UNDER THE HOOD / HEIDELBERG JETFIRE 50 25 www.printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2025 - Issue 353 Y ou know the world or print has changed when certain manufacturers make statements or show the masses a big new product. It is those seismic shifts that you look at and take for granted going forward, indicating that things are going to be different. One of these events happened at drupa 2024 when the leviathan of print, HEIDELBERG, unveiled a new addition to its lineup – the Jetfire 50, a B3 water-based inkjet printer. For a long time, all of the main lithographic manufacturers have been looking at the trends within the market and it is as clear as night follows day that the trend is to shorter run lengths. In the early years of digital printing, all the talk was of the new presses taking the place of the traditional lithographic versions. In fact, as time has gone on, this hasn’t really happened and they have found their own market and whilst the need for high to very high print volumes has decreased, the new digital sibling has actually grown up side by side to its older traditional family member. Building Partnerships When a company of the quantum of HEIDELBERG makes the decision to go digital, it would know at boardroom level the amount of investment and expertise needed to produce a home-grown product would be huge – unfeasibly huge you may say. So, once the company had taken the decision it needed a digital platform with the famous HEIDELBERG logo on it, and looked at how deep the pockets needed to be for its own device, it was again obvious the logical step was to look for a partner. This search could have led them two ways. Does it look for a smaller partner but one that has new and innovative printers with less market presence to present those products as its own, or does it look for a company with market presence, so that the product it chooses is readily accepted as the heritage is already known? Well HEIDELBERG choose the second option which has multiple benefits. The company have teamed up with Canon and will now benefit from both the reputation of the Canon brand and the user can be safe in the knowledge the printer will be firing straight out of the box. B3 Digital Colour So, what is the Jetfire 50? Just because the gap is growing for lower run volume, four colour process work, this does not mean clients are going to expect a change in quality from the lithographic versions they have been buying. Printers need to ensure the step down into the sector is sustained with comparative quality. The Jetfire 50 delivers this with true 1,200 x 1,200dpi resolution and with a proven water-based ink set which has deep pigHEIDELBERG finds the missing part of its jigsaw puzzle with a new addition in the form of the Jetfire50, a B3 inkjet machine which allows the print giant to span the whole spectrum of print JOINING THE DIGITAL FAMILY The Jetfire 50 is set to fill a gap in the HEIDELBERG line up of presses to ensure short run production is no longer problematic
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