Canon has confirmed the commercial availability of its B2 varioPress iV7 sheetfed inkjet press and B3 varioPrint iX1700 for Q2 next year, heralded the news internally as ‘one of the most important moments in Canon’s company history’.
Canon's B2 varioPress iV7 sheetfed inkjet press and B3 varioPrint iX1700 will be commercially available from Q2 2026
Peter Wolff, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President, Canon Production Printing, confirms: “This availability is the culmination of our investments over the last five years, which includes quite a pipeline of new products and, with all the roadmaps we have, this would be completely impossible without this platform-based technology development.”
“We are well on the way to owning all the components of the technology: printheads, paper transport, fixation and controllers, and we believe that we are one of the few companies in this industry to achieve this. It enables our customers to not only buy a machine or a product, but to enter into a partnership with the vendor.”
Designed for efficient short run B2 production, the varioPRESS iV7 (officially unveiled at Drupa 2024) has been created to address the increasing pressures of commercial print service providers (PSPs), online printers, and book and magazine producers. Capable of printing 8700 B2 sheets 4/0 per hour, up to 4.5 million B2 images per month in a 24/6 operation, its production capabilities will enable these print businesses to meet tighter deadlines and produce shorter runs as well as more premium applications. In fact, with printed sheets ready for finishing immediately after the two-step drying and fixation process, Canon Production Printing claims the B2 varioPress iV7 sheetfed inkjet press ‘is 45% faster than other B2 presses currently in the market’.
Rounding out a portfolio that now offers PSPs options from 15,000 A4 right up to 4.5M B2 prints, the new varioPrint iX1700 B3 sheetfed inkjet has been positioned to further expand on the range offered through Canon’s established iX3200 B3-plus sheetfed press ‘to close the print volume gap’.
The iX1700 runs at speeds of up to 170 A4 images per minute, or 73 B3 images per minute, meaning it can efficiently produce average monthly volumes from 300,000 to 2 million A4 images. It uses a new 2,400dpi Canon thermal print head and Qualinx ink tech. All three paper trays can handle maximum format 364x660mm sheets.
With the addition of these two new presses, Canon Production Printing now lays claim to being able to offer customers the broadest range of digital sheetfed presses, offering monthly volumes from as low as 15,000 A4 images all the way up to 4.5 million B2 images.
Wolff adds: “This year we've celebrated 10 years of heritage and leadership within the sheetfed inkjet market, so its significant to end the year announcing the availability of these latest additions to our portfolio.”
Customer demonstrations of the new varioPRESS iV7 and varioPRINT iX1700 will be delivered at Canon’s Customer Experience Centre in Venlo, The Netherlands, from January 2026.
Canon Production Printing Australia and New Zealand
