Category: Hands on

Roland’s VS series printers

Dec 14, 2011 |

Metallic inks can generate impressive effects, but you need a printer specifically designed to take them. Nessan Cleary takes a close look at Roland's VS series.

Metallic inks offer the wide-format print company the option to produce truly eye-catching special effects that can help differentiate it from its competitors and open up interesting markets such as labels and packaging. Several vendors offer metallic inks but here it’s Roland's VersaCamm VS series, specifically developed to handle these inks, that comes under the spotlight.

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UJV-160

Nov 1, 2011 |

This Mimaki hybrid printer promises the best of both worlds, handling both roll-fed and rigid materials with ease as Nessan Cleary finds out.

In the early days of UV printers hybrid devices did gain a poor reputation for quality with many manufacturers simply adapting existing roll-fed chassis as a quick, cheap way of getting to market. But Duncan Jefferies, marketing manager for Mimaki's UK distributor Hybrid Services, says that the UJV-160 has been designed from the ground up to be a hybrid device, noting: “Mimaki has an excellent reputation for build quality.”

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Kappa 180

Sep 19, 2011 |

Sophie Matthews-Paul takes a first look at Durst’s new textile printer the Kappa 180.

When Durst made its entry into digital textile printing in 2009 with the announcement of the Rhotex 320 it stood to reason that, having made the departure from its core technology of UV-curable chemistry, there would be more in the fabric field to follow. Although it’s not being launched until ITMA in September, I was able to spend some time with the new industrial strength Kappa 180 at Durst’s Kufstein premises in Austria.

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Agfa M-Press Leopard

Jul 12, 2011 |

Sophie Matthews-Paul visits Mortsel, Belgium, to test the versatility of this new UV-curable machine.

For Agfa Graphics, the acceptance of its unusual M-Press platform took a little time but now, in its guise as the Tiger, it is proving to be a successful solution for high-end applications where the mix of inkjet and screenprinting is a bonus. Combined with its printing capabilities are high levels of automation and slick throughput, it’s now a platform which suits the specific requirements of users needing the best of both production worlds.

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ColorPainter W-645

May 27, 2011 |

Sophie Matthews-Paul finds this new machine to offer good quality and good features at a good price.

In the wide-format sector there are machines that are launched with a fanfare and do hitherto impossible digital tasks. On the other hand there is a quieter band of manufacturers producing engines which do as it says on the tin, and which continue to serve the large numbers of users who want to produce bread-and-butter applications without having their lives and working practices disrupted.

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