The 1.6m-wide Colorado 1640 is priced from €55,000 and is the first Canon wide-format device to use the firm’s UVgel technology.
Jeppe Frandsen, executive vice president of industrial and production solutions at Canon, said its combination of speed and quality was finding favour with a wide range of customers for numerous applications, including wall and floor coverings, signage, point-of-sale, and the outdoor market.
“We are really getting momentum and have very high ambitions for it,” he said. “Because we weren’t in this part of the market before it has been 100% incremental business for us.”
Frandsen confirmed that a larger 3.2m-wide model is in the pipeline for the end of this year, for delivery at the beginning of 2019.
“From that we will see what comes next, it will be a family over the next few years,” he added. “The Colorado is a key product and brings a lot to the market.”
He said a number of customers had replaced multiple low-end roll-to-roll devices with one Colorado 1640. “Lots of customers have limited space, and with one machine they can capture their whole volume.”
Firms producing at least 10,000sqm per annum are the target market.
Canon has its biggest presence yet at this year’s Fespa, and Frandsen said that alongside the Colorado the highlights on the firm’s 618sqm booth included automation and the new Océ Touchstone software for creating textured printing effects on the Arizona 1200 and 2200 range.
Crowds have been drawn to the large-format ‘robotised’ print-and-cut workflow incorporating an Océ Arizona 6170 XTS UV flatbed printer and ProCut cutting table, configured with a robotic arm from Rolan Robotics. The system is already in use at Van Vliet Printing in the Netherlands, and can potentially run 24/7.
“We have another two or three in our order book. It’s very specific and niche, but a great example of how you can improve productivity dramatically,” Frandsen explained.
Also on the booth is a prototype configuration with a Colorado 1640 linked to an inline Fotoba system for a print-and-cut workflow.
“This will be commercialised in the second half of the year. It’s going to be interesting to see the response at the show,” Frandsen said.
Océ’s Touchstone software costs €3,000 and allows users to create ‘elevated’ dimensional printing effects. “For a very low investment you can expand your business.”
Also new on the booth is a matt black option for the DreamLabo industrial photo printer, and the Colorwave 9000 large-format A0/A1 colour printer, which offers a 20% productivity increase on the previous model.
“Over the last five years we have developed a very strong portfolio in wide-format technology, covering the majority of needs in the market. And we’ve got a lot of new technology coming up,” Frandsen added.
Canon is on stand 3.2-B40 at Fespa.
