Epson has merged its wide-format, label and textile businesses to create the new Professional Printing Solutions division, headed by COO Sunao Murata.
The launchpad for the division will be Drupa 2016, where it will show a new 44in-wide SC-P10000 as a smaller brother to the recently announced 64in-wide SC-P20000, and new features on the multifunction 36in and 44in aqueous SureColor SC-T Series printers. Significantly, it will also introduce a groundbreaking product called PaperLab, a compact dry system for office environments that turns waste paper into new paper.
Epson expects the PaperLab to be commercial production in around 18 months, and it will initially be targeted at businesses and government offices that use high volumes of paper, but it is envisaged that it will continue to be developed for other markets.
It uses Dry Fiber Technology to ‘fiberise’ A4 and A3 toner and inkjet printed documents for recycling, bind the resultant fibres and form new clean paper sheets. The system can produce about 14 A4 sheets per minute and 6,720 sheets in an eight-hour day. Users can produce A4 and A3 office paper of various thicknesses, coloured paper and even scented paper.
“It’s a fundamental change in recycling and we expect it will change attitudes to printed products as an environmentally effective option,” said Duncan Ferguson, business unit director, professional printing solutions, Epson Europe.