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Agfa :Anapurna XLS at DRUPA 2008, replaces Agfa :Anapurna 100

From the announcement it was about two months before we could have photos and first reviews of the Agfa :Anapurna 100 when it is relaunched at DRUPA 2008.

You can see the old Agfa :Anapurna 100 that was launched at FESPA Munich in 2005 on a separate older page. That was the first UV printer that Agfa tried to develop together with Mutoh Europe. It was the first time either had attempted to develop any UV-cured printer. The result in 2005 was most politely described as not-yet-finished. So Agfa and Mutoh split (they had also split about the same year over eco- or mild-solvent printers: using solvent ink from Agfa in a rebranded Mutoh Europe printer). The ink caused problems with the printheads and this series of printers was suddenly withdrawn.

Fortunately Agfa was determined to survive in the world of wide-format imaging, so after they realized that solvent-printers were not an area of corporate growth, they abandoned all forms of solvent printers (a wise decision).

The next intelligent choice Agfa made was not to continue with their unfinished :Anapurna 100. They mothballed that project and quickly moved to OEM (rebrand) a good UV printer from Dilli in Korea (the :Anapurna X and M series). Dilli has years and years of prior experience with UV-curing and handling moving transport belts. Frankly I have never seen another company rebound from an ill-fated project as quickly as Agfa. Their executives and managers made excellent decisions in autumn 2005 and early in 2006 to move to working with a reliable OEM partner such as Dilli.

Next Agfa moved their "Anapurna 100" project away from Mutoh Europe, since in 2005-2006 Mutoh was still concentrating on solvent (a good concentration for Mutoh to stay with eco- and mild-solvent in these years). So Agfa took three years to carefully and quietly improve the original Anapurna 100. At DRUPA '08 the replacement printer was launched as the XLS.

Here is the Afga :Anapurna XLS, the replacement for the old Anapurna 100, but still with the innovative "walking feet", DRUPA trade show 2008.

Another model, the Afga :Anapurna XL, printing samples at DRUPA 2008.

But since DRUPA '08 the XLS has only occasionally been exhibited. For trade shows Agfa has concentrated on showing the M-series. So there is no FLAAR Report on the Agfa :Anapurna XLS. We need to be at the main demo center to do an evaluation, and then need to visit a printshop that has one (to see how it operates in the real world). In the meantime there are simply too many other UV-cured printers with moving transport belts: GRAPO Octopus II, the newer GCC K72 uv, several EFI Rastek models (H700 and H660), plus for outside Europe and USA, the original Dilli Neo UV printers. But if an opportunity is available to inspect the Agfa :Anapurna XLS in detail we will consider doing a comprehensive FLAAR evaluation. So many companies are asking for evaluations that we have trained a second evaluator. He now has experience for three years and has visited UV printer factories around the world.

Most recently updated August 10, 2009.

First issued March 31, 2008.