Getting the really big picture

Some companies feel ‘superwide’ should apply to printers with a 2.5m width, but for the purposes of this feature we’ve opted to stick with a more conventional definition of 3m and over. The difficulty is that this includes some wider printers that are really just scaled up versions of smaller printers while excluding some fairly hefty, but narrower width, beasts.

Loic Delor, managing director of Josero, says that true superwide printers are more robust than smaller wide-format machines: “It’s got to be strong because the roll is going to be up to 200 kilos and everything moves faster and they wear quicker so they need to be better designed all around.”

However, there are lighter weight superwide printers, such as Mimaki’s 3.2m wide JV320. Mike Horsten, marketing manager for Mimaki Europe, says: “Ours is cheaper so you can buy more and have redundancy if they break down.” He adds: “I think the high quality print is higher than a Vutek’s because the drop size is smaller. But it depends on where you are using the machine. Vutek’s are made for harder use. You can do that with a Mimaki but it’s really made for a high quality indoor image.”

The main uses for superwide printers are for producing outdoor signage and point of sale, printing to foamcore, dibond, correx and so on, as well as one-piece billboards, banners, and increasingly, textiles. Oscar Vidal, HP Europe’s signage segment manager, says that superwide printing used to mainly be for outdoor graphics but that the image quality of the printers has improved now to the point where that’s no longer true, adding: “The indoor market is a high margin market but the outdoor market is tough to compete in now.”

In general there are four main factors that influence buying a superwide machine: speed, the materials you can print to, the quality of the print image, and the price. Delor says that price is the least important and that with the bigger print providers replacing machines every two to three years there is a healthy stock of secondhand models.

Superwide printers are mainly roll-to-roll machines, although there are a number of hybrid machines in this sector. However, Kevin Rhodes, marketing manager for Fujifilm’s high end inkjet systems, says that the market is moving towards dedicated roll-fed and flatbed models, noting: “People realise that you get more customers and productivity from one or the other.”

There’s a healthy mix of UV and solvent models to choose from. The UV inks are expensive - up to three times the cost of solvent inks - but there are advantages in the range of materials you can print directly to. Rhodes says that customers moving from solvent to UV usually replace several solvent machines with a single UV printer, noting “you get much more productivity out of UV.”

HP has bucked the trend, replacing the solvent printers in its line-up with latex machines, though it does still have the 5m wide XP5000 UV printer. Vidal notes: “When you go to 5m then the applications really are purely outdoor as there’s very little call for banners.”

What’s available?

EFI has a number of superwide printers through its Vutek brand. This includes the new R3225, a 3.2m wide UV inkjet designed to deliver very low cost of ownership. It can produce up to 50.8m2/hr in its quality mode and is targeted at the point of purchase and banner market, as well as soft signage. It uses eight-level variable greyscale printheads which should optimise ink usage while improving image quality. This should be available later this summer.

There’s also the GS series of 3.2m wide printers. This includes the GS3250, an eight-colour hybrid UV printer with a choice of 600 or 1000dpi resolution. It can print two 1.52m rolls side by side. Next to this are the GS3250LX, which uses LED curing and the GS3250r, a six colour roll-fed printer. There’s also a 5m wide printer, the GS5000r, capable of running at up to 288m2/hr.

EFI still sells the older QS series, which includes two 3.2m wide UV models. The QS3220 is a six-colour hybrid model printing at 1080 pi resolution at speeds up to 84m2/hr. The QS3250r is a roll-fed machine that offers up to eight colours with 1080dpi resolution. It can print at up to 172m2/hr.

Agfa supports the superwide market through the Jeti brand, originally developed by Gandi Innovations, which Agfa bought back in 2010. The range includes the Jeti 3312, a six-colour 3.3m wide solvent roll-to-roll machine. This offers true 600dpi resolution, though Agfa claims 1200dpi apparent thanks to its 12 Spectra heads. It takes the standard media types, including vinyl, canvas and fabrics and runs at up to 47.9m2/hr. There’s a backlit option for printing on both sides with perfect registration.

The 3324 is essentially a faster version, having 24 of the Spectra heads and producing up to 64m2/hr. There’s also a version of this called the 3324 AquaJet that uses water-based dye sub inks for textile work.

There’s a faster solvent machine, the 3348, a four-colour machine with 48 Spectra heads but with only 300dpi, though Agfa claims 600dpi apparent resolution. This can produce 232.2m2/hr. It includes TurbTech drying, which means wafting a warm airflow over the front of the machine to complement a conventional mesh back heater to dry the prints without overheating the substrates.

