
Speaking exclusively to PrintWeek at the annual event in Poing this week, Canon vice president of strategy and alliances Crit Driessen said that two customers in the US had put in orders for “multiple machines”, which will start shipping in the early part of 2017.
He also announced that any Canon customers with ColorStream 3000 models will be able to upgrade to the 6000 once it starts shipping.
Driessen said: “There is a very high interest, we cannot go to market quickly enough. What is very important for all our customers is investment protection. As a commercial printer, you don’t want to invest in a machine that is obsolete three years later, so it is very important that our ColorStream 3000 customers can upgrade their platform to all the features of the 6000.
“The 6000 is a new platform and with production becoming more mature year after year, print quality and media flexibility requirements increase, and the new Chromera ink takes a very important step in increasing colour gamuts on multiple media."
On the 1,000-milestone announcement, Driessen said: “We have the most continuous-feed production inkjet units installed compared to the competition and are twice the size of the nearest competitor.
“What’s very important next to the units is the amount of pages you print on the devices. Since we entered this business in 2008, customers have now printed 200bn A4 equivalent pages on our continuous-feed devices.”
Elsewhere on the day, Germany-based communications consultant CE21 Communications chief executive Thomas Kohler discussed communication in the digital world.
"Print still has a quality that can and should be the baseline for new products. It is here to stay,” said Kohler.
There were also various demonstrations throughout the day on Canon products, including in finishing and workflow, as well as a demonstration of the 6000.
Last week, Canon released details of its new UVgel print technology, set to be unveiled next spring.
Canon's CEC, Océ's headquarters before the company was acquired by Canon, is a factory as well as a showroom. A number of UK customers, including Harpenden, Hertfordshire-based Signature Gifts and Alton, Hampshire-based Top Print, were present at the event.
