Epson: continuous improvement

Epson invests 1,3 M$ every day in research and development, 6% of turnover. The company owns 50,000 patents worldwide. Epson will also start producing robots and will focus on textiles which is an important growth market. For more info please read the following press release.

Epson presents its most advanced range of professional production inkjet printers and presses at drupa 2016

Latest solutions deliver market-leading quality, productivity and ROI for wide range of added-value and creative applications and demonstrate Epson’s commitment to continuous improvement and technology development

2nd March 2016 – Epson will demonstrate its most advanced range of professional production inkjet printers and presses at drupa 2016 for label, sign & display, photographic, apparel, décor and product decoration applications. (Hall 5/Stand A01, 31^st May – 10^th June 2016, Düsseldorf, Germany). The Epson booth at drupa will be split into 5 zones: Prepress, Sign & Display, Label, Copy Shop and Technology to allow visitors to focus on specialist demonstrations and applications and experience the significant business benefits each can deliver.

The company has stepped up its development programme and more than doubled the rate of new product launches for the professional printing industry since the last drupa in 2012. Epson is committed to continuous improvement to ensure that its inkjet printers, presses and inks deliver new levels of quality, performance, ease of use and ROI. As a result, over the last six months alone, Epson has launched 13 new printers and these will be demonstrated together for the first time at drupa.

Epson designs and manufactures compact, precise and energy-saving inkjet printers and all use Epson’s own micropiezo printheads and ink. Every component of an Epson printer – hardware, printhead, ink and firmware – is optimised to deliver the best possible performance.

Reducing the environmental impact of its technology is a major focus for Epson. The design and precision of the inkjet printers and presses reduces energy and ink use, and cuts down waste. For example, the new SureColor SC-S printers demonstrated at drupa use up to 4 x less energy compared to latex technology, about 15% less ink than the previous SureColor generation and up to 50% less ink than latex technology (depending on the substrate and quality printed).

Epson’s third generation PrecisionCore TFP printhead in single head and linehead configurations is making a significant impact on Epson’s development of its printers and presses, enabling products that deliver higher quality, higher speeds and better all-round performance. To meet predicted demand, Epson has just announced a €160 million investment in a new factory in Japan to triple printhead production capacity for new professional print products currently under development.

In line with its commitment to meet the changing needs of the printing industry and to maximise the potential of many different print applications, Epson has merged its wide-format, label and textile businesses to create a major new global ‘Professional Printing Solutions’ division, headed by COO Sunao Murata. drupa 2016 provides the launch pad for this new division where Epson will show how it is transforming professional printing with a range of smart production systems that are affordable, easy-to-use and which produce a wide variety of ‘added-value’ creative products.

Sunao Murata, COO Professional Printing Division, Seiko Epson, says: “Our commitment to R&D and continual improvement shapes everything we do. The industry will see the very latest results at drupa where we will demonstrate more professional inkjet printers and presses than ever before – all delivering the ultimate in production performance and user experience – and show how companies can use them to build successful businesses and enter new markets.”

Pre-press, Signage & Display, Label, Copy Shop and Technology zones illustrate breadth and versatility of Epson’s latest inkjet printers & presses
Hall 5/Stand A01

The Epson drupa zones

• Sign & Display zone: In this zone Epson shows its latest range of wide-format SureColour SC-S signage printers and SC-F dye-sublimation printers producing a selection of signage, display and décor products on a variety of substrates. Launched in January this year, the next-generation ‘class-leading’ SureColor SC-S Series with new-formulation UltraChrome GS3 inkset and permanent PrecisionCore printhead is impressive. Completely re-designed, the new series gives a choice of three printers from 4-11 colours (including red, orange, white and metallic silver) and productivity up to 95.3 sqm/hr. Visitors will be able to see the new Epson Control Dashboard which gives users online access to over 200 different media profiles for easy and automatic set up. Epson has reduced the ink price for this new range which, combined with significantly lower ink consumption, delivers a low cost of ownership and rapid ROI. These printers lead the market in offering the very best combination of quality, speed and price.

Epson is the world’s leading manufacturer of dye sublimation printers and at drupa it will also show the latest range of SureColor SC-F models using UltraChrome DS ink to produce a selection of soft signage, soft furnishing, apparel and promotional products.

• Label zone: at drupa Epson unites its high-end industrial label presses with its desktop office, retail and handheld label printers to display the broadest selection of label printing solutions developed by any single manufacturer. Highlights include Epson’s SurePress digital label presses which will be a major focus within this zone: These include the single-pass SurePress L-6034VW with PrecisionCore linehead and LED-cured UV ink featuring in-line digital varnish and high-opacity white ink. This press is ideal for high-quality short-to-mid-run jobs, producing labels with outstanding scratch and weather resistance. The SurePress range also includes the seven-colour SurePress L-4033AW, ideal for high-quality, high-value, short-run jobs on a wide variety of label substrates, including structured paper, film and metallic foils. This zone will also feature the ColorWorks C7500, desktop label printer for in-house ‘on-demand’ applications and the new, award-winning, portable LabelWorks LW-Z900 for industrial and construction use.

• Copy Shop zone: Here Epson shows how high street retailers, bureaux and copy shops can expand their services by producing quality printed products quickly and easily to drive new revenue streams. The company has developed a range of printers designed to meet the increasing consumer demand for a variety of personalised products from canvas prints and wallpaper to mugs and smartphones. Here visitors can see a range of desktop-based production printers from the SureColor SC-F2000 direct-to-garment printer to the SureLab D700 inkjet printer enabling the widest variety of applications.

A particular highlight in this zone are Epson’s new super-fast, photo-quality aqueous SureColor SC-P wide format printers with the latest PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads. The 64-inch 10-colour SC-P20000 launches in March and the 44-inch SureColor SC-P10000 will be launched at drupa (refer to separate release for full details). These new accurate and precise printers combine the highest speed with superior quality to produce large-format photographs, fine art prints, posters and display graphics to an exceptionally high standard.

At drupa, Epson will unveil significant new features on its multifunction 36-inch and 44-inch aqueous SureColor SC-T printers with integrated scanners which combine to deliver impressive new levels of functionality and productivity for applications where hard copies are scanned to file and printed. These include the fastest in-class print and scan speeds at 34cm/second in grayscale and 15cm/second in colour; a new high-speed ‘production’ mode for images on photo glossy type media; 150mm roll; high-capacity 700ml ink containers and versatile scanning up to 30.4m long. (See separate release for full details).

• Prepress zone: the ultimate in colour-accurate proofing will be demonstrated by the latest SureColor 24-inch SC-P7000 and 44-inch SC-P9000 printers with the 11-colour UltraChrome HDX inkset, incorporating a new violet ink. These printers use the PrecisionCore printhead to ensure the highest-quality output. They achieve 99% of Pantone^®‑certified[i] colours for accurate spot colour reproduction while large replacement ink cartridges (350ml and 700ml) are ideal for large print runs.
• Technology zone: Epson invests over a million dollars every day on R&D to drive innovation and in this zone it will display and demonstrate some of its latest technologies. Here we explain in depth our unique core printing technology. Furthermore, visitors can view a video showing the PaperLab – the world’s first instant office paper recycling system. This new system uses a dry process to recycle office paper and produce A4/A3 paper, business cards and coloured/scented paper. PaperLab signals the launch of a new smart recycling division for Epson, which will investigate how the technology can be applied on a larger scale in the future.