Agfa also sells two 3.2m UV roll-to-roll machines, both of which use 48 Spectra heads. The 3348 Galaxy is a six-colour 600dpi printer capable of printing 80.1m2/hr. The 3348 JetSpeed is a four-colour machine offering 300 dpi resolution but able to achieve 232.2m2/hr.

The Jeti range also includes a UV flatbed machine capable of taking a 3.2m wide roll, the 3020 Titan. The base model comes with 16 Ricoh greyscale heads but this can be upgraded with up to 48 printheads, and with options for different inks, including light cyan and light magenta, white and varnish or orange and green. Print speed ranges from 113m2/hr for the base version up to 226m2/hr for the top of the range model. Native resolution is 600dpi.

HP has several superwide printers from its Scitex division. These include two latex printers, the LX820 and LX850. Both of these are 3.2m wide machines capable of printing up to 177m2/hr and with resolution up to 1200dpi. There’s a dual roll option to print two 1.5m rolls side by side and it can print double-sided banners. HP claims outdoor durability of up to three years, five if prints are laminated.

The LX820 is a lower cost roll-to-roll device, while the LX850 has multiple output options including roll-to-roll and roll-to-free fall, as well as a built in ink collector for fabric printing. Vidal says that latex is better than UV for printing to textiles because the inks penetrate into the fibres, retaining the soft feel of the fabric.

HP also sells the XP series of 5m roll-to-roll UV printers. There are three of these with the XP5100 running at up to 150m2/hr, the XP5300 at up to 300m2/hr and the XP5500 at up to 325m2/hr. Resolution is up to 360dpi and they will print to most flexible substrates including polyethylene, paper, mesh, vinyl and textiles.

There’s also a UV hybrid machine, the XP2750, which can print on rolls up to 3.2m wide as well as rigid media. This has a resolution of 635 x 800dpi, although HP claims an apparent resolution of 1600 x 1270dpi. It can reach 110m2/hr, and takes a range of media including vinyl, textiles, banner and tyvek as well as foam and acrylic rigid sheets. It’s an eight-colour machine having CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, light yellow and light black.

Durst sells the 3.2m wide Rho 320R, a roll-to-roll UV system using Durst’s own Quadro Array printhead technology. As well as CMYK there’s also an option for light cyan and light magenta, as well as white ink and a clear varnish. It handles standard media including tarpaulin and truck banners up to 2mm thick and will take rolls up to 30Kg. It can produce up to 130m2/hr.

There’s a 5m wide version, the Rho 500R, which has 600dpi resolution with six colours and can produce up to 350m2/hr. Durst says this has been designed for printing banners and mesh but it can also print up to three 1.6m rolls side by side.

Durst also makes a superwide fabric printer, the Rhotex 320, really aimed at the industrial textile market. This is a six-colour machine with options for light cyan, light magenta and light black. It has 600dpi resolution and can print up to 70m2/hr. It uses water-based dispersed dye inks and prints mainly to polyester media.

Fujifilm’s superwide offering is the Uvistar, available in both 3.5m and 5m versions, running at up to 260m2/hr and 316m2/hr respectively. There’s a choice of 16 or 32 printheads for both of these. The Uvistar has a native resolution of 600dpi but claims an apparent resolution of 1200dpi. It uses Sericol UV inks and is suitable for vinyls, mesh, backlit, flag and Tyvek substrates.

Josero is aiming for the banner market with its Redjet 320. Delor says that the basic machine has been bought in from China and then adapted and supported from the UK. It comes with a year’s warranty but at around £30,000 and with an ink cost per square metre of around 46p it shouldn’t take long to pay for itself. It’s a fairly basic full solvent machine. Resolution is 720dpi and it runs at up to 110m2/hr. It uses Konica Minolta print heads, with a choice of four or eight. It prints in CMYK, using Triangle inks, and works with standard media including vinyl, window film and polyester.

Digitex produces the Gunsjet range, distributed in the UK by Sabur. The R4 series is available in several sizes including a 3.3m wide model, with a choice of eco-solvent or water-based inks, as well as versions with UV inks. The base model has eight Ricoh printheads but you can have up to 16 of these, producing up to 64m2/hr at 1200 x 600dpi resolution.

So, in conclusion, this sector is alive and well, with plenty of choice in print quality and productivity as well as cost.