The first machine arrived in the UK on Tuesday and was producing plates in front of dealers yesterday, with the first potential customer seeing the machine today.

Impressia, which was first announced at Graph Expo last autumn, is aimed at the two-page portrait press market for single-, two- and three-colour work, although it can also be used to produce "pleasing" four-colour according to Xant.

Although the firm was being careful to manage expectations of colour quality it plans to develop the technology for four-colour applications.

"Pleasing colour is a limitation of the portrait colour press not of our technology," said director of worldwide marketing Chris Estes.
"The next logical step is GTO size," he added. "As for the timescale that's the million dollar question, it's our R&D focus."

The 9,995 machine uses a xerographic process to form the image onto the plate, which is good for up to 25,000 copies. The Aspen plate is a conventional grained and anodised plate costing around 90p to 1.50 per plate.  It is processless requiring no further chemical treatment between imaging and mounting on press.

Dealers at the event, who included AB Dick and Litho Supplies, thought the price and the metal substrate would prove attractive.

One commented: "Despite having spent 10 years converting people to polyester printers always prefer metal."

Story by Barney Cox