Fujifilm makes several announcements at drupa

Fujifilm has made an impact at this year’s drupa with its continued “Discover the difference” campaign which is showcased through a variety of presentations, demonstrations, experiences, and samples at drupa 2024 in Düsseldorf.

The company has announced a raft of new technologies and partnerships on top of purchase celebrations and internal projects like its Innovation Print Awards and its Women4Women magazine. 

Since 2021 Fujifilm has redesigned and relaunched its Acuity range of wide-format printers as well as expanded its analogue packaging machines, launched its first digital flexible packaging press, and unveiled a range of toner presses to complement the Jet Press 750S.

In terms of its announcements, first up is the new Acuity Triton using AQUAFUZE technology. Following the announcement of the water-based UV patented ink, the technical preview of the new Acuity Triton, 1.6m width printer, has been showcased in Hall 8b, Booth A02.

The technology is a collaboration with Mutoh which manufactures the hardware in Japan before being combined with the AQUAFUZE ink which has been developed and produced by Fujifilm.

The technology has been made to offer wide-format print companies a “differentiator in productivity and all-round performance” as it combines the benefits of UV LED and water-based inkjet. 

Fujifilm has also been previewing its third generation Acuity Hybrid, the Acuity Ultra Hybrid Pro, a machine designed to support high-volume production which can be integrated with new automation systems. The system is created for the automatic handling of rigid materials, allowing one operator to run the machine for a full pallet-to-pallet process.

The Jet Press 1160CFG was another launch for the commercial printing market which includes a newly developed pre-drying unit named “The Paper Stabilizer” which Fujifilm says can enhance stable print quality by drying paper before printing commences and constantly controlling the moisture content of the paper. 

The Paper Stabilizer improves ink fixation on thick paper and reduces waviness on thin paper which can be caused by substrate moisture. By drying the entire sheet of paper, the quality can be kept constant, which Fujifilm says is regardless of the paper storage environment.

In terms of mid-range machines, Fujifilm has announced four production presses in the Revoria Press series: The Revoria Press EC2100 and EC2100S as well as the Revoria Press SC285 and AS285S.

The EC2100 and SC285 are four-colour presses while the EC2100S and SC285S are equipped with a speciality toner station in addition to the four-colour toners, enabling five-colour printing in one pass.

The latter presses are available with a variety of specialty toners; Clear, Pink, Custom Red, Gold, and Silver. A variety of metallic colours can be generated by mixing Gold and Silver toners with CMYK toners.

In regard to workflow Fujifilm has announced a future solution concept which it says enables “smartification” within production printing. Fujifilm Smart Flow has three different platforms: “Smart Automation”, “Smart Production”, and “Smart Marketing”.

Automation provides intelligent automation and device management of Fujifilm devices as well as third-party devices using APIs. This is done by integrating Fujifilm Workflow XMF and Revoria XMF PressReady.

Production offers entire shop floor automation and visualisations of job submissions, planning, and scheduling using a SaaS platform, while Marketing uses a new service, Revoria Cloud Marketing, to help develop an environment for creating a digital marketing service platform without the need for specialised skills. The solution is hoped to help printers offer end-to-end marketing services to their brand owners.

Lastly the company launched a new printhead from FUJIFILM Dimatix, a global manufacturer and supplier of piezoelectric, drop-on-demand industrial inkjet printheads.

The new FUJIFILM Dimatix SKYFIRE SF600 inkjet printhead has been made to reflect the ongoing commitment from Fujifilm to transition from analogue to digital inkjet printing as well as the exploration of emerging markets and applications.

Steve Billow, president and chief executive officer at FUJIFILM Dimatix, says: “Our customers require printheads that can withstand a wide variety of inks and print at high speeds while offering high quality and durability. The unique design features of the FUJIFILM Dimatix SKYFIRE SF600 underscore the company’s continued commitment to innovation, and provide reliable, high-quality sustained printing to enhance productivity in a wide range of demanding applications.”

Drupa 2024 is taking place from May 28th to June 7th in the Dusseldorf Exhibition Centre, Germany.

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