New press for 2025

Canon teases B2 sheetfed inkjet, unveils Heidelberg partnership

27 May 2024

Drupa

Canon varioPress iV7, available next year

Canon has announced a new B2 sheetfed inkjet at Drupa, with the new press part of a global sales and service partnership with Heidelberg that will involve the German manufacturer selling OEM versions of Canon’s sheetfed inkjet engines.

Canon’s new B2+ inkjet, the varioPress iV7, is capable of 8,700sph (4/0) simplex or 4,350sph duplex (4/4).

According to the manufacturer it builds on a raft of existing Canon technologies from its smaller sheetfed siblings, including two-step drying and fixation, variable droplet sizes, straight paper path and ColorGrip conditioning. New elements include the printheads and inkset.

“The IV7 sets a new standard in B2 inkjet printing, empowering printers to migrate jobs from other digital technologies and devices as well as short-run offset print jobs,” said Canon chief marketing officer and senior vice president, Canon Production Printing Peter Wolff.

“We designed this product to be the ultimate B2 sheetfed factory… to increase production capacity, cut costs and boost efficiency.”

Target applications span the full commercial gamut, including books, business cards, catalogues, direct mail, magazines, marketing collateral, and postcards.

The iV7 is scheduled for commercial launch in Q4 2025 and while it’s not on show at Drupa, it will feature in ‘technical presentations’ with print samples also available at the show.

varioPress iV7

Resolution: 1,200dpi
Speed: 8,700sph
Inkset: water-based polymer pigment inks
Max sheet size: 750x614mm
Paper weight: 60-450gsm (at full speed)
Stocks: coated and uncoated (and selected boards)
Monthly duty volume: up to 4.5 million B2 images, 24/6

When it becomes commercially available the iV7 will join the iX3200 B3 inkjet in being OEM’d with Heidelberg livery and a new name, Jetfire 75.

However, the first fruit of the partnership, a rebadged version of the Canon varioPrint iX3200 B3 inkjet, is already available from Heidelberg – the Jetfire 50 – with a model being demonstrated on the Heidelberg stand as part of a Prinect workflow.

Wolff said the goal of the partnership is to support more offset printers looking to adopt a “blended offset/digital workflow”.

“Heidelberg’s decision to complement their technology portfolio with inkjet technology from Canon underlines the leading and pioneering position Canon has in this technology segment,” he added.

Heidelberg already sells OEMd cut-sheet toner engines from Ricoh under a similar arrangement.

As well as teasing the iV7, Canon is using Drupa for the first European showing of two inkjet engines that were shown as ‘technology previews’ at its Expo event in Japan last Autumn.

The varioPrint ix1700 B3 is a B3 sheetfed inkjet press designed to bridge the gap between the varioPrint iX3200 B3 sheetfed inkjet and Canon’s imagePress V series flagship toner engine; and the labelStream LS2000 is 40m/min label press that runs food-safe water-based inks.

Both machines are slated for commercial launch next year.

Via digital 3D models, a new concept machine for single pass corrugated applications is being demonstrated, albeit virtually.

The 8,000sqm/hr, 1.7m wide corrugated line was among the pre-Drupa announcements earlier this year, which also included a new flagship ProStream and an expansion of the ColorStream series, with the latter being shown running fully automatic on-demand book production.

20,000 books produced at the show will be donated to Books for Ukraine and the UN SDG Book Club.

Under Canon's Drupa ‘The Power to Move’ banner, Jennifer Kolloczek, senior director, marketing and innovation, Production Printing, Canon EMEA said the manufacturer wanted to show Drupa visitors “print’s real power to move”.

“We’re here to help brands, designers and PSPs see a whole spectrum of new possibilities to engage, enabled by print.”

As well as expanding on some of the previously announced show launches, yesterday it also unveiled a number of enhancements for its Colorado M-series UVgel wide-format machines, which was launched last year.

It’s demonstrating the UVgel Packaging Factory for short-run packaging applications, which consists of Colorado M5W 1.6m wide roll-to-roll printer with a Fotoba jumbo roll media loader and output trimmer and stacker.

Also new for the M-series at the show is FLXture, which utilises five ink layers to produce subtle textures embossing. The software upgrade is available for existing and new machines.

Canon has also bolstered its offering in the CAD/AEC space at the show, replacing both its monochrome plotWave and colour colorWAVE engines with new T-series machines – which feature several productivity and workflow enhancements.

Canon’s booth is segmented into six areas: CAD and inhouse print, commercial print, interior décor, labels and packaging, promotional communications, and publishing.