The press contains a number of enhancements that have been "pre-flighted" on the firms Super Perfector and Project D machines.

"We have been quietly working on this for the last two to three years," said Komori UK managing director Martin Rickards. "The S40 will complete our transition to a new Lithrone 40 family. It has been born out of the SP and Project D and within these two products we have pre-flighted a whole series of improvements everything from the feeder to the delivery and the ink ducts to the base frames."

The Lithrone S40 will be demonstrated at Ipex in a six-colour version with coater, and the new press will ship from the summer. "The S40 will be sold fully-loaded with all automation. The old Lithrone 40 will still be available for a year or two," added Rickards.

Komori is also entering the B2 long perfecting market, which is currently dominated by Heidelberg, and will be running a four-over-four Lithrone 828P at Ipex.

A five-colour double-decker Lithrone 540SP with fully automatic plate changing will print the PrintWeek Ipex Daily live at the show.

Story by Jo Francis