TOKYO - Canon Inc. said Tuesday it will beef up production of large-sized printers used for posters and other commercial purposes.

The Tokyo-based precision equipment maker intends to produce 38,000 units of the color ink-jet printers in 2006,doubling the amount from the previous year, to post about Y20 billion in annual sales.

By 2010, the company intends to expand production to about 100,000 units to record about Y100 billion in sales.

The sales targets include revenues from ink cartridges and printer paper.

The printers are used in design offices and for computer-aided designs (CAD). Canon now markets eight models, including five new products released this year.

While overall unit sales of such models are less than printers for home use, Canon aims to cash in on the higher profitability of these products, whose prices range from about Y200,000 to Y2 million a unit. The market has also been experiencing a steady growth of more than 10% annually, Canon said.

At the moment, Canon is third in terms of global market share by units, following Hewlett-Packard Co. and Seiko Epson Co. Canon aims to rank second by 2010, the company spokesman said.