Workflow

New, Scalable Blade-Based Fiery DFEs Power the Latest Generation of Ultra High-Speed Inkjet Presses Supporting Packaging and Transactional Applications

Thursday 02. June 2016 - EFI announced today that it is extending its technology leadership into high-volume digital printing production markets with the introduction of the new Fiery XB digital front end (DFE) platform for ultra high-speed inkjet presses.

InfoTrends projects that production color inkjet will account for 57% of the total production digital color volume in 2019. The Fiery XB platform, based on a high-performance blade-based hardware architecture, can bring outstanding performance, color, and usability to ultra high-speed inkjet presses in the corrugated, packaging, transaction, commercial, graphics, book printing and photo markets.
 
“We have taken the leading Fiery DFE and extended its capabilities to power some of the most exciting new press technologies coming to market,” said Toby Weiss, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Fiery. “These new DFEs offer the best blend of outstanding performance, color, usability, and integration to extend what customers can achieve in packaging, transactional print and other applications.”
 
The new Fiery XB platform will power the next generation of ultra high-speed inkjet presses from Landa, Xerox, Canon and EFI. It can drive these presses to unparalleled speeds – 100 meters per minute of 1.8M wide corrugated boards; or in excess of 13,000 B1 sheets per hour, the equivalent of roughly 173 cut-sheet toner engines printing simultaneously at 100 pages per minute. The ultra-powerful, scalable Fiery XB platform uses efficient Fiery software for blazing RIP performance and video throughput with maximum use of hardware resources. These new high-powered Fiery DFEs drive everything from “RIP once, print many” books to versioned B1 packaging output, all at engine-rated speeds.
 
The newest generation of ultra high-speed inkjet presses delivers short runs of offset quality printing, producing high-value pieces that can target consumers with truly personalized content. Proprietary EFI technology adds efficient caching and management of variable-data content with a proven track record for variable-data printing (VDP) performance and the ability to consume the widest range of supported VDP formats. The Fiery XB platform is IS/3 compliant for native IPDS streaming, delivering the performance required for the most critical transaction applications.
 
The new Fiery XB platform supports requirements beyond four-color CMYK for B1 commercial and packaging applications with a scalable extended color gamut and near-offset image quality for a variety of different presses. Users can manage up to seven-color applications, plus specialty colors and applications such as white ink or MICR ink. User-friendly tools enable operators to make late-stage color edits right at the DFE to keep production running without interruption. And, Fiery Command WorkStation allows users to manage all Fiery Driven ultra high-speed inkjet or cut-sheet toner print engines from a single, intuitive interface on any networked Mac or Windows client.
 
Customers with ultra high-speed inkjet presses gain control of their business operations through connectivity to MIS and workflow products. Fiery servers integrate with workflow solutions such as Agfa :Apogee, Kodak Prinergy, and Heidelberg Prinect. Integration to EFI MIS products, such as EFI Productivity Suites and EFI Digital StoreFront web-to-print software, provide greater operational efficiency and management control. Fiery DFEs now connect with Esko’s popular workflow products to serve the needs of packaging customers. Plus, customers can easily integrate Fiery DFEs with in-house systems using the free, easy to implement Fiery API. 
 
For ultra high-speed inkjet presses, Fiery workflow and make-ready solutions include the industry-standard Command WorkStation job management interface for premiere job planning, Fiery Impose and EFI Metrix layout and impositioning tools, and workflow automation with Fiery JobFlow.
 
EFI announced the new Fiery XB DFE platform at the drupa 2016 tradeshow, May 31-June 10 in Düsseldorf, Germany.