At drupa, CTC Japan is returning for the second time as exhibitor. The Japanese company that has had up to now only monochrome inkjet printers came to the show with its newest invention: the "BookBee 500" for production of textbooks and educational materials.
It is a four over four colour inkjet web press that produces at speeds up to 100 m/min with UV LED inks. The curing system is very environmentally friendly as in contrast to conventional UV, UV LEDs do not emit hazardous smells and require less energy. "We have decided to use new UV LED inks as they show a high density", Hiroshin Nakagawa says. "In addition these inks offer many advantages such as environmentally friendliness and do not clog up in the printheads." The company has developed its own rip that takes PDF files - nonetheless, also existing rips and software can be used to serve the BookBee 500.
In the past, CTC Japan has been already introducing several machines, among them monochrome label inkjet presses as well as several years ago an A0 sheetfed monochrome inkjet press that up to now has been only sold in Asia. "Our vast knowlege stemming from our own printing business has allowed us now to develop the BookBee 500 for textbook printing", Hiroshin Nagakawa tells Global Print Monitor. This four colour double sided inkjet printing press is a game changer for us as it offers us new possibilities to serve the existing market. We are seeing a huge interest in our machine that is very competitively priced at well under one million euros."
In fact, the compactness of the BookBee - about 2.5 x 2.5 m altogether - makes it suitable for many print shops that require presses with small footprint due to building restrictions. "Our machine is especially suitable for the Asian and emerging markets, as it also enables printing on untreated papers, films and other substrates at thicknesses between 60 to 200 gsm, i.e. no pretreatment of media is required and the BookBee can process normal offset paper", explains Hiroshin Nakagawa. "However, we also register a lot of interest from other regions as existing finishing equipment at print shops can also be used offline."
At drupa show the BookBee 500 is presented in a roll to sheet configuration that is fed by a Matti transportation system and a cut&glue unit from Matti.
CTC Japan and its BookBee 500 can be found in Hall 3 at booth F34.
See more images from CTC Japan at drupa here:
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