Ry-Offset and Apex Digital Graphics have extended their partnership and set up a new limited company, DI Solutions, specifically to sell direct imaging presses.


The first product in the companys portfolio is the Ryobi 3404DI four- colour A3 direct imaging press, which is due to be launched at Northprint.


Both companies hold a 50% stake in DI Solutions. Its salesforce will operate from Apexs showroom in Hemel Hempstead and Ry-Offsets headquarters in Leeds.


Ry-Offset joint managing director Neil Handforth said: "The new company builds on our successful press and pre-press relationship within the Print Synergy Alliance. The new company is dedicated solely to the DI: its a pooling of knowledge and technical skills between the two companies."


Handforth said that there were plans for the company to eventually distribute other direct imaging products alongside the 3404DI.


"The press combines an extremely high level of pre-press and press technology, two areas not normally available to both the press engineer and CTP operator in one piece of equipment," he said.


The 3404DI uses Pressteks ProFire imaging technology, which includes a multi-beam laser to burn images directly onto a mounted plate.


It has a plate cylinder rotation of 18,000rph and can image a four-colour plate to 2,540dpi in four and a half minutes or to 1,270dpi in two minutes.


The 3404DI, which has a maximum speed of 7,000 sheets per hour, will cost from 300,000.


Story by John Davies