It will take the wraps off the Truepress Jet 520EX Color and the Truepress Jet520ZZ at GraphExpo 2010 in Chicago next week.

Using a newer Epson printhead the Jet520ZZ runs at 220m per minute, almost twice the 128m per minute of the current 520, to churn out 2,917 A4 pages per minute. It can also be configured, as an option, with a wider 570mm web.

"We have a handful of high-volume users who currently have to install multiple lines to meet their peak demands," said Screen Europe marketing manager Tim Taylor. "It may only be for a few hours once per quarter that you need that level of productivity. Being able to provide it in a single machine reduces cap-ex and staffing requirements."

Taylor also added that the extra speed was essential for firms looking to migrate web offset work to digital and with the wider web the ZZ should also appeal to newspaper and book printers.

"We believe newspapers are an interesting market," said Taylor. "But to succeed you need to run at beyond 100m per minute and even beyond 200m per minute to deliver 2,000 copies per hour, at which point it becomes an interesting proposition for regional papers.

"The 570mm width is better for broadsheets, opening up more possibilities. It’s also ideal for books, the balance between cap-ex and running costs makes it an automatic choice for educational textbooks, and the monochrome version is very good in that respect."

Pricing for the ZZ has yet to be finalised, but is expected to be 40% more than the Jet520’s £1.75m price tag. Taylor added that the EX would be at a "quite significantly cheaper entry point than the current machine".

A monochrome version of the 520EX was launched at Ipex, but new for GraphExpo is the upgrade to colour and the availability of an entry-level 64m per minute colour machine. At the show the EX will be shown by Screen’s partner Ricoh as one of the Infoprint 5000 range.