Agfa has confirmed that beta testing of its SpeedSet Orca has been completed following its first installation at The Delta Group. The company was the first to install the machine in 2024, taking on the role of primary tester.
After being successfully installed and trialled, the press is now making daily production runs and will begin shift work imminently – a major milestone in the Orca’s journey to full commercial availability.
Martin Shipp, COO of The Delta Group
“The press is so versatile that we can utilise it for a wide variety of applications using different fibre-based substrates.” said Martin Shipp, COO of The Delta Group. “We can run jobs that we would have traditionally run on our offset lines, giving us much more flexibility on the production floor without compromising quality.”
“Putting the SpeedSet Orca through its paces in the real-world production environment of a market leader like The Delta Group has been a privilege for us,” said Richard Cotterill, Global Sales Manager – Packaging at Agfa’s Digital Printing Solutions division. “We could not ask for a better proving ground for this pioneering innovation.”
The SpeedSet Orca is a single-pass water-based solution that promises to be the most productive B1 Inkjet press on the market, with top speeds of up to 11,000 B1 sheets per hour.
Its flexibility enables it to produce short-run jobs more cost-effectively, while offering comparable quality to offset and flexo printing. Its offset-like quality, wide colour gamut, and inline digital primer and varnishing capabilities mean it can be used to complement existing offset and flexo production lines.
It can also handle an extensive range of substrates, including folding cartons, microflute, and paper, putting it in a class of its own compared to other digital presses on the market.
