The system on show will be an eight-colour SRA1 convertible press equipped with LED-UV curing. The machine, which costs around £1.3m to £1.4m depending on specification, delivers a one-pass instant curing process.

Apex managing director Bob Usher said: “This machine is sold in anything from two-colour to 10-colour configurations. The eight-colour version is very popular with trade printers because it can print 16 pages of A4 – eight pages on each side – at 14,000 sheets per hour. And with LED-UV the sheet is completely dry.

“The machine has the footprint size and the power consumption of a B2 press so many printers who have B2 machines and are looking for an advantage over what they currently have can buy this particular model and effectively double their production by printing eight pages of A4 rather than four pages of A4.”

He added: “With digital for years only being able to print CMYK, and not specials, so many corporate companies have settled for the colour schemes that you can mix from CMYK and have dropped their colours because they can get digital work done with a very quick turnaround from a digital supplier.

“This machine enables litho suppliers to deliver dried, folded, cut and packed sheets in the same way that digital is able to be produced but at a much lower price.”

Ipex will run from 31 October to 3 November at Birmgham’s NEC and will cover all applications of printing, pre-press, software, wide-format, digital, litho, converting and finishing.

Ipex event director Rob Fisher added: “In bringing the new RMGT 928P to the show Apex are really getting behind the ‘print in action’ theme of this year’s Ipex.

“This pioneering press will be in action throughout the show demonstrating how its range of smart printing technology provides automation for the ultimate in production quality.”