"At Drupa, we plan to show large-format litho printers that they can move into inkjet profitably," said Fujifilm regional director for Europe Peter Kenehan. "We will be suggesting to all our offset customers to dip a toe in the water with the Acuity."
The Acuity is a 2.5x1.5m flatbed machine with a roll-fed option that produces up to 16sqm per hour. It is based on Océ hardware with Fujifilm Sericol inks. Its near-photographic quality has proved to be a hit in the US market, where it has notched up 100 sales.
The firm will also be promoting the 500sqm per hour Inca Onset as a replacement for the remaining screenprint. So far, the firm has four installed in Europe and claimed the machine was changing the dynamic in the point-of-sale market.
Kenehan said the machine could displace "a majority" of the 1,000 multicolour screenprint presses installed worldwide. "It will take some time and depend on some productivity enhancements.
"There's no such thing as a screen printer anymore, all our customers have digital or large-format litho and have dropped screen from their name."
Fuji pushes for wide-format adoption with Acuity flatbed at Drupa
Fuji will encourage commercial printers to enter the wide-format market with the new Acuity UV flatbed machine, which joins the high-end Inca UV flatbeds in Fujifilm Sericol's Drupa line-up.
