Black-and-white offered better reliability at very high speeds, and was more cost effective, according to general manager David Dobson. We will not bring technology to the market until it meets customers requirements.

IBMs investment in ink-jet printing developer Aprion could give it a route to market in high-volume digital colour.

Our business model is to work with OEMs who make engines and we handle service and workflow, said Robert Cooper, IBMs business line manager for production continuous forms solutions. He added: The key will be future technologies that can run faster at lower cost.

IBM used Xplor to introduce two additions to its black-and-white Infoprint 4100 range. The simplex 1,119-impressions-per-minute 4100 HS2 printer and the duplex 2,238-impressions-per-minute 4100 HD3/HD4.