Melony Rocque-Hewitt finds out just what’s so intelligent about this mini-beast.
Roland DG’s SolJet Pro XR-640 was launched in September last year and is billed as the company’s flagship machine. The SolJet range, which it now tops, is a highly successful one with a reputation for being powerful workhorses that are the mainstay of many a wide-format business.
The new Pro XR-640 is the company’s most powerful and fastest integrated printer/cutter to date. Needless to say a great deal of research, time and effort has gone into developing this thoroughbred, and Roland DG has very high hopes for it, which, according to Rob Goleniowski, business manager, Sign and Graphics, Roland DG (UK) has been reflected in customer demand. Unable to disclose the number of units that have been sold since its launch, Goleniowski says: “While we can’t provide specific numbers on sales, we can say that the total number of sales so far has exceeded our initial sales targets threefold.”
The ethos of the Pro XR-640 is really all about maximising profitability in a production environment. It is designed with a grand sweep – at 64in wide, it has accelerated print speeds (from the previous SolJet flagship model), a new dual in-line printhead design and comes in seven and eight-colour ink configurations, which includes white, metallic and light black printing. Top resolution comes in at 144dpi.
The availability of multiple inkset configurations gives this printer something of a chameleon personality. This versatility is testament to the maturity of the wide-format print market as a whole as it opens up to commercial print, packaging, proofing and prototyping.
It’s worth mentioning here that at Viscom last year, the Pro XR-640 was given a ‘Best in 2012’ award. The jury said: “With this new print and cut machine, Roland DG is appealing to professional sign makers and supporting them as they seek out more creative opportunities in the market.”
As mentioned earlier, the Pro XR-640 uses a newly designed printhead. The new eight channel head offers variable droplet technology including seven droplet variations.
The new VersaWorks software that comes with the system chooses the three most appropriate droplets based on the requirements of the end product (very small droplets for the highest quality output through to large droplets for a speeder throughput). The fact that the machine also has two printheads in-line means it can offer a myriad of ink configurations and pretty much eliminates bi-directional banding.
Goleniowski says that all the key components used in the machine have also been used in the Roland’s VersaCamm VS range for two years, so they have successfully been tried and tested in the field.
Roland DG believes that the overall combination of the new printheads, the new Eco-Sol Max2 inks and the latest update of its VersaWorks Rip software have raised the bar for quality and productivity.
The new light black ink offers a more vivid greyscale with the new white ink providing greater density and opacity plus a higher metallic sheen. Also a new feature in the VersaWorks Rip means that users can access the spot colours in the Pantone library to colour match instantly.
The XR-640 retails at £19,999 and is said to produce up to 49 – 50m2/hr of saleable product.
Coming as standard with the printer is:
VersaWorks Rip software
Take-up system
A free place on the Intermediate Digital Print Course held at the Roland Academy
One year on-site full parts and labour Roland Care Silver warranty.
Optional extras include an extendable heater/dryer designed to allow users to run the system at unattended maximum speeds.