Scitex Wide Format Printing (SWFP) will be exclusive distributor of the wide format Aprion press for the whole world apart from China and Japan. To be called Superjet, it will be a roll-to-roll machine for printing on paper, vinyl banner and other flexible substrates up to 1.65m wide, at 600 dpi in six colours, at up to 200 m2 per hour. Deliveries are planned to start during the second half of 2001. Scitex will also distribute Aprion''s water-based inks, which the company claims have adequate lightfastness and water resistance for outdoor display work.
Lasercomb Systems has been signed up as exclusive European distributor of Aprion''s planned corrugated board printer, whose US distributor had already been announced prior to the show as Belcom, Chicago. Lasercomb will sell it as the DigiComb2000. Again, a resolution of 600 dpi and throughputs of 200 square metres per hour are planned. Lasercomb is setting up a new division called Lasercomb Systems to install, service and maintain the new press, which is scheduled to go into Beta sites in the first half of 2001. New inks are being developed for the carton market that will have high light fastness, water and rub resistance, says Aprion.
The only Aprion printer running on the company's Drupa stand is a technology demonstration of a "fast and affordable" narrow web press," code-named Baz.
In February Aprion announced that it was developing an ink jet press for home furnishings (wallpaper and textiles), which is being sold as the DPS 65 by Digital Printing Systems of New York and is now in Beta test in a New York site, with four more Beta''s planned for North America and four for Europe. One model is on the DPS stand at Drupa.
Also under development is the BookNet printer, shown as a mock-up on the Aprion stand though the company says it has a lab-based prototype running. This will be able to print and finish ten paperback books per hour, and will be small enough for in-store use. Aprion's vp of marketing Asa Ziv predicted two possible sales approaches. One is that customers will go into a bookshop, order a title and it will be output within ten minutes "while they enjoy a cup of coffee." Alternatively, BookNet users may offer a home delivery service, which he likened to pizza ordering: "you pick up the phone, order your book and it''s delivered to your door within an hour."
Story by Simon Eccles
