Canon has announced a new single-pass inkjet packaging press, the CorrPress iB17, for printing direct to corrugated boards. Canon previously displayed a model of this as a concept at last year’s drupa show, and I’ve already written about the press and its printhead.
It’s a 1.7 meters wide press, running at 80 mpm for up to 8,000 square meters an hour, which Canon says will equate to around 15 million square meters per year. It uses water-based inks, complete with a ColorGrip primer, and is suitable for indirect food contact. Canon is planning to add a flexo coating/varnishing unit to protect the ink. The drying system is a mix of hot and cold air based on liner properties and on the ink and primer coverage.
Canon is not yet able to talk about costs other than to say that it is aiming for a break-even against flexoprint using three colors or more, meaning high-quality graphics print jobs, of up to 20,000 square meters. Naturally, Canon is hoping that fast turnaround times will help it compete against conventional printing.
Canon is aiming for a first installation in early 2027, which will be a beta site close to the European headquarters of Canon Production Printing. Roland Stasiczek, senior director, business development for packaging at CPP, told me, “We are in conversations with selected corrugated converters who have had the opportunity to see the press already.”
Canon is also in the process of developing a SiMEMs printhead, as I reported last year, which will be used with the CorrPress. This will give it 1200×1200 dpi resolution. Stasiczek says, “Market feedback shows that many converters appreciate a high print quality, which, with the CorrPress iB17, will allow them to onboard new applications, as there’s no compromise between cost and productivity.”
This head will run at 40-70kHz, though the final droplet size depends on the final print gap between board and printhead, which Canon is still working on. The print swath is roughly 100 mm.
Naturally, it’s a fully recirculating head, with recirculation down to the nozzle level, which should limit failures from clogging and ensure the best conditions for proper droplet ejection. Canon says that it controls and monitors the ink viscosity in the printhead.
Interestingly, Canon is expecting to train the press operators to replace the printheads to avoid any hold-ups in production. The head, which has a parallelogram shape, features built-in calibration to enable new heads to be calibrated alongside older heads in a printbar.
Canon also revealed last year that it was working on a B1 folding carton inkjet press, though this doesn’t seem to be as advanced as it appeared last year. Stasiczek now says, “We have been looking intensively at the folding carton market and its requirements for some years. We are working on the feasibility of an industrial-scale digital folding carton concept that leverages Canon’s core technologies to provide a compelling proposition for converters. We are continuing this development and defining such a potential final product, but it is too early to comment at this stage.”
He explains, “The digital folding carton press market is where digital label printing was about 15 years ago; an emerging market waiting for two things to happen: availability of competitive, economically viable equipment; and traditional converters and brand owners to recognize the advantages of short run and digital print to support their sales, supply chain, and business model needs. We are convinced that the adoption of digital print will accelerate in the next years and, therefore, we are heavily investing in our labels and packaging development activities.”
Stasiczek notes that since the acquisition of Edale, Canon has started to establish a presence in the folding carton market. He adds, “Also, our current digital press portfolio is used by commercial printers who are printing folding cartons in low volumes as a niche growth market with limited applications.”
You can find more information on Canon Production Printing’s portfolio from canon-europe.com. You can find my original report on this press here, and on the new printhead here.
