"Durst never launches products that won't come to the market, or get cancelled after they're launched," said Piock. "We don't talk about revolution, but evolution and we have the widest range in the medium to high end of the market with the highest productivity and quality."

The new machines were the Rho 500R, a 5m-wide UV roll-to-roll machine; and two new flatbeds the Rho 1000 and the Rho 800 HS.

The machines utilise a third generation of Durst's Quadro Array printhead technology, which sales and marketing director Michael Lackner claimed offered: "no-compromise of speed and quality offering retail quality POP at billboard throughput."

The 600dpi Rho 500R produces up to 400sqm per hour and can print on up to three 1.6m wide rolls, each with a separate print queue. It also supports automatic double-sided printing to register marks. It costs €400,000 (£352,000).

The Rho 1000 is a 600sqm per hour machine, which is also capable of 300sqm at POP quality. Lackner described it as "a continuous production system designed to fit into your existing manufacturing process."

The €1.2m machine will ship in September.

Lackner said that the Rho 800 HS, which is a development of the firm's Presto machine with an 80% speed improvement, was the only continuous board printer.

"Loading time represents only 1% of production time, whereas table systems can only achieve 40% efficiency due to loading and unloading issues."

It produces up to 72 2.5x1.2m boards per hour (225sqm per hour) and costs €500,000.