Nessan Cleary takes a peek at this printer, which is new to the UK and aimed directly at the textile market, but available in various guises.
The Gunsjet R4 is a new series of wide-format printers which seems to have something for everyone, with the same imaging technology used to power solvent, aqueous and UV models, in both roll-fed and flatbed editions.
The printer comes from Digitex, a firm that has been developing wide-format solutions since 1995. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong, though its factory is in mainland China. The exclusive distributor for both the UK and Ireland is Sabur Ink Systems, which will sell the whole range but is mainly concentrating on the sublimation model, known as the R4-WR.
Sabur itself has been around since 1998 and has mainly concentrated on selling textile solutions and so has built up partnerships with other vendors in this sector. This includes Manoukian, a well-known Italian manufacturer of sublimation inks, which supplies the inks for the Gunsjet sublimation model.
When it comes to the roll-fed machine there are three sizes available: 1900mm, 2600mm and 3300mm. Sabur currently has a 3.3m wide model for demos in its South Yorkshire base. This can print multiple rolls simultaneously, taking up to two 1620mm wide rolls, which considerably increases its flexibility and speed.
The R4 series uses the proven Ricoh Gen4 printheads, with the roll-fed R4-SR/WR models being fitted with eight of these as standard, staggered in two lines. The biggest 3.3m model also comes in a 12-head version. However you can upgrade the other versions to 12 or even 16 heads which significantly increases the productivity.
Aaron Burton, digital development director for Sabur Inks, says that it’s a field upgrade: “An engineer can do it in a day.” The maximum resolution is 1200 x 1200 dpi. With eight printheads it can run at production speed of 60m2/hr, using three passes and with 600 x 900dpi. But the 12 head model, also with three passes, can reach 96m2/hr with 1200 x 600dpi resolution.
The Ricoh printheads are flexible enough to work with both eco solvent and aqueous inks, though once you’ve used one type of ink you can't switch it back to the other. There are eight ink channels with the sublimation inkset using two sets of CMYK, while there are eight solvent colours – CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, orange and green.
The ink itself is kept at optimum temperature thanks to a two-stage heating process which ensures that the ink is at the best possible level of viscosity. There’s a negative pressure system that pushes the ink through to the heads and the whole thing is easily monitored through digital display gauges.
Extended family
As well as the roll-fed models, there’s also a flatbed version, with a linear motor-driven vacuum bed, which can take media up to five centimetres thick. This uses the same ink system, again with a choice of solvent and aqueous inks. In addition, there are also two UV options, both using LED curing. These are the roll-fed R4-UR, also available in three sizes, and the flatbed R4-UFL which can be upgraded to 32 printheads for a speed of 96m2/hr at 1200 x 600dpi. Burton says that Sabur will supply the Gunsjet printers with the Colorprint Rip from Amica Systems, which can support two printers side by side, efficiently manage job queues as well as Rip and print at the same time. It can also run Ergosoft’s Posterprint Rip.