The Graphium, which will cost less than £500,000 and be commercially available from October, is to be unveiled next month at Print13 in Chicago and, later in September, Labelexpo in Brussels.

The device would "transform" productivity, profitability and the ability for printers and converters to respond to product and market changes, said managing director Andy Cook. The key, he said, was high-opacity white ink and flexibility.

"Graphium represents a new generation of digital inkjet press aimed at the narrow-web market – low capital investment, high-quality print, unparalleled productivity and the most versatile range of applications.

"Bring all of these factors together and you have a ‘cost-in-use’ that defines Graphium as the most productive, high-opacity digital white press on the market," he added.

The Graphium is targeted at the label, packaging and signage markets, Cook said, and works on virtually all substrates from highly absorbent papers to plastics. It has a maximum print width of 410mm and operates at up to 1,230sqm per hour.

It uses Uvijet Graphium UV-curing inks developed by Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems, with Xaar 1001 printhead technology.

Cook added: "The biggest player in the market is HP with the Indigo, but that’s toner based. This is not trying to take them on, it is offering a broader application in terms of what you can print on, how you can print it and what you can do."

Cook explained that the Graphium was based on similar technology to the Caslon, launched by FFEI in partnership with Nilpeter at Drupa five years ago, and still commercially available. But while the Caslon was an add-on to the Nilpeter FA-Line flexo kit, the Graphium was a standalone machine, he said.