Canon today unveiled its new generation of continuous feed inkjet printers. Called the ColorStream 8000, this flagship 560mm wide range includes two models, available in black and white and color: the ColorStream 8133 and the ColorStream 8160, with maximum print speeds of 133m/min and 160m/min respectively.
ColorStream 8133 and 8160 designed for a wide range of applications
These digital roll-to-roll presses are compatible with a wide variety of substrates, from uncoated, recycled and inkjet papers, from 40 to 160 g/m 2 as standard (and up to 220 g/m 2 on some papers).
The ColorStream 8000 is aimed at public sector companies, print and communication service providers (transactional and direct mail) and specialist commercial printers, producing books, manuals or pharmaceutical leaflets for example. And Canon points out that its 560mm print width offers a wide range of imposition possibilities.
Up to 70 million A4 images per month with the ColorStream 8000
Highly automated, this new series is capable of printing up to 2,152 A4 images/min (from 15 to 70 million A4 images per month). "This allows it to handle peak production with ease and reduce operating and labor costs by consolidating volumes from offset and continuous feed toner presses at the Colorstream." says the manufacturer.
In addition, Canon claims an outstanding uptime rate of over 90%. The press is also equipped with a predictive maintenance system, which targets machine downtime for maintenance and avoids unscheduled downtime during production.
Consistent print quality at 1200 dpi
New 1,200 dpi printheads power the ColorStream 8000 bringing consistent print quality even at the highest speed, according to Canon. They "reproduce more progressive gradations, consistent hues and sharper detail, and minimize artifacts typical of inkjet technology."
The new set of water-based pigmented inks with latex polymer offers "a very wide color gamut" meeting the Fogra standards, "a deep black" and "vibrant colors on uncoated paper without any pretreatment".
Migration to inkjet favored
Hayco van Gaal, vice president Production Printing Products, Commercial Printing, Canon Europe, said: "The ColorStream 8000 series is a new platform that builds on the legacy of the existing ColorStream family and further improves productivity, print quality and efficiency for its users. I am confident that this new ColorStream 8000 series (...) will prove to be just as popular, if not more so, than the previous models, and will play a major role in the migration of print volumes to digital inkjet technology."
The first customer of the ColorStream 8160 delighted
DATEV, which employs more than 8,000 people, was the first to acquire a ColorStream 8000 series printer. The German group is an enterprise software provider that also manages the production of its customers' documents (promotional mailings, invoices, account statements, etc.), i.e. approximately 1.1 billion pages per year.
Gunther Ruffing, DATEV's Production Manager, comments on the acquisition of the ColorStream 8160: "The ColorStream 8160 was installed and commissioned incredibly quickly. We were able to produce 8 million pages on the system in just 4 weeks. The first applications were ideal for the machine: individualized blocks, perfect for digital printing. It is also important to emphasize the high speed of 160 m/min, because only with such quality and speed can we achieve cost-effective production."
