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

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.

While the firm was 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, which included AB Dick and Litho Supplies, thought the price and the metal substrate would prove attractive. One dealer commented: "Despite having spent 10 years converting people to polyester, printers always prefer metal."

Rather than positioning it as a rival to other more expensive processless metal machines Xant is targeting its core market that until now it has served with polyester plates.

"For that market sector we're offering chemical-free and metal for the first time," said Estes.

Story by Barney Cox