"In order to focus on other non-flatbed ink-jet products we decided to form a dedicated division and have assigned some highly technical employees," said director of marketing Heather Kendle.

"The division will be responsible for strategic development work in the non-flatbed area and we believe there will be some major launches from this division over the coming years."

The first fruit of the new arm, headed up by Jindra Vosahlo, and based near its current Cambridge offices, will be a sheetfed ink-jet printer for the corrugated packaging market. The FastJet was first demonstrated at Drupa last year in conjunction with ink partner Sun Chemical.

Since then the FastJet, which is expected to become commercially available early next year, has moved on.

Originally shown as a 52cm-wide machine, a bigger 1.2m-wide machine capable of producing 6,000m per hour is going into alpha testing in August.

"All the big corrugated packaging firms are interested," said Kendle. "There is a demand for short turnarounds driven by brand owners fighting back against retailers. They want differentiation in store."

The machine is described as providing better quality than flexo, but not a challenger for litho and will be targeted at the PoS and outer case coding markets.

"I didn't think the market was ready," said Kendle. "But all the printers just need the machine."

* Inca has also set up a dedicated US office to provide support and training to the market, which accounts for just under half the firm's worldwide sales.

Story by Barney Cox