Fujifilm launches new, next generation 54cm wide LED-UV inkjet press for flexible packaging market in Japan

FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Shigehiro Nakajima) today announces that it will be using drupa 2016 as the platform to unveil a new, next generation LED-UV inkjet press suitable for flexible packaging applications. This new press is ideally suited for printing on the underside of flexible packaging, and is powered by proprietary new Fujifilm image forming technology called “EUCON” (Enhanced Under Coating and Nitrogen purging technology).

A major challenge for the flexible packaging market in recent years has been to effectively respond to increased customer demand for shorter runs, quicker turnarounds and a more diverse range of products. This trend will continue to rise, due to the ever-changing marketing methods and the shortening of product lifecycles. As a result, traditional analogue print processes face growing challenges in terms of meeting these requirements from both a production and a profitability perspective. Fujifilm’s new LED-UV inkjet press is set to offer a real and robust production solution to help address these challenges and meet the needs of a changing market.

The new press takes advantage of the knowledge Fujifilm has gained in commercializing an extensive range of leading inkjet solutions for the graphic arts industry since the early 2000s. These include the company’s ground breaking B2 Jet Press 720S (known as J Press 720S in the USA) for commercial print and folding carton applications, still the industry benchmark for quality and reliability, and the hugely successful “Acuity LED 1600” which has gained high praise worldwide for its outstanding quality, versatility and productivity. Fujifilm’s “EUCON” technology, at the heart of its new LED-UV inkjet press, is the latest innovation to come from the company’s industry-leading core inkjet expertise.

Fujifilm’s new LED-UV inkjet press for flexible packaging applications continues this philosophy of offering high performance, high quality digital print production, and thanks to a reliable media handling system can deliver productivity of up to 50m per minute using the 5 standard CMYKW ink colours. In addition, as this new press uses an LED-UV curing and drying system, the amount of heat applied to the substrate is minimised, reducing power consumption and enabling the press to be used with a wide range of flexible substrates.

The proprietary “EUCON” technology in the new press is composed of three core components: a newly developed, high performance UV ink; a unique undercoating technology used to prevent ink bleed; and a Nitrogen purge technology, which is used to significantly reduce the characteristic odour of UV ink.