Following a series of successful tests in the United States, Konica Minolta has announced the beta installation of the KM-1 digital inkjet press in Europe.
The KM-1 is a B2+ UV inkjet four-colour sheet-fed press, which is aimed at commercial printers that produce high-quality print jobs, capturing new market opportunities for brand owners looking to develop highly personalised short-run applications.
The first KM-1 Beta was installed in the U.S. three months ago at an undisclosed customer location with global operations. Initial success highlights include consistency of colour and registration, ability to produce quality output on a variety of substrates and textured stocks, as well as the overall efficiency and reliability of the press.
‘We’re quite pleased with the results from the first phase of our end-user testing,’ said Kevin Kern, senior vice president, Marketing. ‘The quality of the output, consistent quality and productivity achieved in a challenging environment mark a major milestone as we prepare to bring the product to market next spring.’
Suitable for variable data print runs, extremely tight deadlines and easy integration to offset and digital environments, the press can handle up to 3,000 sheets per hour, making it the first UV cut sheet inkjet press of its kind to operate at these speeds and graphic art quality.
‘This Beta test is an invaluable opportunity and the achievements are an important milestone for us as we enter the final stages of development,’ said Olaf Lorenz, general manager, International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. ‘As the market continues to adapt to the impact of digital communications, inkjet will support the commercial printer to move work from traditional lithographic to KM-1 due to its superb offset quality. This will not only allow them to become more profitable on short run jobs, but will be a perfect solution for countless new applications that inkjet will create, such as on demand folding cartons. KM-1 will meet the challenges of short-run production, personalization and faster turnaround to the market.’
Konica Minolta is not only committed to investing in R&D for equipment but also R&D for services and education. KM-1 will open up a world of new opportunities in a number of different sectors. Packaging, books and commercial print are all key target markets that will be covered in-depth in Konica Minolta’s new business building program for its production printing clients. The program helps to identify new business opportunities and to easily assess the customer’s business, allowing them to identify where new opportunities exist and to build a successful business with B2+ UV inkjet.
Konica Minolta is gearing up for a full launch of KM-1 next year at drupa. The whole printing process is under closed loop quality control starting from the inkjet Manager digital front end through Konica Minolta Piezo Shear mode print heads delivering 1200 x 1200dpi resolution and Konica Minolta UV CMYK inks specifically developed for obtaining offset print quality on a wide latitude of offset substrates at high speeds. Other specifications include 585 x 750 mm media size, print speed of up to 3,000 sph and media thickness from .06 to 0.6mm (24 Pt.).
