Fuji Graphic Systems has appointed Stephen Webb as successor to divisional director Gordon McFarlane.

Webb (pictured, left, with McFarlane), who joined the firm on Monday (14 January), was previously senior vice president of Dentrite International, which develops internet-based sales and marketing tools for the drugs industry.

"We were looking for someone aware of digital technology and the internet," said McFarlane.

McFarlane, who has been looking for a successor since 1999, will retire at the end of March, although he will stay on full-time for Ipex and then work on a consultative basis.

"Its such a major commitment it would be unfair to leave him on his own," said McFarlane, who describes his retirement plan as "play golf, play golf and play golf".

Fuji will introduce its first violet and no-process CTP products at Ipex on its stand, which at 1,500m2 will be the largest pre-press exhibit.

With a speed of 32 B1 plates per hour at 2,400dpi its violet diode platesetter, the Luxel V-9600CTP, is the fastest platesetter yet. It uses a 30mW diode to expose Brillia LP-NV photopolymer violet plates, which will ship in May.

The Luxel will be available in manual, semi-automatic and fully-automatic versions with one or two lasers. Fuji is promising further violet news at the show.

"Smaller formats and entry-level B1 products priced under 125,000 (E200,000) are an important future market," said Fujifilm Electronic Imaging (FFEI) business manager output systems Linda Beale.

Celebrant Extreme workflow version 5.2 features a JDF interrogator to take instructions from the job ticket. The firm will introduce a total of five new plates, including LD-NS, a negative-working thermal no-process plate.

Story by Barney Cox