Inkjet & Digital Printing

HEIDELBERG enters growing industrial digital printing market with Jetfire family

Tuesday 28. May 2024 - Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG) is expanding its digital printing portfolio and presenting the new Jetfire family for the growing industrial digital com- mercial printing market. The systems are based on leading inkjet technology from coop- eration partner Canon.

• Growth potential: HEIDELBERG aims to establish inkjet technology for industrial production in commercial printing across the industry
• Range of solutions integrated into HEIDELBERG ecosystem:
o Jetfire 50: productive and reliable in B3 sheetfed format now on offer
o Jetfire 75: Sales for industrial production printing in B2 sheetfed format expected from mid-2025, with first shipments planned for early 2026
• Competitiveness: Integrated offset and digital technologies increase print shops’ profitability, even fully automatically with Prinect Touch Free
• Cooperation: collaboration with Canon accelerates developments and implementation with customer base
The new Jetfire family will be integrated into the HEIDELBERG ecosystem via the HEIDELBERG Prinect workflow. The company thus offers end-to-end solutions that support both offset and digital printing from a single system, ensuring maximum flexibility and cost-effectiveness, particularly in the commercial sector. HEI- DELBERG is thus pooling its expertise in offset and digital printing to provide print shops with a hybrid production environment for cost-effective printing in the future.
“Our aim is to offer our customers who want to operate offset and digital presses simul- taneously an attractive and integrated service and product portfolio,” says Dr. David Schmedding, Head of Sales at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and Chief Sales and Service Officer from July 1. HEIDELBERG and Canon see growth potential in the expan- sion of inkjet printing and want to jointly establish this technology in the printing indus- try for industrial production. With this step, HEIDELBERG is also adding sheetfed inkjet solutions to its portfolio alongside toner based Versafire systems and sheetfed offset presses.
Industrial solutions now on offer
As a first step, HEIDELBERG will be offering an existing B3 digital printing system from Canon with corresponding integration into the Prinect workflow, its own service and consumables under the name Jetfire 50 from drupa 2024 in Düsseldorf. It is planned to deliver the machine to customers from the first quarter of 2025. In a further phase, HEI- DELBERG is expected to offer an inkjet digital printing press in B2 format for commer- cial printing from mid-2025, with first shipments planned for early 2026. This machine will use state-of-the-art inkjet technology to take industrial digital printing to a new level and will be offered as the Jetfire 75 from HEIDELBERG. The new digital printing sys- tems are intended to also be operated fully automatically in an integrated system to- gether with offset presses using Prinect Touch Free via the Prinect workflow from HEI- DELBERG.
“HEIDELBERG is the partner for printing companies that can supply and integrate all modern technologies in a technology-neutral and demand-oriented manner,” continued Schmedding. “We offer the entire spectrum from toner to inkjet, from offset printing to flexo printing – controlled from a common Prinect workflow.”
HEIDELBERG with years of know-how in the digital sector
With the Gallus Labelfire and the Gallus One for label printing, HEIDELBERG has al- ready proven that it can offer successful inkjet solutions in an industrial environment. In addition, the company has already established more than 3,000 Versafire toner-based digital printing installations and over 1,500 integration projects with digital printing ma- chines from other manufacturers in the market. According to market estimates, the ad- dressable digital printing market for HEIDELBERG, including service and consumables, will grow from around EUR 5 billion today to EUR 8 billion by 2028. The company aims to significantly increase its turnover with digital printing solutions in the medium term.
Jetfire 50 from HEIDELBERG now on offer
The Jetfire 50 is the new digital production solution for industrial print service providers looking for alternative production methods. In B3 sheetfed format, the system combines all the flexibility benefits of digital printing with the stability of inkjet for commercial printing. With a productivity of 9,120 SRA3 sheets per hour, the machine offers great performance combined with high flexibility and reliability. The press is scheduled to be delivered to customers from the first quarter of 2025.
Technical highlights:
o Jetfire 50 productivity of 9,120 SRA3 sheets per hour (equivalent to around 18,000 A4 pages/hour)
o Up to 2.5 million SRA3 duplex sheets per month
o Sustainable water-based inkjet with 1200 dpi x 1,200 dpi o Grammage: 60 – 350 g/m2
o Integrated in HEIDELBERG Prinect Workflow