The first of Canon’s new varioPRINT iX-series advanced sheetfed inkjet presses has been installed in the Netherlands, with other orders taken from across the EMEA region.

The printer, first introduced in April of this year, is a sheetfed inkjet press offering 320 A4 images per minute on stocks from 90 to 350gsm. Machines are set to be installed at customer sites throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the coming months to support growth in the commercial printing markets across a wide range of applications.

The very first installation anywhere in the world took place at Kampert-Nauta, a commercial and online printer based in Oss and serving customers across the Netherlands and Belgium. With its online web business, the company has ambitious plans to expand across Europe, and with the new printer, it is looking to consolidate digital production and migrate all volume of applications such as brochures, folders, flyers and specialised greeting cards, onto the new inkjet platform.

‘We were immediately excited by the possibilities that the varioPRINT iX-series could offer our business,’ said managing director Richard Kampert. ‘The printer combines high quality on thick media, with no impact on productivity. We want to produce short runs without the need to pass on higher costs to our customers. With the varioPRINT iX3200, we’ll be able to manage smaller, more diverse jobs profitably. We look forward to impressing our customers with the printer’s high-quality output.’

Other customers have highlighted high quality, productivity and vast media range as their main reasons for investing, with the cost-efficiency benefits of the varioPRINT iX-series compared with liquid toner machines also a deciding factor. Canon says many of these customers are transitioning to digital inkjet printing and have commented that there is no other device in the market that achieves such high quality on a single device at such high production volumes.

Peter Wolff, vice president, production printing products, EMEA commercial printing, Canon Europe, added, ‘We’re excited to see that there has already been an excellent uptake of the varioPRINT iX-series in the general commercial printing market since its launch just over a month ago. At Canon, our priority is to ensure our solutions evolve to meet market demand, offering customers the highest image quality, productivity and reliability while ensuring that they don’t have to compromise on cost-efficiency and application diversity. From initial customer feedback to date, we anticipate that many more customers will realise the value that this printer can add to their business and the growth opportunities it will open up as a result. For this market, digital inkjet solutions are the technology of today and the future.’