The Israel-headquartered company has just released a video showing the first S10 B1 format beta press printing (see bottom of article), along with footage from the 800sqm beta press assembly area at its headquarters in Israel.

This area can be expanded to 1,600sqm giving the company the potential to assemble six beta presses at a time.

In an accompanying blog post, Landa said the firm was poised to show B1 print samples to potential customers, described as “beta candidates”, and will hold a customer event in Israel in March 2015.

After Landa went back to the drawing board with the press design after Drupa 2012, the original plans to ship presses by the end of 2013 were put back.

The redesigned Nanography presses now feature a transport system from strategic partner Komori, with coating unit, AVT inspection technology and an EFI front-end.

The redesigned ‘press cockpit’ still has large touchscreens.

In June the firm gained a €100m (£80m) investment from chemical specialist Altana, which was earmarked for completing the development of the Nanography process, and the engineering and production ramp-up.

At the time the first beta presses were slated for installation in the first half of 2015. This week Landa said that would now be the second half.

He admitted that eliminating the defects in print quality had been more time-consuming and challenging than initially envisaged.

“Consequently, it all took a lot more time – and money – than we had expected. Naturally, during these past many months, our focus has been internal – doing, not showing,” he said in his blog post, and added: “2015 will be challenging. There is still so much to do. We plan to be in full beta in the second half of the year. We are blessed with the most amazing team of talented, dedicated people committed to making it happen… so it will happen.”

He also revealed that the investment involved in bringing the technology to market will be in excess of $250m (£160m) by Drupa 2016.

The identity of the potential beta sites has not been confirmed, but the UK’s Reflex Labels and Germany-headquartered Cewe are among the customers to have already visited the Landa facilities in Israel to see the progress that has been made for themselves.

The firm had more than 430 letters of intent from customers keen to purchase its presses after Drupa 2012.

Landa’s Nanography process holds out the promise of low-cost, high-quality inkjet printing onto standard paper stocks.

The range of models envisaged includes B3, B2 and B1 sheetfed presses and two web presses, although the firm has chosen to focus on the B1 device as this was the most popular with potential customers.   

Landa has almost doubled its Drupa 2016 stand space to 2,600sqm.

"A visit to Landa Digital Printing" video