Xeikon  appointments 
The Xeikon 5000 has been awarded an iF seal of design excellence in the 2005 iF product design competition. Some 740 participants from 31 different countries submitted no less than 1900 products competing for the coveted iF design award, one of the most prestigious design contests worldwide. The 5000 - Xeikon’s flagship amongst its digital colour printing presses - was launched in February and at drupa 2004, the world’s largest print exhibition held in Düsseldorf last May.

Achilles Associates was responsible for the design and styling of the machine housing, the stacker and the digital front-end console of the Xeikon 5000.

“The Xeikon 5000 marked the beginning of a radically different range of digital colour printing presses. Not only has it been setting new standards for print quality, productivity, flexibility and cost, it has made a very bold statement in terms of design”, says PunchGraphics head, Dick Tilanus. “Pleased with the result for the Xeikon 5000, we decided to continue this design line. The housing of the Strobbe Graphics PS-range of Laser Platesetters which was premiered at drupa 2004 has been developed by Achilles as well. We are very satisfied with our collaboration and with the ultimate result and we are therefore glad to see their efforts rewarded international recognition".

"When we started this design project, we set ourselves an ambitious goal”, says Achilles Associates managing director, Koen Elsen. "We wanted to achieve nothing less than a printing press ‘dressed to kill’. I believe we can say that the styling of the Xeikon 5000, vivid red, with revolutionary door handles and robust, curved shapes truly reflects the quality inherent in every single aspect of this press. The iF label is the best confirmation that we have achieved our ambitious goal. Being awarded the iF seal of design excellence is an honour and a recognition of our core competency, product design".

The Xeikon 5000 is also in the running for one of the iF Gold or Silver awards which will be announced in March 2005.

PunchGraphics is the graphic solutions division of Punch International, grouping Xeikon, Strobbe Graphics and basysPrint.

Punch wants to float its graphics division on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) before the end of June 2005. Punch is a knowledge and technology provider empowering all the companies within its group to create new technology that is marketable and profitable.