Agfa’s drupa Innovations to Show Commitment to Offset and Inkjet Printing

MORTSEL, BELGIUM—April 2, 2012—In the run-up to drupa 2012, Agfa Graphics confirms its sustained commitment towards offset and inkjet printing. At its 3,000-m2 drupa stand (Hall 8A), the company will showcase its broad range of innovative, cost effective and eco-friendly solutions that enable printers to offer their clients competitive, unique and high-quality output at lower cost.

“Digital print is certainly growing but offset will remain the backbone of the printing industry”, said Stefaan Vanhooren, president of Agfa Graphics. “At drupa, we will present a broad range of innovative prepress solutions. In addition, our strong software offering confirms our vision that workflow and connectivity will be crucial for the success of our customers.

“For the industrial print and sign and display industries, we offer inkjet solutions that enable our customers to print efficiently on a wide variety of substrates delivering stunning quality. The star of our seven-strong product showing will be the unique and versatile :M-Press Leopard flat bed press. It will be running live demonstrating its exceptionally wide range of capabilities.”

What’s New?
Agfa Graphics’ presence at drupa focuses on four primary groups within the printing industry: industrial printers, sign & display printers, commercial printers and newspaper publishers.

What’s New in Industrial Print?
Agfa Graphics will showcase its revolutionary :M-Press Leopard industrial print system live for the first time. The :M-Press Leopard was built on the success of the :M-Press Tiger, which is the true digital alternative for industrial screen printing. With new functionalities and the ability to print on various substrates up to 5 cm thick in any size up to 1.6 m x 3.3 m, the fast-turnaround :M-Press Leopard offers the potential to move beyond screen applications to other industrial applications such as decoration and furniture, packaging and home wares. The system outdoes any conventional or digital alternative in terms of cost and quality. At the show, the :M-Press Leopard will be driven by Agfa Graphics’ :Apogee workflow.

What’s New in Sign & Display?
Agfa Graphics’ dedication to this market shows in the large portfolio of products designed to maximize ROI for users. Agfa Graphics will demonstrate the :Anapurna series and two new :Jeti 3020 Titan UV printing systems.

One of the two :Jeti 3020 Titans will be shown in a 36-head configuration, demonstrating productive CMYK printing in combination with a strong white-ink application (pre-, post- and spot white). The large 2 m x 3 m mounting bed supports both rigid and thin flexible material and is ideally suited both for opaque and transparent material, and supports multiple-up jobs and printing on smaller objects.

The second :Jeti 3020 Titan is the new system with a 48-head configuration. It guarantees high-quality and incomparable high-productivity printing, using 8 heads for each color (CMYKLcLm). It prints at the same high speeds for roll-to-roll and rigid materials, which makes it the most versatile wide-format printing solution on the market.

Also on show is Agfa Graphics' ever-growing range of UV inks for industrial and sign & display applications. Agfa Graphics inks perform exceptionally strong on key quality parameters such as adhesion, open head time, shelf life, ink layer flexibility, scratch resistance, gamut rendering and outdoor durability.

What’s New in Commercial Printing?
Agfa Graphics will be extending its patented, ThermoFuse-based prepress system to high-volume printers. The :Azura TS system helps commercial printers to run more efficiently and to reduce their ecological footprint. The :Azura CX125 COU (Clean-out Unit) reduces gum consumption considerably and extends bath life. It is designed to handle plate volumes up to 40,000 m2 per year.

The newest version of Agfa Graphics’ award-winning workflow management suite, :Apogee 8 will also be demonstrated. :Apogee 8 features greater connectivity and drives an ever-growing range of digital presses. :Apogee 8 supports 64-bit systems and offers optimized imposition for large volume web printing systems. It will be driving systems live at drupa.

:Apogee StoreFront is a new cloud-based software solution that enables print service providers to market their services and products more efficiently. This web-to-print solution makes it easy to set up online stores for both printed and non-printed products. :Apogee StoreFront is ideally suited for printers who wish to attract a broader audience with additional services. As it is cloud-based, printers do not need to invest in hardware or additional bandwidth.

What’s New in Newspaper Publishing?
Agfa Graphics remains committed to helping newspapers produce the best quality printed products while also assisting them to innovate and operate in a digital world.

Agfa Graphics is introducing two new high-speed platesetters for the high-volume newspaper market. The :Advantage N PL HS (Pallet Load, High-Speed) and the :Advantage N TR HS (Trolley Load, High-Speed), both produce up to 350 printing plates per hour. At drupa, the :Advantage N PL HS will be running live, imaging Agfa Graphics’ :N94 VCF chemistry-free violet plates. With a completely new design, it can store more than 6,000 plates configured on two pallets of 3,000 plates each plus an additional cassette, in a fully-automatic setting.

Agfa Graphics will also be demonstrating :Arkitex Eversify. This SaaS (Software as a Service) solution offers newspapers an easy way to convert their print content for mobile digital publishing, without increasing production costs and still providing a rich reading experience. Using HTML5 for the sophisticated reproduction of images, audio, video animation and other content, :Arkitex Eversify enables publishers to deliver their newspapers to a variety of tablet and smart mobile devices easily and with minimal investment.

Continued investment in sustainability
Agfa Graphics is contributing to the improvement of the industry’s sustainability in two ways.

Firstly, Agfa Graphics is a front runner in the development of more eco-friendly technologies for its customers. The company’s systems enable printers to eliminate toxic chemicals, reduce waste, lower ink and water consumption and save energy. For instance, Agfa Graphics is the global market leader for chemistry-free printing plates. Furthermore, its wide-format printers replace the energy- and chemistry-demanding screen printing techniques. Agfa Graphics not only offers the technology, it also assists and advises its customers during their move toward more eco-friendly processes.

Secondly, Agfa Graphics continuously strives to reduce its own footprint. All Agfa Graphics’ manufacturing sites have ISO14001 and OHSAS18001 certificates or are in a program to achieve certification. In the Summer of 2011, Agfa Graphics launched its worldwide Sustainability and Energy Reduction Program to roll-out best practices across all sites.

Agfa Graphics, a global player
Since the last edition of drupa in 2008, Agfa Graphics has continuously expanded its global manufacturing and distribution power. The company has strengthened its presence in North America, China, India, Brazil and Russia enabling it to offer customers in those markets innovative products and services in a more efficient way.

Source: Agfa.