Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG) is expanding its digital printing portfolio and presenting the new Jetfire family for the growing industrial digital commercial printing market. The systems are based on leading inkjet technology from cooperation partner Canon. 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. HEIDELBERG 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 simultaneously 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 expansion of inkjet printing and want to jointly establish this technology in the printing industry 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, HEIDELBERG is expected to offer an inkjet digital printing press in B2 format for commercial 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 systems are intended to also be operated fully automatically in an integrated system together with offset presses using Prinect Touch Free via the Prinect workflow from HEIDELBERG.
"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 already 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 machines from other manufacturers in the market. According to market estimates, the addressable 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:
• Jetfire 50 productivity of 9,120 SRA3 sheets per hour (equivalent to around 18,000 A4 pages/hour)
• Up to 2.5 million SRA3 duplex sheets per month
• Sustainable water-based inkjet with 1200 dpi x 1,200 dpi
• Grammage: 60 - 350 g/m²
• Integrated in HEIDELBERG Prinect Workflow
Sales for Jetfire 75 from HEIDELBERG in B2 format expected from mid2025, with first shipments planned for early 2026
The new Jetfire 75 based on inkjet technology in B2 sheetfed format is targeted to set new standards in industrial digital printing. The system can print 8,700 B2 sheets per hour. This makes the Jetfire 75 more than twice as fast as previous machines on the market. The result: a print capacity of up to 54 million B2 sheets per year achieves high industrial performance in commercial printing. With a paper format of 61 x 75 cm, brochures, books and other commercial jobs can be printed extremely productively, as well as special formats such as posters, 6-up banners or variable or numbered jobs.
Technical highlights:
• Industrial productivity 8,700 B2 sheets per hour (equivalent to around 35,000 A4 pages/hour)
• Up to 54 million B2 sheets per year print capacity
• Grammage: from 60 - 450 g/m²
• Sustainable water-based inkjet with 1,200 dpi x 1,200 dpi
• Will be integrated in HEIDELBERG Prinect Workflow
Prinect Touch Free: New Prinect Production Manager option for full automation in digital & offset printing
To work competitively and economically today, print shops no longer want to process jobs manually. HEIDELBERG has developed the new Prinect Touch Free software variant for this purpose. A fully automated, hybrid workflow that uses AI to make the right production decisions - quickly, automatically and integrated into the portfolio of offset and digital machines.
As an option of the HEIDELBERG Prinect Production Manager, Prinect Touch Free automatically finds the fastest and most efficient route from the job to the finished product. This enables print shops to produce a large number of jobs with very short runs without a great deal of manpower. Prinect Touch Free continuously optimizes the entire order backlog in terms of optimized production costs and production time. As all technically possible production paths are stored in the system, rescheduling can be carried out immediately, even from offset to digital or vice versa. HEIDELBERG is therefore the only manufacturer that can support the most cost-effective or optimal printing technology in a technology-neutral way.